A very eloquent piece by Eugene C. on "How do Malaysians feel towards Singaporeans?".
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I have resided in Johor Bahru (which is the city on the southern Malaysian Peninsula border with Singapore) since birth, of which over 12 years was spent commuting daily to school in Singapore while residing in Malaysia.
This might give me some insight into the general dynamics of the relationship between and the psyche of the average person on both sides of the causeway (the bridge link that links Johor & Singapore hailing from our British Colonial days) but by no means makes me an expert of any sort on the topic.
Personally, I would liken the Malaysian-Singaporean relationship to one akin to a sibling rivalry (at best) or competitive cousins (at worse) of sorts. The history, people, and cultural history are very much intertwined irregardless of the fact that some choose to conveniently forget this fact.
Malaysians, in my opinion, are quite accepting and friendly with Singaporeans in general. Granted there might some some underlying discomfort or even disdain towards the relative success of Singapore and in no small part to the ugly Singaporean phenomenon (that would be another post/topic altogether I would think).
Some points
Economy - Singapore is a developed nation with First-world status and its citizens are generally proud of the nations' achievements in being a World-class City with one of the World's best airlines, seaport, financial centers, etc. Malaysia on the other hand, is still categorised as a developing nation, with a good part of its economy reliant on resource exports in the form of Oil Palm, Rubber, and Oil among others.
Manufacturing and Tourism sectors are key contributors to the economy in both countries. Though I must say that Singaporean entrepreneurs are generally perceived to be more globally-aware, networked and better at marketing their products, and are backed up quite well by Government agencies setup for trade promotion (Internationa Entreprise Singapore) as compared to their Malaysian counterpart, Matrade.
Demographics - Singapore has an ethnic Chinese majority to Malaysia's ethnic Malay-Muslim majority. While both are multi-racial, multi-religious countries, Singapore does not profess to have an official religion while Malaysia's official religion is Islam.
Politics - has a strong ethic bias with political parties with an ethnic slant forming the major part of the ruling coalition. In Singapore, the ruling party, for all intents and purposes, portrays a multi-ethnic membership and lineup for elections though still basically being ethnic Chinese dominated.
That being said, both nations' governments have been unchanged since Independence for over half a century. This has led to increasing groundswell support for Opposition elements in both countries as the general populace feel that the incumbents have become rather complacent in their accountability to their citizens and clamor for a possible change; two-party system or erosion of the incumbents majority in parliament.
Governance - Corruption is a problem that plagues almost all the countries in the region, with Singapore being the only exception to this condition, which they have minimised by making sure Ministers and civil servants are well-paid, coupled with strong enforcement and sever punishment for those caught. the incumbent Prime Minister in Singapore is one of the best paid in the world, getting paid 4-5 times of what the POTUS might get while in office. Crime and public safety is a relative concern in Malaysia but with the heavy influx of migrant workers into Singapore from China, India, Philippines and further ashore, the safety and peacefulness of Singapore has been called into question in recent years.
Education - In this respect, Singapore is clearly superior (I might be biased here). Singaporean University rankings have consistently been ranked highly in the region with the nations' oldest & most prestigious, National University of Singapore, being well ranked even in Global ranking of Universities. University of Malaya, has failed to bolster its reputation while sliding down in global university rankings. Coupled with the fact that Singapore has been actively promoting and recruiting Scholars from the ASEAN region with full scholarships through their ASEAN Scholarship initiative among others which cause some countries to suggest that Singapore is perpetuating a "brain drain" in the region, snatching up the best and brightest from its neighbors, from Primary, Secondary, up to the University Level. This is further exasperated by the situation in Malaysia where besides lacking a consistency required for educational policies over the years, the prevailing opinion that academic excellence plays second fiddle to ethnic quotas for University placement even for straight-A student, forces many bright academic talents to look ashore for educational opportunity based on merit and excellent track record like that practiced in Singapore.
Tourism - Our many cultural and social similarities and the the relative lack of a language barrier (a good number of Urban Malaysians speak English and ethnic Chinese usually speak Mandarin or common dialects like Hokkien, Cantonese, Teochew, etc) which lends to Singaporeans being the largest nationality in Tourist arrivals in Malaysia. This is of course helped by the fact that many people have family members living on both sides of the border, this is illustrated greatly by the great number of people who often cross borders to make visitations during festive seasons like the Lunar New Year and other significant holidays of the sort.
Food - a very strong paradox lies in this topic as it can be both a bridge and a divisive point to people in both countries, depending on whom you speak to. Though there are some unique dishes not easily found in the other neighbor, there have been some contention on some dishes being uniquely Singapore/Malaysian after some remarks were made by the Malaysian Tourism minister about dishes being uniquely Malaysian to the consternation of Singaporeans, and also which country has the better food culture. The fact that one of major draws of visiting Malaysia is our "better tasting" food at a relative cheap cost (due to currency exchange differences) . However I might add that the variety in terms of global cuisine selection as well as sophistication is generally higher in Singapore than it is in Malaysia.
Lifestyle - It is generally accepted that the pace in Singapore is greater and it is expected for one to be more "pressured" living in Singapore due to the pace of life, population density, cost of living, and associated stress of "making it" in the City State. Pace of life in the Malaysian Capital, Kuala Lumpur is not breeze in the park either, but is generally considered to be a couple of notches slower than Singapore. Does this translate into a "better" quality of life for the average KL City dweller versus his/her Singaporean counterpart? It is too subjective to say conclusively in my opinion.
Integration - Interestingly enough, in my observations, interaction & discussions, I've found that on the whole, Malaysians generally seem to spend more time interacting with people that might not be from their own ethnic background than Singaporeans as a whole, ranging from school, to work, to play. Coming back to that favorite thing we all love, food, I was quite surprised that in general, ethnic Chinese children seemed to have been less exposed, informed or even tried much food that wasn't Chinese, showing some sort of aversion to spicy food/curries, and knowing next to nothing about Indian and Malay basic cuisine, except maybe eating Roti once in awhile. Trust me, that certainly not the case in Malaysia, where we're so used to eating different types of food that we can often go through our daily 3 meals with having a different ethnic cuisine in each meal during the day. Perhaps its an upbringing concern, or the fact of being more "sheltered", or the pure fact of demographics at play here,
Cheers!
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Source: Quora
— with Chu Liong Ching.
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