Singapore

THE REPUBLIC of Singapore is a technically modern, economically prosperous 646-square-kilometer citystate of 4.7 million people (2003). It is a tightly regulated society with limited political freedoms and strict social and cultural order offering an attractive alternative of “soft” or paternalistic authoritarianism to the Western liberal democratic model. In the 14th century, Chinese merchants described Singapore, known in [Page 863]those times under the name of Temasek, as a greenless island inhabited by pirates. According to a Malayan legend, a Sumatran prince met a lion on the island, and that good meeting inspired him to found the city of Singapore (The City of the Lion), which became a strategic trade state. The neighboring powers were competing for control over it when the Europeans joined the competition, beginning in the 15th century. The most successful were the British, who in 1921 constructed a great naval and air base in Singapore, and in 1924 incorporated Singapore into their empire. In the course of World War II, the Japanese invaded Singapore on February 8, 1941. The English made a courageous resistance; nevertheless, a week later, the fortress fell. It was almost destroyed during the years of the war.

Singapore is a strict, conservative city-state society that enjoys significant wealth.

Along with stressing the key significance of the Singapore battle, the conservative historian Paul Johnson explains the defeat of the English by the necessity of the Anglo-American alliance aiding Soviet Russia against Hitler. For Johnson, the capitulation of the Singapore garrison does not mean that Japanese turned out to be stronger than the English.

Britain surrendered in February 15, 1942 with 91,000 men. When General Itagaki handed his sword to Admiral Mountbatten in 1945, he had 656,000 men in the Singapore command. “Elsewhere the British received the capitulation of more than a million,” asserts Johnson in Modern Times: A History of the World from 1920s to the 1990s, forgetting to add that it happened after Japan had been defeated by America in the Pacific war theater.

From 1946 to 1948, mass strikes began in Singapore and a state of siege was declared. The guerrilla war under the communist leadership was waged for 12 years. Singapore became self-governing in 1959 and the People's Action Party (PAP) took power through parliamentary elections. The stable government was led from 1959 to 1990 by Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. Industrialists attracted ever more investments, changing the visage of the city-state, which has become a not less prosperous Asian country than Japan.

Singapore received independence on August 9, 1965. The corporatized structure of a one-party system, absorbing talented youth into political management, coupled with a consumerist, apathetic citizenry has made competitive politics irrelevant.

Successful industrialization was accompanied by the Employment Act and the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act, created to promote industrial peace and discipline among the workforce. Engaging business in policymaking was a distinctive feature of the Singaporean regime. But it aggressively tackled bureaucratic corruption before undertaking an economic dash as a way to establish the credibility of authorities in the eyes of citizens.

After the shock of two oil crises in the 1970s, the government started a program of economic restructuring. This was achieved by modifying education policies, expanding technology and computer education, offering financial incentives to industrial enterprises, and launching a productivity campaign. Public housing was given top priority. Singapore runs a modern, effective health system, the heart of which is the government control of inputs and outputs and strict rationing of health services according to wealth.

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