Bhavesh(16)

MN 203

Source A and Source B are different in terms of who the greedy side of the merger was in between
the Singapore and Malaysian government. Source A tells us that the Malaysian government is the
greedy side of the merger. This is evident in “But his finance minister announced tough new
measures to increase revenue, including a one-half percent turnover tax on gross earnings and a two
percent tax on the total payrolls of all trading and other business houses. This would hit Singapore
the most.” and “But his(referring to Tunku Abdul Rahman) ministers or their civil servants and
particularly Tan Siew Sin, the finance minister of the central government, wanted to put his finger
into every pie in Singapore. So there were endless arguments.” This means that Malaysia had been
exploiting Singapore for the money it is going to receive through taxes and also had been trying to
get as involved as possible in Singapore so that it can get more hold over the ruling of Singapore,
therefore, it is clear that Malaysia is the greedy side of the merger. However, Source B tells us that
the Singapore government is the greedy part of the merger. This is evident in “We dreamt of
Singapore in connection with Malaya as what New York is to America but little did we realize what
the leader of the PAP had in mind was a share in the running of Malaysia. This is considered
unacceptable since the Alliance Party is capable of running the country on its own.” This means that
the Singapore Government had been extremely greedy in trying to get a hold of part of Malaysia’s
politics, despite the fact that the Alliance Party is already proficient enough in doing so, therefore, it
is clear that Singapore is the greedy side of the merger.

Both sources A and B are similar in saying that both the Singapore and Malaysian government had
disputes between them. Source A tells me that there were arguments in between of Singapore and
Malaysia due to Malaysia trying to take over parts of Singapore’s ruling. This is evident in “But
his(referring to Tunku Abdul Rahman) ministers or their civil servants and particularly Tan Siew Sin,
the finance minister of the central government, wanted to put his finger into every pie in Singapore.
So there were endless arguments”. This means that there were quarrels between the Singapore and
Malaysian government, because Malaysia had tried to be involved in ruling Singapore despite
Singapore being unwilling towards their involvement in Singapore’s ruling. Similarly, Source B tells
me that there were arguments between Singapore and Malaysian government because of Singapore
trying to take over parts of Malaysia’s ruling. This is evident in “This is considered unacceptable since
the Alliance Party is capable of running the country on its own. Unfortunately, however, the
indications are that Mr. Lee Kuan Yew took our refusal to let him have a share in the running of the
central government as a challenge.” This means that there were disagreements between Singapore
and Malaysia because despite Malaysia had warned Singapore of not intervening into Malaysia’s
politics, it continued to do so.