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On 3 June 1959, a large crowd gathered at padding.
They were happy that Singapore had full self-government.
PAP took over the ruling party. Soon they realized that
Singapore was to small a country to stand on its feet.
They began to find solution.
The obstacles
Unemployment
Unemployment was the biggest problem. To solve it,
Singapore had to start new industries.
| Education
During the Japanese occupation,
population increased rapidly. Thus there were
many that had reached the age to go to school.
The PAP had to build school fast enough to meet
the demand.
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Housing The
PAP government also had to think of ways to
provide everyone with houses. Public house must
be available for everyone.
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Proposing the
idea of a merger
The government felt that the best way to boost
Singapore’s trade was to merger with Malaya. Both
sides saw their own advantage of merging before agreeing
to it.
Trade: a reason for merger
Singapore used to depend on entrepot trade. However
Singapore could no longer depend on entrepot trade due to
its growing population.
| To solve the problem
of unemployment, it needs to have a big market to
sell its goods. Malaya had also imposed goods
duties on Singapore goods. Thus trade between
Singapore and Malaya was limited. |
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PAP hoped that with
a merger, a common market would set up. This
would ensure that there would be free trade and
duties free. With the increase in trade,
industries of Singapore would grow and the
unemployment problem would be solved. |
Freedom: another reason for merger
Another important for merger is to break away from
British rule. British had always think that Singapore was
too small to stand up as a country. Thus with the merger
with Malaya, British might change its mind.
Surprising communists in Singapore: yet
another reason
Tunku Abdul Rahman was also keen in merging as he had
realized that communists in Singapore were getting
stronger. He feared that one day the communists might
controlled Singapore and posed a danger to Malaya.
Communists would then be easily spread to Malaya. The
merger would bring the two countries to work on the
communists’ problems.
The formation
of Malaya.
How did it begin?
On 27 may 1961, Tunku Abdul Rahman made a speech at
Foreign Correspondents’ association of Southeast
Asia. He proposed the idea of merging with Singapore,
Sarah, Sarawak and Brunei.
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formation: On 16 September 1963,
Malaysia was formed but Brunei did not join the
federation.
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How was
the government of the merger like? Tunku
Abdul Rahman headed Malaysia and the central
government (in Kuala Lumpur). Alliance party
headed the government. Each state will also have
its own state government.
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How did the merger affect Singapore?
By merging with Malaysia, it was agreed that:
- Singapore would maintain its own government.
- Singapore could hold election to chose its own
state government.
- Singapore was independence of British.
- Singapore managed the education, finance and
labour in the country.
- Singapore would let the rest of matter to
Malaysia.
How were things
after the merger?
Things did not get as well as expected. Both sides did
not get along well in the beginning.
| Merger 1
The central government did not
want to set up common market, which was
Singapore’s reason of merging Malaysia. They
also didn’t promote new industries in
Singapore. Singapore realized that they did not
gain much from the merger.
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Merger 2 Singapore
did not agree to the solution given by the
central government to solve the state’s
problem. Thus PAP were unfriendly to Alliance
party.
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| Merger 3 The
state election in Singapore worsened the
situation. The alliance party wanted the Malays
to have more seats in the legislative assembly,
thus the supported the Singapore alliance party.
When the Singapore alliance party did not win any
seats, the alliance leaders were very angry.
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Merger 4 When
the PAP took part in the federal election, the
alliance party thought that Singapore wanted to
take over the prime Minster that was not true.
PAP was not very successful as it only won one
seats.
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| Merger 5 During
the election, the PAP said things, which anger
the alliance party. Things went worse when the
PAP refuses to give special rights to the Malays.
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Merger 6
The alliance spread rumours that
PAP was ill-treating the Malays. This led to
several riots.
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| Merger 7 On
21 July 1964, in a procession to celebrate
Prophet Mohammed’s birthday, the
disagreement between the Chinese and the Malays
led to riots. More violence broke out in
September. Many Malays and Chinese were killed.
Tension still existed though riots were
eventually put down.
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Merger 8 The
PAP was against the idea of giving special rights
to the Malays. They wanted a Malaya Malaysia.
This angers the alliance party. The relationship
between the two countries worsened.
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What happened
next?
Separation
Since things were worsening instead of improving,
Tunku Abdul Rahman was soon doubting about the merger. To
prevent more bloodshed and riot, he decided that
Singapore should leave Singapore. On 9 august 1965,
Singapore was separated from Malaysia.
What was Singapore’s reaction?
The Singapore leaders agreed the separation
reluctantly. Many people saw Lee Kuan Yew talked to the
foreign reporters on TV. When he talked about the
separation, tears rolled down from his eyes.
Singapore as an
independent country
Singapore left Malaysia and became independent on 9
august 1965. As an independent country, what is the
problem Singapore face?
| The
legislative assembly Yusof Ishak
was the first president. The legislative assembly
was renamed the parliament. The members were
known as the members of parliament (m.p) the
executive council was renamed the cabinet. The
prime Minster headed the cabinet.
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First President(Yusof Ishak)
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The people
As an independent country, people were known as
Singaporean. Singapore’s population is made up of
Chinese, Malays, Indians and Eurasians. They must
remember that they are no longer citizens of china,
India, Indonesia, Malaysia or Britain. Instead, they must
remember that they are Singaporean.
Rapid
international recognition
After Singapore gained independent, it gained
international rapid recognition. By mid September, it had
gained recognition from 41 nations that Singapore
independent.
- 21 September 1965: Singapore was admitted to the
united nation as the 17th member.
- Oct 1965: Singapore becomes the 22nd member of
the common wealth.
- 8 Aug 1967: Singapore joined Malaysia, Thailand,
Indonesia and Philippines to form ASEAN.
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