I'm not suggesting the NEI could have been saved, I think its loss wasa foregone conclusion. Percival's initial failures in northern Malaya made attempts to delay the inevitable harder and harder. The entire pre war mindset of the British in Malaya was at fault, really. The RN abandoned the Naval based pretty much right away, which was the entire point of Singapore. Holding at that point was only to tie up japanese forces, but that was botched badly on every level.
That said, had some of the resources thrown at Malaya been redirected, it might well have helped hold a little longer south and thrown some of the japanese timetables out of whack. The brits continued to send POWs to Malaya when they knew it was hopeless---I say POWs because that's all they were, future POWs, they had no time to be turned into useful formations.
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