Singapore was expelled from Malaysia in 1965, but the Santana T-shirt sold at a concert there on March 7 begs to differ.THE coincidence is amusingly uncanny. On the same week that Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad released his much-anticipated memoirs, some rock concert T-shirts being sold in Singapore had prints saying that Singapore is part of Malaysia.
Yes, it's true. T-shirts on sale at the Santana concert on March 7 were emblazoned on the back with the concert tour venues: Bangkok, Thailand; Jakarta, Indonesia; Seoul, Korea; Perth, Australia; Christchurch, New Zealand; and, of all things, Singapore, Malaysia.
I missed the concert but still cannot contain the hilarity of the whole thing. The timing bordered on perfect irony -- on one hand, the former prime minister's book, A Doctor in the House, with certain blistering references to Singapore, and on the other, the collectors' item traded outside the Singapore Indoor Stadium proclaiming that Singapore is in Malaysia.
Danny Goon, a dear old friend from Penang, was one of the many Malaysians who went to see the concert and bought a T-shirt at the official merchandise store.
It was only later that he spotted the words written on the back.
This was his email to me:
Syed, Did you attend the Santana gig in Singapore on Monday? Well I parted with S$50 to buy a Santana T-shirt for a friend who missed his Guitar Heaven 2011 Tour concert in Singapore on Monday night. Little did I suspect that the T-shirt is likely to cause an international incident. Read the itinerary carefully... is the Red Dot still part of Malaysia? What would LKY think? Or Dr M? Incidentally, it is made in Haiti.
Cheers,
Read more: T-shirt story better than concert http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/17rockc/Article/#ixzz1GiKJd45f
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