By Henry Srebrnik, [Saint John, N.B.] Telegraph-Journal
Singapore is not Hong Kong – and that’s a good thing. Nor is it any longer part of the Malaysian Federation – another great advantage.
Hong Kong’s bright future was hijacked by China after 1997, while Malaysia is riven with ethnic and religious conflicts between its Muslim Malay majority and its non-Muslim Chinese and Indian minorities, as well as indigenous people on Borneo.
Fortunately for Singapore, which had become part of the new federation in 1963, it was expelled by the rulings Malays two years later.
My late colleague Barry Bartmann was a great champion of the small states in the international system, and he always insisted that, no matter what, “sovereignty has its benefits.” No country has proved him more astute than the tiny republic of Singapore.
This island, at the tip of the Malay Peninsula, is a city-state of 5.63 people living on just 734.3 square kilometres. It has no natural resources other than the talent and ingenuity of its people, about three-quarters of them overseas Chinese.
They have parlayed those attributes into the development of an economy with a gross domestic product (GDP) per capita of US$78,115. (GDP is most often used by the government of a single country to measure its economic health.) By comparison, the Canadian and American figures are US$55,646 and US$75,269 respectively.
As someone has said, it’s a “first world” country in the “third world.” How did this happen? One man more than any other is associated with Singapore’s remarkable success: Lee Kuan Yew. In September, Singapore celebrated the centenary of his birth. How did he do it?
Singapore had been founded as a trading post by the British East India Company in 1819 and had grown as a port city under British rule. Conquered by the Japanese in February 1942, its largely Chinese population was treated harshly for the next three years.
Born in 1923, the young Lee’s experience of British failures destroyed his reverence for them. Still, he studied law in England after the war and, returning to Singapore in 1950, began to see a future in politics. It was clear that the days of British rule in Asia were coming to an end.
In 1954 Lee launched the People’s Action Party (PAP), committed to using “every constitutional means” to hasten the end of colonial rule. The party won an initial four seats in the colonial legislative assembly in 1955, and Lee called for the swift demise of British rule.
Malaya became independent in 1957 while Singapore attained self-government two years later. The PAP, campaigning on a pro-independence agenda and a detailed plan to solve bread-and-butter issues, won a landslide victory. Lee became its founding prime minister -- an office he would retain until 1990.
In August 1963, Lee declared de facto independence for the island state ahead of the official proclamation one month later of the new Federation of Malaysia, which comprised Malaya and Singapore, along with North Borneo (Sabah), Sarawak. But it was not to last.
Lee’s hopes of Singapore playing a role in the new Malaysian nation were dashed almost as soon as they had begun. No Singaporean minister was invited to join the right-wing Malaysian cabinet.
Tensions flared up over competing visions of what Malaysia represented. Was it to be a “Malay Malaysia,” where political power was jealously vested in a Malay-led and privileged central government; or a “Malaysian Malaysia,” where multiracial ideals were upheld.
The former view prevailed. In 1964, deadly Sino-Malay race riots broke out in Singapore. Lee blamed the riots on incitement by radical Malay activists hoping to undercut the appeal of the PAP’s agenda to young Malays within Singapore and Malaya.
Amid these political and ethnic tensions, in August 1965, at Malaysia's invitation, Singapore left the federation. The island became an independent republic, and the PAP has ruled it ever since.
Over the following decades, Lee built a strong government that was backed by a competent and virtually corruption-free civil service, while pro-business policies transformed the city-state into a leading financial, aviation and shipping hub. He created a vast system of public housing, where about 80 per cent of Singaporeans currently live.
The nation was promoted overseas as an efficient investment destination, offering favourable industrial infrastructure and generous tax breaks and subsidies, underpinned by the values of meritocracy, equality and the rule of law.
By the time Lee stepped aside as prime minister in 1990, Singapore’s GDP per capita had risen to around US$13,000, up from US$500 in 1965, surpassing South Korea, Israel and Portugal. Following the tenure of Goh Chok TongLee Hsien Loong, Lee’s son, has been prime minister since 2004.
Singapore maintains extensive military and economic ties with the United States alongside a close economic relationship with Beijing. Singapore and China this spring formally upgraded their relationship after a visit by Prime Minister Lee to China, bolstering a free-trade agreement, environmental collaboration and telecommunications exchanges.
Is Singapore a benevolent autocracy? Critics say it is becoming more like a plutocracy, in which well-paid yes men with the right connections to the Lee family rise up the ranks. The ideological hegemony necessary for continued PAP dominance of politics and governance in Singapore may be fraying.
Still, there isn’t much in the way of open dissent at the moment, and we can understand why.
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