Summary of Book Regarding Malaysian-Singapore Relations

The process of linking Across the Causeway to the subject of Malaysian studies is not an easy one; the contributors of this book edited by Mr. Shiraishi include scholars from both Malaysia and Singapore with different viewpoints on the history and current disputes facing the two nations. Mr. Shiraishi himself confesses that the book itself demonstrates the fact that the challenges of undertaking such a project are not confined to soliciting and assembling contributions, the fraught legacy of historical entanglement, political union and subsequent separation not only continues to cast shadow over the ongoing transactions and negotiations between the two countries, it also imposes burdens on scholars of Malaysia-Singapore relations. As a foreigner of the two nations, Mr. Shiraishi is an Asian with a strong historical background in Southeast Asian studies; he undertakes a task of bringing and bridging the opinions of both ends in a neutral stance. This makes him differ from orientalist westerners how might have and ethnocentric approach or a biased opinion on the notion of the Singaporean-Malaysian conflict.

He adds that accounts of what happened (or is happening) between Malaysia and Singapore, whether advanced by the political actors themselves of by the witnesses or by those whose lives are affected by event and their consequences, all encode standpoints and carry emotional overtones that may provoke positive or negative responses far in excess of their literal meanings. Across the Causeway adopts a decidedly eclectic approach. Each section contains essays by Malaysia, Singaporean and third party scholars and highlights the heterogeneity of interpretations that underpin different disciplinary approaches to the issue. The book la...

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...gapore’s defence policies are deeply informed by Singapore’s sense of vulnerability and the strategy of deterrence that views power in competitive terms. While in Chapter 12, Kamarulnizam Abdullah looks at Malaysia and Singapore’s policies in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the United States and the US.-led “war on terror” targeting Southeast Asia as the second front of its international campaign. In terms of Economics, the competition of and complementarity of Malaysian and Singaporean economies and their different economic policy actions and responses are examined in Chapter 13 by Teofilo C. Daquila.

Eventually, in Chapter 14, Mahani Zainal Abidin traces the colonial basis of the economic interdependence of the various Malay States and Straits settlements arguing that the bedrock of post-independence Malaysia-Singapore relations was formed by this legacy.