MAY 6 — Singaporeans don’t get to vote in Malaysian elections. This seems an obvious point. 1965, the great separation and all but well it isn’t so simple.

The reality is that despite systematic (and successful) efforts to diversify our trading partners and grow self-sufficient in terms of energy and water, we remain deeply connected to our cousins over the causeway.

Bilateral trade exceeds S$100 billion RM295 billion), this is topped only by our trade with China. Singapore’s investments in Malaysia are hard to quantify but amount to billions upon billions.

Hundreds of thousands of Singapore residents are Malaysian citizens and many Singaporeans have family in Malaysia. Of course, we still use over 500 million litres of Malaysian water every year — about 50 per cent of our water requirement.

Therefore, Singaporeans are in a sense stakeholders in Malaysia.

What happens on May 9 will affect us profoundly. This is, of course, well known to our political and business elites, but ordinary Singaporeans often don’t appreciate enough the impact Malaysia has on us.

While the general sentiment in Singapore appears to be in favour of maintaining the status quo in Malaysia, there is an undercurrent — people eager to see change.

Whether they realise it or not, the outcome of the Malaysian general election will have some impact on them. — Picture by Firdaus Latif

The status quo, of course, means continued rule by the incumbent Barisan Nasional (BN) government. In fact, many Singaporeans seem keen to see the government return to power with a strong majority which means a stable but constrained Malaysia.

Stable because there will be confidence in the economy, a likely strengthening of the ringgit but constrained because over the last few years the government has shown little evidence that it can push Malaysia into the league of truly developed nations.

This is an ideal situation for Singapore, Malaysia grows enough to provide new opportunities but not enough to threaten us.

The second possibility — a change of regime — of course would be an earthquake. Malaysia under the Opposition coalition presumably helmed by Mahathir Mohamad would be an entirely unpredictable entity.

Business confidence would dip, trade and investment would be in flux. In that scenario Singapore’s government would find itself the only party in the region to have held continuous power since independence.

This doesn’t seem like a good outcome but the reality is that even an unstable Malaysia would present opportunities; investment and talent would presumably spill over the border.

So, in the short term, it’s potentially a win win for us. A strong (but not too strong) Malaysia we benefit, a chaotic weaker Malaysia — we also win.

But in the long term, neither a stable but constrained or a weaker Malaysia is really in the interest of Singapore and its people.

Malaysia’s political culture and its politicisation of religion feeds the worst aspect of Singapore’s own fears and prejudices. A floundering Malaysia will eventually impact the region jeopardising our own trading position investments and options.

Therefore, my hope for GE 14 is that it will deliver a flourishing Malaysia; united, diverse, democratic, tolerant and free. A long shot? Well, we can only hope. Malaysia Boleh!

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.