SINGAPORE: After watching an interview of Lee Kuan Yew in 2000, a local Reddit user shared that the founding Prime Minister had said his biggest regret was Singapore’s failed merger with Malaysia.

U/no_Lime5241wrote that the answer Mr Lee gave the US journalist Charlie Rose came as a surprise.

“What I regret most is the years we spent building up the momentum for Malaysia and breaking it off in less than two years. It never got a chance. If there was a stronger prime minister in Malaysia who was prepared to give a more equal balance to the various peoples in Malaysia, the story might have ended differently, and it would have been better for all of us,” he said.

Mr Rose thought that Mr Lee meant Singapore and Malaysia together would have “a much more powerful point of leverage.”

The former PM clarified not once but twice that this regret was “for the people.”

“They would have had a better life,” he added.

This is in keeping with what Mr Lee had said on August 9, 1965, the date of Singapore’s independence. “All my life, my whole adult life, I believed in merger and unity of the two territories.”

The post author wrote that Mr Lee’s answer gave him pause, but added, “I think people forget, for the first 41 years of his life, Lee was a Malaysian. A Singaporean identity did not really exist yet. His dream was a united Malaysia. Looking into this, Lee never abandoned this dream. Lee genuinely did believe the merger was the superior outcome. He said so repeatedly over decades, not just once. 

Even after Singapore became rich, he continued to argue that a successful multiracial Malaysia would have been a more natural and sustainable arrangement than a tiny city-state standing alone.”

Noting that Singaporeans live under heavy pressure due to long work hours, competition, and the lack of work-life balance, he added that he believes Mr Lee never planned for this to happen. But when Singapore became independent from Malaysia and lost access to its natural resources, the city-state did what it needed to not just to survive but to have an edge over other Southeast Asian countries.

Mr Lee was then faced with the challenge of developing the city-state into something exceptional that would attract foreign investments.

“If Singapore had remained within Malaysia, it would have had access to a larger domestic market, food, water, natural resources, and a hinterland. It would not have carried the burden of survival alone,” the post author wrote, adding that if this had happened, Singaporean workers would have had a better work-life balance, “while still enjoying prosperity,” as Australia does.

“Just a thought, when you guys find yourselves frustrated with the Singapore lifestyle,” he added. /TISG

Read also: Lee Kuan Yew’s remarks on PhD and marriage resurface, draw mixed reactions

This article (Lee Kuan Yew said his biggest regret was the failed merger with Malaysia) first appeared on The Independent Singapore News.