Malaysia protests Goh remarks on Malays

By Amit Baruah

SINGAPORE, JAN. 27. Singapore's High Commissioner to Malaysia, Mr. K. Kesavapany, was called in by the Foreign Ministry in Kuala Lumpur over the recent remarks by the Singapore Prime Minister, Mr. Goh Chok Tong, about the relative progress made by Singapore Malays when compared to Malaysian Malays.

A Singapore Government statement said that Mr. Kesavapany, who met with a senior Malaysian Foreign Ministry official yesterday, explained that Mr. Goh ``did not at any point say that Malays in Malaysia had not made progress, and that the main objective of the Prime Minister's speech had been to show the extent of the progress made by Singapore Malays in various aspects over the years''.

``High Commissioner Kesavapany pointed out that this was necessary because since last month, there had been a series of articles in the Malaysian media which erroneously alleged that the Malays in Singapore had been marginalised, and this was the result of discrimination by the Singapore Government,'' the statement said.

``High Commissioner Kesavapany reiterated Prime Minister Goh's point that given the significant progress made by the Singapore Malay community over the years, they cannot be said to be marginalised. In this regard, High Commissioner Kesavapany also pointed out that the unhelpful and negative comments by the Malaysian media on the position of Singapore Malays did not contribute towards good bilateral relations,'' the statement added.

In Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian Foreign Minister, Syed Hamid Albar, was quoted as saying that his Government ``regretted'' the remarks made by Mr. Goh.

``In fact, the statement itself is full of innuendoes questioning the effectiveness of the Malaysian Government to uplift the well- being of its people. This is tantamount to interference in domestic affairs of the country,'' Mr. Hamid said in a statement circulated by the Bernama news agency.

``Therefore, it is unfortunate that whilst we are working to inject greater confidence in our relations (with Singapore), such a statement has in some way caused a lot of unhappiness and hurt the feelings of many Malaysians,'' the Foreign Minister said.

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Section  : International
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