ABSTRACT
The disagreement of the Singapore Delegation was recorded in the Report as follows: 'The Singapore Delegation expressed their opposition to the departure from normal democratic practice and protested at the unilateral imposition of this condition. The proposal had been under active discussion between the Federation, Singapore and British governments for some time, and there had been a number of meetings between Ministers of the three governments and other senior officers from the territories concerned since January 1961. The Central Government would control external affairs, defence and security. In terms of population, Singapore should have had 24 seats in the Federal Parliament. Lee Kuan Yew realized that some form of merger was essential to his political survival and that he had to carry the Malayans and the British governments with him. On 27 May 1961 the Malaysian Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, first publicly mooted the possibility of merger in a speech to foreign journalists in Singapore.
