LKY says wife made sure Malaysia could not cut off water supply

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 6 — Singapore’s minister mentor Lee Kuan Yew delivered a eulogy today to his wife Kwa Geok Choo and credited her with safeguarding the republic’s interest “each time Malaysian Malay leaders threatened to cut off our water supply.”

He also revealed that Kwa, who died on Saturday in Singapore, had cautioned him against joining the Malaysian federation, because the politics of Umno’s Malay leaders were “communally-based, on race and religion.”

Lee (picture) was speaking at Kwa’s private funeral service today at Singapore’s Mandai crematorium where the couple’s family and friends had gathered to pay their final respects to the 89-year-old.

In his eulogy which drew tears all around, Lee took time to fondly recall how his wife’s quiet defiance and unrelenting support had influenced him in many of his decisions in their 63 years together.

It was Kwa, he said, who had been instrumental in ensuring that the Malaysian government would stick to its guarantee to observe two water agreements, signed back in 1961 and 1962, when the city state was forced to leave the Federation of Malaya in 1965.

“When separation was imminent, Eddie Barker, as Law Minister, drew up the draft legislation for the separation. But he did not include an undertaking by the Federation Government to guarantee the observance of the two water agreements between the PUB (Public Utilities Board) and the Johor state government.

“I asked Choo (Kwa) to include this,” he explained.

Kwa, added Lee, was “meticulous in her choice of words”.

“The amendment statute was annexed to the Separation Agreement, which we then registered with the United Nations.

“The then Commonwealth Secretary Arthur Bottomley said that if other federations were to separate, he hoped they would do it as professionally as Singapore and Malaysia,” he continued.

Lee proudly said that Bottomley’s words were a compliment to both Barker and his wife’s professional skills.

“[Now] each time Malaysian Malay leaders threatened to cut off our water supply, I was reassured that this clear and solemn international undertaking by the Malaysian government in its Constitution will get us a ruling by the UNSC (United Nations Security Council),” he said.

Kwa, he pointed out, had also been spot-on in her foresight that a Malaysia-Singapore union would not work.

“When we were about to join Malaysia, she told me that we would not succeed because the Umno Malay leaders had such different lifestyles and because their politics were communally-based, on race and religion,” he said.

At the time, however, Lee recalled, he had told his wife that the union had to work for want of a better choice.

“But she was right. We were asked to leave Malaysia before two years,” he said.

Lee, Singapore’s founding father, made a similar reference to Umno’s communalism in a recent interview with the New York Times last month, when he expressed regret of how the city-state had been “turfed-out” of Malaysia in 1963.

During the interview, the former premier claimed that if this had not happened, Malaysia would today be enjoying Singapore’s brand of nationalism and multi-racialism.