Singapore Introduction

Singapore is an island-state in Southeast Asia. Founded as a British trading colony in 1819, since independence it has become one of the world's most prosperous countries, sporting the world's busiest port. Combining the skyscrapers and subways of a modern, affluent city with a medley of Chinese, Indian and Malay influences and a lush tropical climate, with tasty food, good shopping and a surprisingly happening nightlife scene, the country makes a great stopover or springboard into the region.

Singapore Weather

Pakistan PoliticsPositioned just north of the Equator, Singapore's location and maritime exposure produces a climate characterized by uniform temperatures, high humidity and numerous sunshiny days. The Monsoon (rainy) seasons are (April - May) and (December - March). Windy conditions prevail, January through February. Its average daily maximum temperature is just over 88° F, with a relative humidity near 75%.

Singapore Attractions

Singapore city

Singapore History

The name Singapore is derived from the Malay words singa (lion) and pura (city), which were themselves derived from the Sanskrit words ???? siMha and ??? pura.[1] Hence, Singapore is also known as the Lion City. The naming is attributed to a minor prince named Sang Nila Utama, who according to lore, saw a lion as the first living creature on the island and decided to name it Singapura as a result.[2]

The first records of Singapore's existence are in Chinese texts from the 3rd century CE. The island was an outpost of the Sumatran Srivijaya empire and originally bore the Javanese name Temasek. Temasek rose to become a significant trading city, but subsequently declined. There are few remnants of old Temasek in Singapore other than archaeological evidence. Between the 16th and early 19th centuries, Singapore was a part of the Sultanate of Johore. During the Malay-Portugal wars in 1617, Singapore was set ablaze by Portuguese troops.

In 1819, Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, an official with the British East India Company, signed a treaty with the Sultan of Johore. He also established Singapore as a trading post and settlement, which saw instant growth and immigration from various ethnic groups. Singapore was later made a crown colony by Britain in 1867. After a series of territorial expansions, the British Empire soon raised Singapore's status to that of an entrepot town, due to its strategic location along the busy shipping routes connecting Europe to China.[3]

During World War II, the Imperial Japanese Army invaded Malaya and the surrounding region in the Battle of Malaya, which culminated in the Battle of Singapore. The British were unprepared and swiftly defeated, despite having more troops. They surrendered to the Japanese on 15 February 1942. The Japanese renamed Singapore as Syonan-to, which is Japanese for "Light of the South", and occupied it until the British arrived to repossess the island a month after the Japanese surrender to the United States in September 1945.[4]

Singapore became a self-governing state in 1959 with Yusof bin Ishak as its first head of state and Lee Kuan Yew from the People's Action Party (PAP) as its first Prime Minister, after the 1959 elections. The Merger Referendum passed in 1962 and led to Singapore joining the Federation of Malaysia along with Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak as a state with autonomous powers in September 1963. Singapore was expelled from the federation on 7 August 1965 after heated ideological conflict developed between the state government formed by PAP and the Federal government in Kuala Lumpur. It gained official sovereignty two days later on 9 August 1965, which later became Singapore's National Day. Malaysia was the first country to recognise it as an independent nation,.[5] Singapore's National Days are celebrated with annual parades and other festivities.

The fledgling nation had to struggle for self-sufficiency, and faced problems including mass unemployment, housing shortages and lack of land and natural resources such as petroleum. During Lee Kuan Yew's term as prime minister from 1959 to 1990, his administration curbed unemployment, raised the standard of living and implemented a large-scale public housing programme, developed Singapore's economic infrastructure, eliminated the threat of racial tension and created an independent national defence. This elevated Singapore into a developing nation and subsequently to developed status.

On 26 November 1990, Goh Chok Tong became Prime Minister. During his tenure, the country tackled the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the SARS outbreak in 2003, and terrorist threats posed by the Jemaah Islamiah (JI). Lee Hsien Loong, the eldest son of Lee Kuan Yew, became the third prime minister on 12 August 2004, after securing the confidence of a majority of Parliament, which is still dominated by the PAP.[6

Singapore Politics

Singapore is a republic with a Westminster system of a unicameral parliamentary government, with the bulk of the executive powers resting in the hands of a cabinet of ministers led by a prime minister. The office of the President was, historically, a ceremonial one as head of state, but the Constitution was amended in 1991 to create the position of a popularly elected President and also to grant the President veto powers in a few key decisions such as the use of the national reserves and the appointment of key judiciary positions.[7] The legislative branch of government is the Parliament.

The politics of Singapore has been dominated by the People's Action Party (PAP) since the country's independence in 1965.[8] Critics have called Singapore a de facto one-party state and have accused the PAP of taking harsh actions against opposition parties to impede their success, including censorship, gerrymandering and the filing of civil suits against the opposition for libel or slander. Critics claim that Singaporean courts have favoured the government and the PAP in these lawsuits, although there have been a few cases in which the opposition won. They consider the form of government in Singapore to be closer to authoritarianism rather than to true democracy, and could be considered an illiberal democracy or procedural democracy. Reporters Without Borders ranked Singapore 140th out of 167 countries in its 2005 Worldwide Press Freedom Index.[9]

Despite these political issues, Singapore has what its government considers to be a highly successful and transparent market economy. The PAP's policies contain some aspects of socialism, including a large-scale public housing programme through the Housing and Development Board (HDB), a rigorous compulsory public education system, and the dominance of government-controlled companies in the local economy. Although dominant in its activities, the government has a clean, corruption-free image. Singapore has consistently been rated as the least-corrupt country in Asia and amongst the top ten cleanest in the world by Transparency International.[10]

Although Singapore's laws are inherited from British and British Indian laws, including many elements of English common law, the PAP has also consistently rejected democratic values, which it typifies as Western citing that there should not be a "one-size-fits-all" solution to a democracy. Laws restricting the freedom of speech are justified by claims that they are intended to prohibit speech that may breed ill will or cause religious disharmony within Singapore's multiracial society. For example, in September 2005, three bloggers were convicted with sedition for posting racist remarks targeting minorities.[11] Some offences can lead to heavy fines or caning and there are laws to provide for capital punishment for first-degree murder and drug trafficking. Amnesty International has criticised Singapore for having "possibly the highest execution rate in the world" per capita.[12] The Singapore Government responded by reasserting capital punishment as a sovereign right for the most serious crimes.[13] Most recently, the PAP has relaxed some of its socially conservative policies and encouraged entrepreneurship.