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This article recounts the events that led to the independence of Singapore in 1965 from the time of the Japanese Occupation in World War II.
By 1942, British Singapore's strategic location - at the tip of the Malayan Peninsula and central to major shipping routes in the East - was fully realized. It was an important trade and financial center, fueled by the boom in the rubber, tin and oil industries in the surrounding Malaya, Indonesia and Borneo. Singapore also served as a strategic military outpost for the British, housing a naval base to accommodate a British fleet should the need arise to enforce naval superiority in the region.
The base was never fully utilized. British forces were too committed in Europe to fend off the Japanese. Instead of a naval conflict, the Japanese chose to invade Singapore through British Malaya in December 1941. The British were not prepared for a well-trained Japanese fighting force and the impregnable "Fortress Singapore" was overrun in February 15, 1942. The conquest of Malaya and Singapore took slightly more than two months.
The Japanese renamed Singapore 'Syonan-to", or "Light of the South" and remained its rulers for the next three and a half years, bringing with the new rule economic hardship. Inflation drove the price of a single egg from 3 cents in December 1941 to $35 in August 1945. The decline of naval superiority also denied the Japanese the full use of Singapore as a strategic trading base.
During the period of Japanese Occupation, the majority Chinese were the most cruelly treated - a product of existing enmity between the two races. Scores of Chinese were beaten and executed for alleged crimes such as not bowing to Japanese soldiers. Not surprisingly, the Malayan resistance was spearheaded by the predominantly Chinese Malayan Communist Party (MCP). In contrast, the Malays and Indians were less harassed and were given false promises of self-rule to quieten them.
The Japanese Occupation set the stage to the eventual decline of British colonial rule in Malaya and Singapore. The Occupation destroyed the perception of British's invincibility. Because it was the Malayans - Malays, Chinese and Indians - who fought for their country, the voice of the people began to talk about a Malayan people.
In Singapore, where the population was not predominantly Malay but Chinese, the talk was of a Singaporean people. A division began as native Malays started to realize that the immigrants, especially the Chinese were beginning to assert a racial identity, an identity that constituted as much as half the population in Malaya and 70% in Singapore. After the war, the Malays found themselves the largest minority in Malaya.
Prior to the war, the immigrant races were unable to take part in local government. There was a "Malay-only" policy for government posts that was ensured by the rule of the sultans, or Malay royalty.
Realizing that British control over the colonies Malaya and Singapore were coming to an end, the British began to set an infrastructure for a working government that would be beneficial to both the Malayan people and the British's commercial interests.
The first government structure plan was the introduction of the Malayan Union. In this government, The states and colonies in Malaya were to be consolidated as one state and ruled by a governor from Kuala Lumpur. Legislative and executive councils would make the laws on a national level. The sultans would only have power over the spheres of religion and Malay custom. Citizenship and government posts would be opened to immigrant races meeting certain criteria (as oppose to never before). Singapore, because of its large Chinese majority and hence a threat, would be treated as a separate colony.
Unlike Malaya, where the Malayan Union has been in the works for a few years, the British had drawn up no such plans for Singapore. With the British's return in 1945, priority was given in restoring Singapore to pre-war operations, which meant public utilities, trade and economy. The island became a headquarters for British presence under Lord Louis Mountbatten.
The damage left behind by the war was still extensive and hardship abounded. There was still an acute food and labor shortage from a region still reeling from war. The Malayan Communist Party (MCP) organized strikes in a bid to gain political control. The strikes eventually lost support when workers realized they were not getting any strike pay, and that the strikes were politically motivated. In 1948 the MCP broke away from open politics and began the Emergency, a 12-year guerilla war in Malaya for "national liberation".
At the same time, Singapore's new legislative council was formed, introducing advances in social reforms. Further elections in 1951 opened up more seats to the legislative council. In 1953 Sir George Rendel was appointed to head the review the constitution of Singapore. The British accepted the Rendel recommendations of a new constitution that provided for a legislative assembly and announced its implementation in the 1955 elections. In 1954, Singapore saw the formation of new political parties: The Singapore Labor Party under the leadership of Jewish lawyer David Marshall, and the People's Action Party (PAP), in which Lee Kuan Yew was the secretary-general.
The 1955 elections saw spirited political contests. The Labor Front won 10 seats, the PAP three seats, Progressives four seats and the Democratic Party two seats. David Marshall suddenly found himself in power as Chief Minister. However, he was new to the game of politics. In 1956, unable to keep to the pledge of self-rule for Singapore, Marshall stepped down and was succeeded by Lim Yew Hock, the deputy Chief Minister.
In the meantime, the PAP continued to court the Chinese community, denouncing in their rallies the Labor Front and the British government for their ineffectiveness.
The PAP itself was divided in its radical communist and anticommunist factions. In 1957, the radical faction took control of the PAP's central committee that saw the resignation of Lee Kuan Yew and his associates. However, under the internal security law, 5 members of the new committee were arrested as communists, and Lee quickly regained control of the PAP.
The stakes raised when in the same year, the British government decided that Singapore should have full self-rule. Lee and the PAP continued to court the Chinese community - successfully - to win 43 of the 51 contested seats in the 1959 elections to form the government. On December 3 1959, parliament elected Singapore's first Yang di-Pertuan Negara (Head of State), Mr. Yusof bin Ishak.
Meanwhile, Malaya had received independence from the British in 1957 and Tunku Abdul Rahman was sworn in as the first prime minister. In 1961, Tunku Andul Rahman proposed a partnership between Malaya, Singapore and Borneo to form Malaysia. This partnership was widely supported by Lee and the PAP. In 1963, the Federation of Malaysia was formed. The PAP held snap elections during the same year and again won the majority seats in the legislative assembly.
Within the new federation, Singapore would be independent, with control of foreign affairs, internal security and defense handed over to the central government. Singapore retained control over its own finance, labor and education.
The PAP then began inching its way into the politics in the Malaysian peninsula - or at least tried to. However, the PAP was kept out of Malaysian politics because of their perceived threat of the Singapore Chinese to the Malays. A political dissonance ensued when the PAP contested major Chinese constituents during the 1964 elections when the rest of the Malaysian political arena understood that the PAP was not to take part in politics.
The PAP was crushed in the 1964 elections, having won only one of the nine contested seats. In response, Lee formed an opposition coalition called the Malaysian Solidarity Convention (MSC) with the PAP, with opposition parties from the states of Sarawak, Perak and Penang. Their slogan was "Malaysian Malaysia", and heightened racial tensions as their leaders were all non-Malay. The advent of a strong non-Malay opposition made many leaders see Lee and the PAP - and the call for equal rights for all races - as a threat to national security.
The dissonance caused by Lee and the PAP gave cause for Malaysia to eject Singapore from the Federation. In August 9, 1965, Singapore became a fully independent and sovereign nation. She was immediately recognized by Britain, Australia, and the United States and was admitted into the United Nations in September 21 the same year.
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