Quora Answer: Did Singapore Develop Rapidly because Malaysia Provided Water to the Country?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “What are your views, regarding another nation, asserting that Singapore developed rapidly because Malaysia provides water to the country?”

What Mahathir bin Mohamad has said is incongruent with reality.  Singapore’s development owes a lot to the policies implemented by the nascent government after Separation, and the inculcated values.  Singapore is an example of social engineering on a massive scale, to change the mindset of the people, and incentivise them to make the sacrifices required to drag Singapore from developing world to developed world status.

The 1962 water treaty provided us with water from a time when we depended greatly on an external source.  It can be argued that Singapore’s provision of treated water at a negligible price, which is also part of the treaty, greatly aided Johor as well.  And yet, Johor, is not yet close to Singapore’s development.

This is not the fault of the state government of Johor, but a direct consequence of federal policy, from the racist bumiputera policy, to the crony capitalism, to the endemic corruption and short termism that has ever bedevilled Malaysia.