This is my final day here in fascinating Singapore. The most popular nickname of the city, the Lion City, comes from an ancient Malay tale in which a prince sighted a lion on this island nation and named it Singapura which means “Lion City” in Malay. It’s worth writing a little about the geography and history of this place. I’m writing this in two parts because I want to remember some of the history of this place and writing about it helps me do that.
Singapore is officially the Republic of Singapore, an island city-state here in Southeast Asia at about 1°N of the Equator. Its history dates back at least 800 years during which time it was a maritime trading port and at times part of both Javanese and Siamese kingdoms. The modern era began with the arrival of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, a British colonial officer, in 1819. He recognized the strategic location of the island city and established it as a trading port for the British empire. Singapore lies at the tip of the Malay Peninsula with the Strait of Malacca to its west, the Singapore Strait to the south and the South China sea and the Strait of Johor to its east and north. (Just for some additional interesting information, while we all heard about piracy off the coast of Somalia for years, the Strait of Malacca west of here has been a favorite place for piracy. For that reason and to allow for shipping to traverse the area, regional navies regularly patrol the waters here.)
In 1824 the British signed a treaty with the Sultan who was the nominal ruler of Singapore leading to Singapore becoming part of the British Empire. At that time it had a population of only around 1000, mainly Malays. By 1860 the population had grown to 80,000, mostly Chinese who worked on plantations. Today it has a population of about 6 million, 75% ethnically Chinese, in an area of less than 285 sq. mi, making it one of the highest density populations in the world. During WWII the British suffered an ignominious defeat by the Japanese who occupied the city from February 1942 until September 1945. Singapore was supposed to be the “Gibraltar” of the east and was home to a huge British naval base. The British forces were unable to hold the island and suffered large casualties. Much of the city’s infrastructure was destroyed during the occupation and many civilians were killed including as many as 25,000 ethnic Chinese during one massacre.
Following WWII, Singapore went through a series of upheavals during which it became an independent British Crown Colony and then a part of the new Federation of Malaysia, which was meant to unite former British colonies in the region. The merger was unsuccessful because of disagreements on economic and political issues between the Singaporean government and the Malaysian central government. The result was that in 1965 Malaysia expelled Singapore from the federation and on August 9, 1965 it became the Republic of Singapore.
Singapore is governed under a unicameral parliamentary system with a President as the titular head and a Prime Minister who actually governs. While it is a multi-party democracy with free elections every four years, one party, the People’s Action Party (PAP), has been in control since the beginning of its self-governance. I had several interesting conversations with drivers, all of them ethnic Chinese but born here, who chauffeured me around during my stay. I remember years ago there was a case of an American teenager living here who was caught using spray paint to vandalize and was sentenced to caning. The case drew world-wide attention and the teen was ultimately administered four strokes with a cane. It was incorrectly widely published that his offense involved spitting out chewing gum. While that was untrue, it is true that in Singapore it is illegal to sell chewing gum in an effort to prevent vandals from damaging equipment on trains and other mechanical things in the city.
As a result of the strict enforcement of all laws, Singapore is a very clean city with absolutely no litter around and very little crime because punishment is swift and severe. People violating drug laws are sentenced to death. My drivers, all of them, were very supportive of the laws and enforcement. As they all told me, because of the culture here, Singapore has become a first world country with one of the highest GDPs in the world. It has low taxes and is one of the most pro-business in the world. The city has built extensive public housing projects which allow citizens to buy apartments at reasonable rates. During Covid shutdowns mortgage payments were put on hold to allow people to keep their homes during the economic slowdown. The city has now fully recovered.
One other thing I found interesting is that all young men at the age of 18 are required to spend two years in either the Singapore Armed Forces, the Singapore Police Force or Singapore Civil Defence Force. My three drivers, all of whom had served in one of those and all of whom had sons who had or were serving, were 100% in favor of that law. As all of them told me, it gave young men an opportunity to mature, learn responsibility and discipline, and become more successful in their later lives. I don’t know how that would go over in the US (not well I imagine), but I can remember many conversations Al and I had with friends during which we expressed the same thinking.
So now hopefully I have written enough to remember some facts about Singapore that I don’t want to forget, and if you’re reading this, I haven’t bored you to tears. Next entry I’ll write about what I saw here these past few days
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