Recently, some documents regarding Singapore and Malaysia’s separation were declassified and made available in an exhibition. They are called the Albatross File, named after then 1960s Singapore finance minister’s belief that Malaysia was ‘an albatross around Singapore’s neck’.
No real emotions on this other than ‘okay so we weren’t really kicked out like you told us’ and acknowledging that there were many pro-merger as well as pro-separation arguments at the time. It could very well have gone either way.
My grandparents were Chinese nationals, then British subjects, then Japanese occupied subjects, then Malaysian, then Singaporean, all in the same half a century and without moving. Some days I think about how weird that must have been.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albatross_file
https://exhibitions.nlb.gov.sg/current/thealbatrossfile/about/
