'Singapore's independence was not inevitable'

Key leaders on both sides pushed for Separation: SM Lee

- Ng Wei Kai Correspondent

Till the final days before Separation, founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew was ambivalent about Singapore leaving Malaysia.

Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong recounted how the Lee family were on holiday in Cameron Highlands on Aug 3, 1965, when his father received a call from Dr Goh Keng Swee, the principal negotiator on the Singapore side.

"I was in the room at Cluny Lodge when my father took a call that afternoon and I heard him tell Dr Goh in Mandarin: 'This is a huge decision; let me think about it,'" SM Lee said on Dec 7 at the launch of the Albatross File book and exhibition at the National Library in Victoria Street.

"I didn't know then what it was about, but it became plain soon enough," said SM Lee, who became emotional and held back tears as he related this memory.

While Mr Lee had brought enormous political pressure to bear on the federal government in the preceding months, which forced the hand of then Malaysian Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman on what to do with Singapore, Separation was not the outcome he preferred, said SM Lee.

"His aim was to strengthen Singapore's position politically, so as to compel the federal government to grant Singapore greater autonomy... Separation was to be an option only if Singapore could not get such a rearrangement."

Yet, within a few years, all of Singapore's founding leaders - including Mr Lee and those who had signed the agreement to separate reluctantly - concluded that Separation was the best thing that ever happened to Singapore, said SM Lee.

"In this SG60 year, we are very glad that Dr Goh did what he did. Singapore has thrived and progressed far beyond anything the founding fathers imagined," he said, choking up with emotion again.

The Albatross File is a collection of previously classified documents that Dr Goh had kept from 1964, such as his handwritten notes about discussions with Malaysian leaders in the months before Separation.