Interpretation of Political Cartoon Essay

We feel that the cartoonist intended to convey that Malaya is going to take all the revenue of every state involved in the merger in order to contribute to Malaya’s prosperity. To justify our opinions above, we refer to the following points. The man in the vehicle is Tunku Abdul Rahman as he is wearing a religious hat and he is also the person driving the vehicle which made him seemed very mighty and powerful. The man rolling the wheel is Mr Lee Kuan Yew as he is the person who was strongly for the common market, precisely the words on the wheel that he was rolling. The truck that Tunku Rahman was driving was empty and was moving towards Singapore. As such, we felt that Tunku Rahman was going to take the money from Singapore in order to greater benefit Malaya. Mr Lee Kuan Yew is also put in a bad light as it seems like Mr Lee Kuan Yew is working for the Tunku. We then further deduce that the cartoonist is pro-Malaya from the additional inference that since the original title is in Malay, the cartoonist should be Malay as well. Singapore is placed at the edge of the entire picture and our country is also depicted as small and undeveloped. Malaya on the other hand, is big and has many factories that are emitting smoke which can suggest that their factories are in operation. As established above, Mr Lee Kuan Yew is the man who is rolling the wheel with the words ‘common market’ written on them. We think that this means that his main/ most explicit purpose of merger is for a common market to be set up. (With further analyzation, this can be a form of saying that Singapore is selfish as Singapore would benefit more than the other states. He also seems to be kneeling on the ground which could suggest that he is desperate for a common market. On the other wheel of the vehicle, there are the words ‘rural development’ written on them. We feel that this means that the Tunku is pushing forward the idea of developing the rural areas. (With analysation, this can also be hinting that Malaya is very gracious who is thinking about developing the other not as advanced states unlike Singapore who only thinks about her own benefits. ) We believe that these respectively are the high hopes of each country.