My Irish Husband Tony and I recently were privileged to sail on Semester at Sea to Asia. In addition to teaching two classes of university students, I wrote a weekly blog to my fellow Americans. This is the entry about Singapore and Malaysia.

Go ahead. Look at a map. C'mon — you're on line anyway, so go to National Geographic and find southeast Asia. See the long bony finger sticking out of China? The part past Thailand is Malaysia. And Singapore is the well-clipped fingernail at the tip.

So I asked My Irish Husband Tony, How would you describe the difference between Singapore and Malaysia?

'Singapore was so neat and tidy,' he said. 'Malaysia was so... scattered.'

'Malaysia was like Florida in the 1950s,' I offered. 'Wood houses in the scrub, palm trees, gorgeous undeveloped beaches. And not enough air-conditioning.'

'Singapore was Toronto in the 2050s,' he added.

We had three days in Singapore, then a high-speed overnight run up the coast to Kuantuan on the eastern coast of peninsular Malaysia for another three days.

In Singapore we were docked at a shiny new terminal, with hundreds of cruise passengers (mostly Asian) coming and going all day. The shopping mall attached was built over the easy and efficient metro system. We had to show our passports and landing cards as well as have our bags checked when we went in or out.

In Malaysia we were the lone cruise ship (this port gets two a year) at an industrial dock filled with timber companies. The welcoming committee consisted of three street vendors and eight hopeful taxi drivers charging from 30 to 50 Ringitts (US$10-US$20) for the half-hour drive into 'downtown' (and I use the term loosely) Kuantuan.

Three US government representatives came on board in Singapore to give us a diplomatic briefing and explained that, when Singapore broke away from Malaysia in 1965, the government policy was to emphasize education of its people and the growth of its main industry, shipping.

Is the secret behind Singapore's affluent booming economy 'location, location, location'? Look at where it is. If you're shipping anything from India to the new world, you go past Singapore. Malaysia's long coastline is easily avoidable.

So I asked our Economics professor on board, Dr Arifeen Daneshyar from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, how one city-state could be so 'first world' at the tip of a 'third world' peninsula.

'Good question!' he said. 'Singapore has 4.4 million people on an island three-and-one-half times the size of Washington, DC. That's easier to control than the 23 million people spread out along the Malay peninsula and part of the island of Borneo. Both have been run by autocratic regimes, but Singapore has 77% ethnic Chinese. Very ambitious, very hard working, very good at business.'

'Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew for 25 years laid down plans for Singapore's future and they were followed to the letter. The city-state has an extremely controlling government.' he said.

I confessed. 'The metro was clean and easy to use, but I was caught drinking a bottle of Pepsi. The security man nicely told me to put it away and pointed to signs listing the stiff fines for drinking, eating, and littering.'

'It is a wonderful port for us, but the political repression there would not be pleasant.' Arifeen said.

Singapore was gleaming, bustling, fast-paced and efficient, with gorgeous skyscrapers, top rank hotels (including the symbol of colonial Britain, Raffles), outrageously priced alcohol (Raffles' invention, the Singapore Sling, goes for US$18), and fabulous Indian/Chinese/Malay cuisine everywhere.

Malaysia, whose capital Kuala Lumpur on the west coast is home to the world's tallest buildings, the Petronas Towers, is more horizontal over on the rural east coast where we were. Our sumptuous dinner-for-two of chicken satay and bottled beer at the top class Swiss Garden Resort cost a total of 111 Ringitts, or US$30, including the tip you're not expected to leave.

The taxi drivers we hired to take us up to a beautiful waterfall, down into the city centre, and back to Batik Village, had modern, air-conditioned cars but only charged US$40 to 50 for a full day of touring the area. We were shown beautiful almost-deserted beaches, villages with small stilt houses and monkeys running free. The houses all had water, electricity and even a wide-screen TV inside one. Hey, ya gotta have cable.

Singapore has 80% government subsidised housing through a compulsory savings/mortgage scheme, but private condos for the wealthy abound. Our tour guide explained that the cars look new because, to own one, you first have to buy a certificate from the government for about US$10,000, good for ten years. When it expires, your vehicle will be sold on to the Philippines and other less gleaming southeast Asian countries. The tour guide couldn't afford and didn't need a car because the public transportation is so efficient and she can walk to work.

Malaysia has the oil — that's what built the Petronas Towers. But Singapore has the refineries. So was it the ambition of the Chinese immigrants who have populated the island city-state on the tip of the Malay peninsula for the past centuries? Its location in the Straits of Malacca? Or one single-minded autocrat demanding that his people earn money and build skyscrapers?

Whatever the reason, per capita GDP (gross domestic product) in America, the last great superpower, is US$38,000. In Singapore it's US$23,700. In Malaysia, US$9,000. Quite a contrast for two countries that used to be one, still connected by a bridge in the South China Sea.

So I asked our cultural anthropology professor on board, Dr Robert Shepherd of George Washington University, to give me his explanation of the discrepancy.

'Malaysia doesn't have the money of Singapore, but it's still a prosperous country. The Muslim-Malay people there are happy, hard-working; it's very diverse.' he said. 'Globalisation doesn't mean that every country has to be just like we are in the West.'

One day later we docked in sprawling Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), in Vietnam, which has a per capita GDP of only US$2,500 but was just accepted into the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The Explaining to Americans Archive

KDixonDonnelly

05.10.06 Front Page

Back Issue Page