this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2023
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Today I Learned (TIL)

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Even after the merger, the Singaporean government and the Malaysian central government disagreed on many political and economic issues. Despite an agreement to establish a common market, Singapore continued to face restrictions when trading with the rest of Malaysia. In retaliation, Singapore did not extend to Sabah and Sarawak the full extent of the loans agreed to for economic development of the two eastern states. Talks soon broke down, and abusive speeches and writing became rife on both sides. This led to communal strife in Singapore, culminating in the 1964 race riots. On 7 August 1965, Malaysian prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman, seeing no alternative to avoid further bloodshed (and with the help of secret negotiations by PAP leaders, as revealed in 2015) advised the Parliament of Malaysia that it should vote to expel Singapore from Malaysia. On 9 August 1965, the Malaysian Parliament voted 126 to 0 to move a bill to amend the constitution, expelling Singapore from Malaysia, which left Singapore as a newly independent country.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Thank you, friend!

[–] Madbrad200 24 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The video of Lee Kuan Yew crying during an interview following the seperation has always been an interesting watch. Really shows how much he cared about his nation.

Another good one: him discussing how they discovered the CIA trying to bribe an intelligence agent in Singapore. Said agent reported it, so Lee asked the Americans this: we'll let the CIA official go if you give us $100 million to go towards Singapore development. The Americans tried to pay him and his party $10m personally instead. He rejected the offer.

[–] gon 12 points 1 year ago

that's really funny, but it seems the circumstances that lead to this were rather tough.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

As a Malaysian... Pretty much par for the course when it comes to decision-making here, I guess.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Can we do this with Florida and Texas?

[–] [email protected] -4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Considering they like to execute weed smokers it's probably cuz they're all crazy people.

Wish we can do that with Florida.

[–] SulaymanF 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Traffickers. The capital offense is for trafficking, not recreational use.

[–] JJROKCZ 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But their definition of trafficking is laughably small from what I’ve heard.

[–] SulaymanF -3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I wouldn’t call it laughably small; it’s 2 pounds of cannabis, which is more than 60 joints. If you’re found with that many on you then a reasonable person could assume you intend to distribute.

Every law is abusable by malicious people. It’s why cops can legally flip over the car of a pregnant woman because she took too long to pull over or why Floridians can shoot a black man for vague fears and “stand your ground.”

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Man, if 2 lbs is about 60 joints, I need to start shopping at different dispensaries. Joints are normally either 0.5 g. or 1 g. Using 1 g. joints for calculations, there are about 28 in an oz., or about 450 per lb. So there are about 900 1 g. joints in 2 lbs.

[–] ThreeHalflings 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

How is it that Americans always turn posts into showcases of how small minded they are on both sides of the aisle? Even if they're about an interesting event half a world away, two Americans just rip off their shirts and start pinching each other's nipples as hard as they can, trying to look manly as they do it.

Big brains will down vote and say "That's not what I do. I look really manly while grabbing nipples"

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

No, it was mostly racism. Singapore is mostly Chinese, as I'm sure you're well aware, whereas Malaysia is (obviously) mostly Malays and has several inbuilt benefits to give them advantages in life. A lot of Malaysian Malays were not happy about Singapore having equal racial rights, because they believed that Malays should have special benefits. This and general racial tensions led to hundreds of deaths in racial riots. The decision to separate was heavily influenced by the desire to avoid more racial violence.

I hated this Reddit trend of learning one (1) fact about a country and then linking it to literally every post or comment mentioning the country in any capacity. I really hope it doesn't carry on to Lemmy. Countries are a lot more nuanced than that.