Who knows why Malaysia rejected the merger?

Singapore is lucky that it did not merge into Malaysia. Malaysia is a hardcore islamic country next only to Iran. You need to read the tweets of ZakirNaik who is n Indian but given asylum by Malaysia to understand this.His hatred for non islamic people,culture etc is intolerable

That’s precisely the merger was rejected since Malaysia is Islamic and they can’t assimilate

Thank god Singapore didn't merge. I have some Chinese Malaysian friends and they're constantly worried about the rise of Islamism in Malaysia. It's made their country into a total wreck.

They rejected it in the first place because Malay Muslims can’t integrate

"It turned out that we could not achieve multi-racialism and integration in Malaysia." Yet, Singapore did achieve multi-racialism and integration on its own. Of course, it needs to be managed carefully. Not willy nilly that which is going on across much of the West these days.

He was ahead of his time

Interesting. Seeing your posts, I understand better why former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt called Lee Kuan Yew his friend. Both were responsible leaders, but not emotionless. Today in the West, feelings about things are put first, but often in denial of realities.

I am on a mission to pass on his wisdom

I grew up in Malaysia. It's a great example of how, even after 100s of years, multi culturalism is a hard reality to manage. There's no hope of it working out over short time frames.

And most move to Singapore as you must be aware