Quora Answer: Why is Singapore Complaining about Malaysia?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Why is Singapore complaining about Malaysia?  What is the point of having power if you do not use it?  Look at China.  If Malaysia has power over Singapore, why not use it for its own sake?  Would not Singapore do the same if it is as big as Malaysia?”

The question presumes that Malaysia has “power” over Singapore.  What power does Malaysia have?  Militarily, it is weaker.  Economically, it is poorer.  Socially, it is less coherent.  Malaysia is going through upheaval, and facing massive geopolitical challenges.  It has just changed its government, and has a variety of major issues from trade agreements, to economic policies, to social pressures from a fractured population.  That is actually the precise reason why Malaysia is picking diplomatic spats with Singapore through the media.  It is not a position of strength, but one of weakness.  The Mahathir government needs to distract the people from the struggles of the current administration.

In all the areas of contention, Malaysia cannot effect meaningful change, and this is seen in the many embarrassing instances when different sections of the government have contradicted themselves.  Even Mahathir bin Mohamed has flip-flopped over a matter of days.  For example, the Water Agreement is a clause within the Separation Agreement, filed with the UN.  For all that agitation, Malaysia cannot vary it.  They have no legal standing, and that is why Mahathir has stated that they will not go for international arbitration, even though Singapore has been proposing it since the early 1990s.  And then the current Johor state government announced that is precisely what they want to do.  They know they will lose the arbitration, just as they lost their challenge to Singapore’s sovereignty of Pedra Branca.

Malaysia cannot threaten war with Singapore, because their military is not in a position to even enforce their current territorial claims.  Mahathir himself said it before their idiot Defence Minister announced to the planet they effectively have no air force.  This means they do not even have this card to pressure Singapore.

When he came back as prime minister, Mahathir stated that he wanted to renegotiate the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, to protect Malaysian industry.  He was effectively ignored.  The previous framework, the TPP, was negotiated with ASEAN as a bloc, led by Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia as major drivers.  Malaysia’s current economy has contracted to the extent that it is smaller than Singapore’s.  That is impotence, when no one even commented on it.

He cancelled contracts with China, and sought a closer economic partnership with Japan to offset that loss of business.  This is not Japan of the 1980s.  This is a Japan struggling to grow its economy in the face of global competition and a shrinking population.  In the end, he had to reverse course and go back to China because the economy was floundering.

Malaysia has no “power” over any of its neighbours.  Its geopolitical profile is diminished, and the country needs more rapprochement with its neighbours, especially Singapore, to retake its place at the forefront of ASEAN.  All these spats do not help Malaysia, and diminishes it.