MINISTER Mentor Lee Kuan Yew has commented again on developments in the lead-up to Singapore's separation from Malaysia in 1965.

It came in a eulogy to the late Dr Goh Keng Swee carried in the latest issue of Petir, the People's Action Party (PAP) newsletter.

In it, MM Lee indicated that then Malaysian Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman was the first to broach the idea of wanting Singapore out.

Recounted MM Lee: 'When we found ourselves trapped in a Malay-dominated Malaysia, I led the fight for a Malaysian Malaysia. When the movement gathered massive Malaysia-wide support from the non-Malays in Peninsular Malaya, Singapore, Sarawak and Sabah, the Tunku decided to cut Singapore off.

'I did not want this, and asked Keng Swee to work towards a looser federation.

'In his talks with Tun (Abdul) Razak, then Malaysia Deputy Prime Minister, and Dr Ismail (Abdul Rahman), then Malaysia Minister for External Affairs and Minister for Home Affairs, Keng Swee decided it was best to separate. I had to agree.'

MM Lee described Dr Goh as his 'alter ego' and said he was someone who was never daunted and never intimidated.

'We reinforced each other's resolve,' he said in the eulogy signed June 4 and titled My Closest Confidant.

It was part of Petir's special supplement on the former deputy prime minister, who died on May 14. Besides MM Lee, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong also paid tribute to Dr Goh's contributions.

The latest eulogy by MM Lee follows discussions in newspaper forums and online on the Separation in 1965 and Dr Goh's role in it.

When delivering a eulogy at Dr Goh's funeral last month, MM Lee recounted how after two years of 'constant friction' with Malaysia, Dr Goh met Tun Razak and Dr Ismail in July 1965.

'I had asked him to negotiate a looser rearrangement for Singapore but keep Singapore within the Federation.

'He on his own decided, after discussions with them, to have a clean break.

'After Tun Razak and Dr Ismail agreed, Eddie Barker and I worked furiously to settle the terms of the Separation. If the British knew it, we would have been done in.'

This led political scientist Hussin Mutalib of the National University of Singapore to ask, in a letter to The Straits Times Forum Page, about Dr Goh's role in the Separation and whether it was Singapore or Malaysia that 'precipitated the idea of Separation'.

'MM Lee's remark is intriguing in the light of the conventional narrative of the events leading up to Separation in 1965. From all that historians have gleaned prior to MM Lee's remarks on Sunday, MM Lee, who was then prime minister, played the pivotal role involving Separation,' the academic wrote.

'His remarks suggest that the decision to break away from Malaysia was decided unilaterally by Dr Goh at the crucial moment; against the proposition MM Lee, and perhaps the collective Cabinet, had decided; which was at the very least, to still remain a part of the Malaysian federation of states.'

What MM Lee said 'also suggests that the key Malaysian leaders - Tun Razak and Dr Ismail - agreed to Dr Goh's proposal of a clean break', he added.

'This would imply that it may well have been Singapore which precipitated the idea of Separation, rather than Malaysia, as has been the notion all this while, stemming from first Malaysian Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman's view.

'He reconfirmed, when I interviewed him a few years before he died, that he overruled the strident objections of his extremist colleagues in Umno in deciding to sack Singapore from Malaysia.'

Indeed, in his memoirs, The Singapore Story, MM Lee wrote that 'as early as 23 June 1965, the Tunku was thinking in terms of a total separation'.

This was gleaned through a meeting between the Tunku and then National Development Minister Lim Kim San, in which the Tunku said: 'You can tell your prime minister he can attend the next Prime Ministers' Conference on his own,' wrote MM Lee.

A month later, Dr Goh met Tun Razak and Dr Ismail. Tun Razak 'wanted to discuss a rearrangement that would allow both sides to disengage from what would be a disastrous collision'.

MM Lee, in his memoirs, said he found out that Dr Goh 'never pressed Razak for a looser rearrangement as I had asked him to'.

'He knew they wanted Singapore out of their Parliament and went along with their desire to have us hive off,' he wrote.

. . . . .

'In his talks with Tun Razak, then Malaysia Deputy Prime Minister, and Dr Ismail, then Malaysia Minister for External Affairs and Minister for Home Affairs, Keng Swee decided it was best to separate. I had to agree.'

An extract of MM Lee's eulogy to the late Dr Goh in the latest issue of Petir

- end of ST article