Today’s The Star newspaper took me by surprise when they reported Singapore Minister Mentor Lee kwan Yew apologizing to Pak Lah for discomforts caused by comments made regarding marginalized minority chinese in Malaysia.
In the report, Mr. Lee was quoted saying, “As for the international audience, with so many foreign embassy staff and foreign correspondents reporting on Singapore and Malaysia, plus tens of thousands of expatriate businessmen working in our two countries, these people will come to their own judgement of the true position regardless of what”.
Since Lee Kwan Yew apologized, does it mean academics and political scientists worldwide should apologize as well? Our libraries are filled with books and annual reports of every country’s economic progress, and most of them have something to say about Malaysia’s internal policies supporting Mr. Lee’s arguments. The fact that I have to rely on the authorship of foreigners to learn about my own country is ironic.
As Farish Noor said at his recent book launch, “History should be popular and not elitist.” Why must Malaysian schoolbooks be based on so-called official history stored and secured in the national archives?
To understand why Mr. Lee said what he said, we must go back and understand the history of Singapore’s ejection from Malaysia. History textbooks state that the expulsion was upon peaceful agreement. But Mr. Lee would cry recalling the events. Singapore had no natural resources, which means gaining independence required the republic to build from ground zero. Why then, did they leave?
As intellects, we must not rely on words spoken at the time when passing judgements. See beyond the surface, examine history, and reason with the human mind. Why did he say what he said? What drove the impulse?
Citations:
Did Lee Kwan Yew want Singapore ejected from Malaysia?.
Maybe because what he said was the truth? Note that he did not apologise for what he said but rather for saying what he said. ie, what he says is still correct, but the time at which he said it wasn’t.
After all, how would you apologise for telling the truth?
Jon: Seems like you are better at reading between the lines! yes, now that I think about it, I agree Mr. Lee was not apologizing for the comment itself.
Yup… LKY didn’t apologize actually. All he said was sorry. And Sorry can either be an insult or an apology…