Mahathir Polemic Mohamad Asks Malaysia To Win Singapore And Riau In Today's Memory, June 23, 2022

Mahathir Mohamad, who was once the Prime Minister of Malaysia from 1981-2003 and 2018-2020. (Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA Memori hari ini, tiga tahun yang lalu, 23 Juni 2022, pernyataan mantan Perdana Menteri (PM) Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamad terkait Malaysia harus membahakan Singapura dan Riau (Indonesia) bawa polemik. Ancaman dirusaknya hubungan antara negara di hadebut mata.

Previously, Mahathir was increasingly worried about the rise of the lost Malaysian territory. He gave an example of Singapore and Riau who were once part of Johor. The area was released because of the weak government. He also asked the Malaysian government to fight back Singapore and Riau.

Mahathir Mohamad is a seasoned politician. He got the title as one of the best Malaysian PMs. This condition is because Mahathir's concern for the fate of the Malays. If in the past the Malays had been marginalized, Mahathir came to raise their rank.

This condition was shown in two periods of power in 1981-2003 and 2018-2020. However, Mahathir's support for Malaysia did not go away when he was no longer in power. Mahathir continued to be noisy from outside his power.

He continued to be noisy when the Malaysian government did not work hard for the people. He began to feel that Malaysia did not really care about its territory. Mahathir is afraid that in the future Malaysia's territory will also be claimed by outsiders.

He expressed this concern through his political oration at the Malay Survival Congress in Selangor, Malaysia on June 19, 2022. He regretted that the Malaysian people did not know that their territory was slowly owned by foreigners.

Many Malaysian territories belong to other countries. Batu Puteh Island (Pedra Branca), for example. The island later became Singapore's since 2008. Mahathir also discussed again that Singapore and Riau were historically also part of Johor.

He also demanded that the government dare to fight back for the two regions. Even though Malaysia is considered helpless. In fact, for other matters there is no difference.

"We should not only demand that Pedra Branca, or Batu Puteh Island, be returned to us, but we must also demand the return of Singapore and the Riau Islands to Malaysia as Malay land."

"I wonder if we will continue to own this peninsula. I am worried about the future of the Malays, whether the peninsula land will also be owned by other parties," Mahathir said as quoted on the tempo.co page, June 19, 2022.

Mahathir's claim that Singapore and Riau in Malaysia had created a polemic. The governments of Indonesia and Singapore both reject Mahathir's claim, let alone want to seize both regions. His claim is considered to have no legal basis. In fact, the people in both countries also criticized Mahathir.

Mahathir then realized that his statement caused major disturbances. The threat of destroying relations between countries is in sight. Mahathir immediately straightened out his statement over the noise on June 23, 2022.

He stated that basically he did not want Malaysia to claim back the lost territory. He just wanted to show the Malaysian people that the territory of the country that is currently to be properly guarded so that it does not disappear like Singapore and Riau.

"I don't ask Malaysia to claim the land we have lost. I try to show that we are very worried about losing a stone the size of a table, but never about the bigger part of Malaysia, when they were taken from us," Mahathir said in a written statement as quoted by the Tempo.co page, June 23, 2022.