My main difficulty was not with this, or over complete merger, which the people of Singapore did not want. It was with the question of citizenship. Dr Lee described the Federation as taking on three wives in Borneo, while Singapore was not to be a fourth wife, but only a mistress. The children of the mistress were going to be treated as illegitimate with no right to federal citizenship. It struck home. The suspicion that “Malaysian nationals” would not be the same as “Malaysian citizens” caused great unease, and gave the Barisan an ideal issue over which to intensify their campaign of
...more
