The latest friction in the often testy relationship erupted when Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong praised the achievements of Malays in Singapore, and compared their progress favourably with Malays in Malaysia.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar described the speech as tantamount to interference in Malaysian affairs and said it was "full of innuendos questioning the effectiveness of the Malaysian government to uplift the well-being of its people."

But Singapore's High Commissioner to Kuala Lumpur, K. Kesavapany, summoned by the Malaysian foreign ministry Jan 26 to explain Goh's speech, defended it as a necessary counter to a series of articles in the Malaysian media.

The reports "erroneously alleged that the Malays in Singapore had been marginalised, and this was the result of discrimination by the Singapore government," a Singapore foreign affairs spokesman said Jan 27, quoting Kesavapany.

"The unhelpful and negative comments by the Malaysian media on the position of Singapore Malays did not contribute towards good bilateral relations," the diplomat told Malaysian officials.

Kesavapany reiterated Goh's statement "that given the significant progress made by the Singapore Malay community over the years, they cannot be said to be marginalised."

In his speech to Singapore's Malay-Muslim community last Sunday, Goh said that as of last year 25 percent of Singapore's Malay workforce had upper secondary or higher qualifications compared to 14 percent in Malaysia in 1998.

He acknowledged that Malaysia's Malays had proportionately more doctors, lawyers, millionaires and people holding top jobs in the public and private sector.

But 23 percent of Malay workers in Singapore held administrative, managerial and professional positions in 2000, compared to 16 percent in Malaysia in 1998, he said. Syed Hamid said Goh's remarks had "caused a lot of unhappiness and hurt the feelings of many Malaysians."

Singapore political speeches in recent weeks have been peppered with buoyant messages for Malays.

On Jan 27, in a speech at the launch of an educational programme for Malays, Muslim Affairs Minister Abdullah Tarmugi repeated figures raised by Goh and said Singapore wanted "more Malays to do well" and wanted to contribute to their success.

Parliamentary Secretary for Communications Yaacob Ibrahim slipped into a speech that Goh had shown "very clearly that the Malay community in Singapore is progressing very well."

In Malaysia, where Malays make up two-thirds of the population, they have special rights and enjoy an affirmative action programme to narrow the wealth gap with the minority Chinese who comprise 25 percent of the population

In the past two months, as a Chinese pressure group has pushed for an end to the special rights, some Malaysian newspapers reported that Malays in Chinese-majority Singapore were marginalised.

The articles were based on a 1998 book The Singapore Dilemma -- the Political and Educational Marginality of the Malay Community, written by a Sydney-based Singaporean.

Syed Hamid said he had read the book and found it an honest analysis of Malays in certain fields in Singapore, the Straits Times reported Jan 27.

He also said Malay Singaporeans were afraid of voicing their plight, but people in other countries could see they were marginalised.

Complaints about Singapore in Malaysian newspapers have included claims that Malays were afraid to speak out for fear of being held under the Internal Security Act which allows detention without trial.

Chinese make up 77 percent of Singapore's population, compared to 14 percent Malays. Relations have been prickly since Singapore split from Malaysia in 1965 to become an independent state.

A driving reason behind the split were race riots between Chinese and Malays, which Singapore claimed were fueled by political leaders in Kuala Lumpur.