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SEP 26 1998
It tore my heart to read about the riots
Ms Sukwinder Kaur, 19, third-year banking and finance student at the Singapore Polytechnic.
"AS AN Indian living in Singapore, I shudder to think how different my life would have been, if Separation had never occurred and Singapore today was still part of Malaysia. Would my opportunities for education and employment be the same as those of an average citizen, or would I be subject to a quota system that gives priority to Malaysian Malays and makes me a second-class citizen in my own country?
I didn't know how much of a struggle it was for our leaders to have fought Tunku Abdul Rahman for equal rights for Singapore citizens in the Federation.
My first thought on ending the book was that I'm glad to be a citizen in Singapore, where I can do whatever I want.
If we were still in the Federation, would I have been able to enter the educational institute of my choice? Buy a house, exercise my rights equally?
My forefathers came to make this land their new home. They toiled for the country and contributed to its success. Would it be fair to them that they and their children never enjoyed the same status which the Malays in Malaysia would have? While SM Lee worked towards a multiracial Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman worked towards a Malay Malaysia.
What struck me most? The riots. It tore my heart to read about them. I know they happened, but it was still quite unthinkable to imagine that people killed each other over racial differences here! As for whether Umno instigated the riots as SM Lee wrote, or they were sparked off by Singapore as Dr Mahathir claims, those riots should never be repeated.
The book had a great deal to say about the Malays and the Chinese. There wasn't much about the Indian community. It didn't bother me. Did it make me feel excluded? No. It didn't occur to me at all.
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