Yeah in general Singaporean are smarter than Malaysian in terms of academic performance. Yes although majority of the Malaysia population do know how to speak Malay while not all Singaporeans can do so. However, if we were to compare our English and Chinese proficiency with Malaysian, we are ranked in a better standing. The Malay language is essential to Malaysian as the Malays are the majority in Malaysia. Moreover, Malaysia claims itselves as a Malay nation.
As a Chinese, I find that our Chinese ability is stronger than Malaysians. Due to the over importance of the Malay language and neglecting of the Chinese language, the Malaysia's Chinese population does not seem to pronounce their Chinese sentences very well. They have an accent which may sound funny to others. I also noticed that they communicate more in Cantonese than Chinese. This is also a reason for the drop in their Chinese proficiency. But it helps them to stay in touch with their roots. They are very smart in terms of keeping their culture. In many sense, there are many good singers, actors and actress in Malaysia.
Also, the political system in Malaysia is not that stable as compared to Singapore. I'm sure all Singaporeans have studied about Singapore history during Sec 2. We know that UMNO the Malay party has been the head of Malaysia... I shall not elaborate even further. The Chinese does not seem to have been treated equally compared to other races. On the other hand, all talent regardless of their race is treated equally in Singapore. There are the IP programme, gifted-education, streaming and specialised schools such as the sports school, NAFA Arts academy, NUS high school of Maths and Science and the coming technological school proposed recently in parliament. You might agree that countries with a stable political status tend to generate better economic progress. And better economic progress meant higher affluences for their people. Rising affluences give rise to not only the problems of pollution but also the nurturing of talents as people generally are more willing to spend on education, tuitions, enrichment programmes, etc...
I do admit that we are "spoon-fed" by our government in a way. In school, teachers sometimes provide us with the so called "model answers" to prepare us for exams be it internal or at the national levels.
There is also a lack of "professionals" in Singapore. However, we are trying to make up the leakage by having those specialised schools.
Our education system can be inflexible in some areas sometimes. We focused too much in academic performances from primary to secondary or even pre-university level. One can only receive hands-on education in the polytechnics. Again, the Polys are not look upon as highly as the JCs or MIs. Therefore our education system sometimes produces those big-heads who claim themselves as "elites". The sprit of entrepreneurship is not highly promoted to our students. Therefore Singaporean may seem to have lacked in some talents or life skills due to these factors. Many Singaporean claim ourselves as Kia-Si and Kia-Su because we are afraid to take risks. For such, we are "not smart" in a way.
This is merely my two-cent thoughts. I'm sorry if I have unintentionally offended anybody.