Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2020 April 14

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April 14

Singapore and Malaysia

Singapore seems to be rather specially located just next to Malaysia, separated by a long but narrow strait of water. I suppose this situation has led to interesting relations between Singapore and Malaysia. Are there bridges across this strait of water between Singapore and Malaysia? How easy is it to travel between Singapore and Malaysia in the first place? JIP | Talk 21:29, 14 April 2020 (UTC)

@JIP: There is a bridge. You can see a picture in the article Malaysia–Singapore_border, and read more about the border there. RudolfRed (talk) 21:54, 14 April 2020 (UTC)

Interesting relations indeed. Have you read Singapore#Merger with Malaysia? -- ToE 22:05, 14 April 2020 (UTC)

See Jalur Gemilang#Modifications for an interesting narrative on the meaning of the 14th stripe of Malaysia's national flag. -- ToE 22:17, 14 April 2020 (UTC)

(EC) See Malaysia–Singapore relations and linked articles which I assume notes significant things like how Singapore was once part of Malaysia before it was kicked out due to political and racial controversy, that there is an old causeway (which allows pedestrian, bicycle, trains and motor vehicles) and newer bridge (for motor vehicles), with a long time stalled proposal to replace the causeway with a bridge and a somewhat more recent proposal for a third bridge, that Singapore still gets a fair amount of water from Malaysia (which has been controversial at times), etc. As for how easy, well before COVID-19, quite a number of people lived in Malaysia but commuted daily to Singapore. (Many of them chose to stay in Singapore due to Malaysia closing their borders [1] [2].) However there are customs and immigrations checks and the crossings can get fairly busy at peak times. I've travelled across the border by bus, train and private car and wouldn't say there's anything particularly unusual although I've never been across another land border that I recall, not even Malaysia-Thailand. Nil Einne (talk) 22:17, 14 April 2020 (UTC)

I made a mistake in my above comment. As mentioned by 90 below and sort of mentioned by my reply, the original crossing is a causeway not a bridge. The more recent proposal is for a third crossing, which will probably be a second bridge. (As I have strong doubts the causeway will be replaced before the third crossing is completed.) Nil Einne (talk) 00:26, 15 April 2020 (UTC)

[Edit Conflict] Physically, travel between the two has long been trivially easy – before the causeway (not a bridge) RudolfRed mentions was completed in 1923, there were various ferry services for passengers and/or freight at all ranges of capacity from 6 railway wagons at a time down to handfuls of passengers in privately operated sampans, and a Second Link road bridge was opened in 1998.

Of course, when Malaysia was formed as a federation of several states in 1963, Singapore was one of its constituent states, but internal and regional political tensions led to its leaving/being expelled in 1965. (I myself lived there in 1964, and was nearly killed by one symptom of those tensions.) {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.203.117.240 (talk) 22:29, 14 April 2020 (UTC)

The causeway over the Straits of Johor was deliberately destroyed during the Battle of Singapore on 31 January 1942, delaying the Japanese invasion for a week. Alansplodge (talk) 11:44, 15 April 2020 (UTC)