Singapore, whose Malay minority sometimes complains of racial discrimination, has built a Malay heritage centre on the land, irking a group of 96 Malays who claim descent from Sultan Hussain Mahomed Shah, an early 19th century ruler of the island.

"They never answer our letters," said Tengku Othman Tengku A. Aziz, a sixth-generation descendant of Sultan Hussain, adding that the Singapore government had turned the sultan's old palace into a heritage centre without compensating his descendants.

"They just take our land without permission and open their centre," he said in the Malaysian capital.

Singapore officials were not immediately available for comment.

The centre, situated on 56-acre plot in central Singapore, houses a typical "kampong" or village house of the 1960s and is a repository of items of Malay literature, film and art such as the works of Zubir Said, composer of Singapore's national anthem.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is due to open the centre on June 4. Singapore's population is more than three-quarters ethnic Chinese, with ethnic Malays accounting for 14 percent, and ethnic Indians for another 8 percent.

Repeated attempts to negotiate with the government have hit a wall of silence, said Tengku Othman, who runs a landscaping company in Petaling Jaya, a suburb of Kuala Lumpur.

"If Singapore plays a deaf ear, I may go to the International Court of Justice and claim the whole island of Singapore," Tengku Othman, a Malaysian citizen, told reporters on Friday.

Singapore was part of Malaysia before the two formally split in 1965. The island's business and government run with clockwork efficiency but some analysts say it has emphasised efficacy at the expense of its culture.

Authorities in Singapore worry that their citizens, among the most affluent in Southeast Asia, are losing touch with their cultural roots and historical links.

"It is not only unfair. They disregard the existence of the royal family. Even the British were not as harsh as them, the British they housed my family," said Tengku Othman, referring to the land British colonial officials allotted to his ancestor.

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