Jim Baker - Crossroads

CROSSROADS

A Popular History of Malaysia and Singapore

FULLY UPDATED FOURTH EDITION

Jim Baker

2020 Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Private Limited

First published in 1999

Fourth edition published in 2020 by Marshall Cavendish Editions

An imprint of Marshall Cavendish International

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National Library Board, Singapore Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

Name(s): Baker, Jim (James Michael), 1948.

Title: Crossroads: A popular history of Malaysia and Singapore / Jim Baker.

Description: Fully updated fourth edition. | Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Editions, [2020]. | First published: 1999. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifier(s): OCN 1127058722 | e-ISBN 978 981 4868 38 9

Subject(s): LCSH: SingaporeHistory. | MalaysiaHistory. | MalayaHistory. | SingaporePolitics and government. | MalaysiaPolitics and government.

Classification: DDC 959.5dc23

Printed in Singapore

In the last quarter of the twentieth century, there has been much focus on what appears to be a shift in the worlds economic and political power from North America and Europe to Asia. This is underscored by the increasingly prominent roles played by Asia both economically and politically, which impact not only on the region but on the world at large. The change began with Japans tremendous economic growth after World War II and was followed by economic booms in Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong. In the 1980s and 1990s, there was a third wave of growing economies in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. The final act in this economic renaissance of Asia will be the rise of two of the potentially largest world economies India and China.

The economic downturn in the area in the late 1990s was no more than a temporary setback. Most economists believe Asia will emerge from the crisis to be just as important a player in the world economy as it was before the crisis.

There is a wealth of opinion and commentary about Asias growth and its ramifications. A running theme is that the underpinnings of Asias economic success are rooted in culture and values, that the rise of the East is driven by Asian values, which create the climate necessary for these societies to compete successfully with the West. Evidence of this view is contained in popular commentaries on the economic conflict between Japan and the United States in the 1970s and 1980s. It is seen in the stated attempts by many Asian leaders to protect their societies from the influences of popular Western culture lest they corrupt the foundations of their success. And this view has been further advanced by cultural critics in the West who warn of economic decline because of current social conditions in Western societies.

The problem is that to define Asian values is virtually impossible, and for politicians to portray economic competition in todays world as one between geographic areas is a gross oversimplification. To see Asia as a monolithic cultural entity defies imagination. Who really believes that an Uzbeki Afghan shares common values with a Japanese in Yokohama, that the Malay living in a village in Kelantan views the world the same way as a factory worker in Seoul, or that a Chinese peasant farmer could share a similar value system with a Dani tribesman in Irian Jaya? Perhaps a reason why Asians were deeply shocked by their economic crises in the late 1990s was the overemphasis by their leaders on the uniqueness of their success. These leaders had indicated that growth was a result of strong Asian values, which blurred true economic realities and offered a false sense of never-ending growth.

Malaysia and Singapore are fascinating cases of the strengths and weaknesses of this ongoing debate. The Malay Peninsula is an area where not only has the East met the West but also where the East has met the East a true crossroads.

This study of the history of Malaysia and Singapore offers a look at an area that contains cultural elements of many countries the indigenous influences of archipelago Southeast Asia; the impact of Asias cultural giants, China and India; the coming of Islam from western Asia by way of India; the contributions made by the West through European colonization and economic exploitation; and finally, the impact of the process of globalization on the two countries.

The history of Malaysia and Singapore is more than two thousand years of cultural interaction, largely determined by the geographic positions of these countries. In the last sixty years, it is a history of three distinct groups of Asians the Chinese, Indians and indigenous Malays all trying to find a common destiny. For in this sixty-year period, all three accepted the reality that they were going to live together permanently. The conflict, accommodation and promise of this reality are vital elements of life in the area today.

This book, then, has two themes. One is the movement of culture, products and people throughout the area, and the other is the people who stayed to create the modern nations. Economically, Malaysia and Singapore are rapidly developing, and perhaps by identifying the reasons for their success, these unique societies may give useful insight into some of the generalizations made about Asia today.

As political entities, Malaysia and Singapore are twentieth-century phenomena. As a result, looking at them historically must be in the context of the history of archipelago Southeast Asia. The two countries were part of a community of Malayan people and culture until the nineteenth century, and modern Singapores history in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was as part of a Malaya created by forces from outside the archipelago.

In the course of reading this book, there will be vocabulary and references to terms that may be unfamiliar to some readers. Most of these are defined in the context of their usage, but Malays, Malaya, Malayans, Malaysia and Malaysians are used frequently and do have different meanings. The Malays are a racial group, and Malay is their language. The Malays make up the majority of the population of the present-day Federation of Malaysia and a minority in the Republic of Singapore. Generally, the term includes a race of people who make up a significant portion of the population of southern Thailand and most of the populations of Indonesia and Brunei, as well as a minority in the southern Philippines. Collectively, they are the Malay people but only referred to in that way by the governments of Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore and Thailand.