He said there would come a time when Malaysia might have to stop being accommodating towards Singapore unless there was a shift in its approach towards relations between the two countries.

Syed Hamid regretted that it had always been Malaysia which had to make the first overture to smoothen things whenever there was a hiccup in relations.

"We have always been very accommodating towards Singapore, so there is no call for the republic to take potshots at us.

"I realise there is a tendency lately that whenever Singapore is faced with a problem, Malaysia will be dragged in.

"The last time this happened was when it was facing a problem with Indonesia, and now, because of comments made in an academic book which questioned the achievements of Singaporean Malays,'' he said referring to the book Singapore Dilemma which was said to be the basis of Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong's statement comparing the achievements of Singaporean Malays with that of their Malaysian counterparts.

Speaking to reporters in his office, Syed Hamid said he did not understand what Singapore's intention was in doing so, when such an approach had proven unhealthy for relations between the two countries.

He said he had made it very clear to Singapore High Commissioner K. Kesavapany, whom he had summoned to his office on Friday, to state Malaysia's strong feelings towards Goh's statement.

He said although Kesavapany explained that Goh's statement was basically a comment on the book, Malaysia was of the opinion that dragging Malaysia into the republic's internal problems was uncalled for.

The book, he said, was an academic one, and comments on it should be confined to the context of Singaporean Malays and their achievements in comparison to other races, instead of comparing them to Malaysian Malays.

Goh's statement, published in the Singapore Straits Times on Jan 22, said that one out of four Singaporean Malay workers possessed upper secondary or higher qualifications last year, while the figure for Malaysian Malays was 14 percent in 1998. He also said that 23 percent of Singaporean Malay workers held administrative, managerial, professional, technical or related jobs last year while Malaysian Malays held 16 percent in 1998.

Syed Hamid said that Malaysia's approach had always been to view relations with Singapore in the long term and not on a situational basis and this was why the government took a very strong view over Goh's statement.