Singapore
History
The earliest known settlement on Singapore was in the second century AD. It was an outpost of the Sumatran Srivijaya empire, named Temasek (‘sea town’). Between the 16th and early 19th centuries, it was part of the Sultanate of Johor. In 1613, Portuguese raiders burnt down the settlement and the island sank into obscurity for the next two centuries.[12]
In 1819, Thomas Stamford Raffles arrived and signed a treaty with Sultan Hussein Shah on behalf of the British East India Company to develop the southern part of Singapore as a British trading post. In 1824 the entire island became a British possession under a further treaty whereby the sultan and the Temenggong transferred it to the British East India Company. In 1826 it became part of the Straits Settlements, a British colony. Before Raffles arrived, there were around 1,000 people living in Singapore, mostly Malays and a few dozen Chinese.[13] By 1869, due to migration from Malaya and other parts of Asia, 100,000 people lived on the island.[14]
During World War II the Imperial Japanese Army invaded Malaya culminating in the Battle of Singapore. The British were defeated, and surrendered on 15Â February 1942. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill called this “the worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history”.[15] The Japanese occupied Singapore until the British repossessed it in September 1945 after the Japanese surrender.[16]
Singapore’s first general election in 1955 was won by the pro-independence David Marshall, leader of the Labour Front. Demanding complete self-rule he led a delegation to London but was turned down by the British. He resigned when he returned and was replaced by Lim Yew Hock, whose policies convinced Britain to grant Singapore full internal self-government for all matters except defence and foreign affairs.[17]
In elections in May 1959 the People’s Action Party won a landslide victory. Singapore had become an internally self-governing state within the Commonwealth, with Lee Kuan Yew as the first Prime Minister.[18] Governor Sir William Allmond Codrington Goode served as the first Yang di-Pertuan Negara, and was succeeded by Yusof bin Ishak who in 1965 became the first President of Singapore.[19]
Singapore declared independence from Britain on 31Â August 1963 before joining the new Federation of Malaysia in September along with Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak as the result of the 1962 Merger Referendum. Tunku Abdul Rahman separated Singapore from the Federation two years later after heated ideological conflict between the ruling parties of Malaya and Singapore.[3]
Singapore gained sovereignty as the Republic of Singapore (remaining within the Commonwealth) on 9Â August 1965[3] with Yusof bin Ishak as president and Lee Kuan Yew as prime minister. In 1967 it helped found the Association of Southeast Asian Nations [20] and in 1970 it joined the Non-aligned movement. In 1990 Goh Chok Tong succeeded Lee as prime minister. During his tenure the country faced the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, the 2003 SARS outbreak and terrorist threats posed by Jemaah Islamiyah. In 2004, Lee Hsien Loong, the eldest son of Lee Kuan Yew, became the country’s third prime minister.[21]
Geography
Singapore consists of 63 islands, including the main island, widely known as Singapore Island but also as Pulau Ujong.[35] There are two man-made connections to Johor, Malaysia: the Johor–Singapore Causeway in the north, and the Tuas Second Link in the west. Jurong Island, Pulau Tekong, Pulau Ubin and Sentosa are the largest of Singapore’s smaller islands. The highest natural point is Bukit Timah Hill at 166 m (545 ft).[36]
There are ongoing land reclamation projects, which have increased Singapore’s land area from 581.5 km2 (224.5 sq mi) in the 1960s to 704 km2 (272 sq mi) today; it may grow by another 100 km2 (40 sq mi) by 2030.[37] Some projects involve merging smaller islands through land reclamation to form larger, more functional islands, as with Jurong Island.[38] About 23% of Singapore’s land area consists of forest and nature reserves.[39] Urbanisation has eliminated most primary rainforest, with Bukit Timah Nature Reserve the only significant remaining forest.[38]
Singapore has a tropical rainforest climate with no distinctive seasons, uniform temperature and pressure, high humidity, and abundant rainfall. Temperatures usually range from 23 to 32 °C (73 to 90 °F). Relative humidity averages around 79% in the morning and 73% in the afternoon.[40] April and May are the hottest months, with the wetter monsoon season from November to January.[41] From July to October, there is often haze caused by bush fires in neighbouring Indonesia.[42] Although Singapore does not observe daylight saving time, it follows time zone GMT+8, one hour ahead of its geographical location.[43]
Economy
Singapore has a highly developed market-based economy, based historically on extended entrepôt trade. Along with Hong Kong, South Korea and Republic of China (Taiwan), Singapore is one of the Four Asian Tigers. The economy depends heavily on exports and refining imported goods, especially in manufacturing,[47] which constituted 27.2% of Singapore’s GDP in 2010[6] and includes significant electronics, petroleum refining, chemicals, mechanical engineering and biomedical sciences sectors. In 2006 Singapore produced about 10% of the world’s foundry wafer output.
Singapore is a world leader in several economic areas, it is the world’s fourth leading financial centre,[49] the world’s second biggest casino gambling market,[50] the world’s top three oil refining centre, the world’s largest oil rig producing nation and a major ship repairing nation.[51][52][53] The port is one of the five busiest ports in the world.[50] The country is home to more US dollar millionaire households per capita than any other country.[50] The World Bank also praises Singapore as the easiest place in the world to do business [50] and ranks Singapore as the world’s top logistics hub.[54] Lastly, the country is also the world’s fourth largest foreign-exchange trading centre after London, New York and Tokyo.
Before independence in 1965, Singapore had a GDP per capita of $511, then the third highest in East Asia.[56] After independence, foreign direct investment and a state-led drive for industrialisation based on plans by Goh Keng Swee and Albert Winsemius created a modern economy.[57] As a result of global recession and a slump in the technology sector, the country’s GDP contracted by 2.2% in 2001. The Economic Review Committee was set up in December 2001 and recommended several policy changes to revitalise the economy. Singapore has since recovered, largely due to improvements in the world economy; the economy grew by 8.3% in 2004, 6.4% in 2005,[58] and 7.9% in 2006.[59] After a contraction of −0.8% in 2009, the economy recovered in 2010 with a GDP growth of 14.5%.
June 08 2011 03:32 am | Asia