ABSTRACT
The prime minister hoped that the last two would merge with the Malay federation so that the overall percentage of ethnic Chinese would be reduced, but the leaders of the Chinese community favored the merger of Singapore with the proposed Federation of Malaysia, which would have the opposite effect because of Singapore's overwhelmingly Chinese population. Singapore handled a substantial part of Malaya's exports and imports; an economic barrier along the Straits of Johor could ruin Singapore. The two were also militarily interdependent. Curiously, the People's Action Party of Lee Kuan Yew, the future founder of Singapore as a separate state, supported the merger in the strongest terms. Singapore's membership in the Federation of Malaysia proved short-lived. The new political setup could perhaps have survived the communal differences, but it could not contain the egos of the two rival leaders—Abdul Rahman and Lee Kuan Yew.
