Malaysian’s View Opposed

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31783, 13 September 1968, Page 16

Malaysian’s View Opposed

Dato Donald Stephens, the Malaysian High Commissioner for Australia and New Zealand, met strong opposition from students when he suggested in Christchurch last evening that the MalaysianSingaporean Students’ Association be separated nationally, to allow easier practical support by their two Governments.

Speaking to more than 40 Malaysian students and others at a reception on his arrival, Dato Stephens said Malaysia and Singapore were friends—-they had to be “with the British pulling out in 1971”—but they were two nations, and it was time there was a separate Malaysian Students’ Association. “Charity begins at home,” he said, “and though I know this is contentious —and that you will argue till the cows come home—it would be easier for me to have a Malaysian association alone.” There could still be liaison

on matters of common concern which brought the two student bodies together, he said.

Ensuing discussion began with some strong criticism of the suggestion, and of the perpetuation of nationallysegregated schools at home. Some students seemed to think Dato Stephens’s suggestions negated his earlier remarks.

In these, he had said there were 5000 Malaysian students in Australia and 800 to 900 in New Zealand. They belonged to many of the races of Malaysia, but were getting on well together and earning the respect of their host countries.

Malaysians had to learn to live together. “In the whole of South-East Asia, no other country can claim the freedom and democracy we enjoy,” he said. There were problems but most of them were legacies of the past. (A student later

argued that they were legacies of the very recent past.) Dato Stephens said that Malays, Chinese, Indians, and others should not live in compartments in Malaysia. “These walls were built long ago, and we did not think much about them in the colonial days,” he said. "TO find the perfect state where all are satisfied is a Utopia we have yet to find,” he said. "It is up to you young people to discuss everything freely in true Malaysian groups. "One great need is compassion,” Dato Stephens said. “If it is not present in a multi-racial society, we will all end up by cutting one another’s throats. If you fall in love with a girl of another race, I say: Marry her. That is true integration.” A European at the gathering told a reporter that Malaysian and Singaporean students in Canterbury com-

bined because of small numbers and because they considered most of their problems common and domestic, rather than national.