Earlier today, supreme council member of Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad’s party Dr Rais Hussin, published a piece on Malaysian media site Malay Mail responding to comments made by retired Singapore diplomat Bilahari Kausikan. His piece was titled, ‘The implied SM complex of Malaysia: An atypical response to Bilahari Kausikan — Rais Hussin’.
On Sunday, Hussin said that Singapore will get “pain by a thousand cuts” for its position on the maritime dispute with Malaysia. To this, Kausikan commented saying that Hussin’s reaction was very typical. In a Facebook post, he wrote, “Very typical — what they expect is subordination of our interests to their interests”.
https://www.facebook.com/bilahari.kausikan/posts/2256728917917858
“They have not given up, and never will, trying to tame or domesticate (menjinakan) Singapore, because unless they do so, the intrinsic short-comings of a system based on the dominance of a particular race will be highlighted, particularly since we do better with a different system”, Kausikan said in his Facebook post.
The piece written by Rais directly addresses Kausikan’s post and he started by saying, “Since, Kausikan, by some strange twist of logic, averred that my op-ed, which urged Singapore to be calm, is “atypical” of how Malaysia wants to “domesticate” or “menjinakkan” Singapore, as a Malaysian I am obliged to reply”.
He also added, “He is also a washout precisely because in his rebuttal of Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah, the foreign minister of Malaysia, he doesn’t even know all members of the current Malaysian Cabinet do not smoke cigars; unlike the previous ones who did”.
https://theindependent.sg.sg/ho-ching-remarks-to-senior-member-of-mahathirs-party-chill-man/
TISG has reached out to Bilahari Kausikan for comment, and will update with his response.
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obbana@theindependent.sg