Decolonisation of Singapore

Singapore was also a gateway to other countries in South-East Asia such as New Guinea, Indonesia, Dutch-East Indies (Indonesia) and Philippines as seen in Figure 1. After this, it was the first time in Australia’s history is was the first time they were under threat from any country “Yellow

Singapore is located at the centre of a crucial sea route in the far east. The sea route is controlled by the Japanese and attempting to prevent from the British claiming the control of the route.

While the initial sparks of Singaporean nationalism may have stemmed from being under the British colonial rule or arose due to the brutality that the people were put through during the Japanese Occupation between 1942 to 1945, it is difficult to ascertain exactly when the start of Singapore’s nation building efforts began. Characterized by the process where a large body of people associated with a territory commits to its own government, I would define the start of Singapore’s nation building process from the time its people started to strive for their independence. In this essay, I would argue about how the Japanese Occupation was indeed, a significant turning point that led to cultivation of Singapore as a nation.

(Mcarthur, 2011) The Fall Of Singapore

According to Robert B. Reich, a professor at The University of California at Berkeley, there are “two faces of Nationalism, when addressed by politics. One being the negative side with those who turn away from global responsibilities, and the other being the positive side, with those that tend to domestic ones, that are more willing to contribute to the world's well being.” (Reich). Reich, along with Stephen Sherlock, a member of The Parliament of Australia explains that history shows how “Positive Nationalism”, similar to the idea of Globalization explains how the negative nationalism develops conflicts worldwide. For instance, the Chinese and Indonesian currency crisis in 1997 rose from “The Chinese confidence in the collapse of the Indonesian economy allowed the free movement of foreign finance capital.” (Sherlock) This being said the feeling of “power” only caused more conflicts and destroyed Indonesia’s government and economy. Ruining their foreign connection, Indonesia's “lack of an effective government policy response” (Reich) puts a target on their back as China overrules them.

One thing that the world does not always acknowledge, is that many countries have actually been demanding for independence ever since the 1800’s. The partition that created Pakistan was a long and tedious process before it got approved. Before World War II, Great Britain had full control over the country of India and its resources, even though the people were demanding for self-rule for several years. At the time, India consisted of both Muslim and Hindu cultures, and the tensions between the two

Secession occurs due minorities wanting independence or sovereignty for political-cultural identity reasons. Self-determination, which is the idea that a people that possess some sort of unanimous identity have the right to pursue their own political interests and form their own state, is most commonly considered the primary justification for secession (Clark 739). However, there is an ongoing debate as to when a people can put this notion of self-determination into practice. The ‘extent’ of self-determination that a people has is one of the major factors that determines whether or not a secession can be successful. However, there are many other contributing determinants of success. In particular, this paper will demonstrate that state systems and their power structures are an equally important aspect of secession that can ultimately impact and alter its outcome and success. It will contend that secessionist movements are more likely to achieve a favourable outcome or be considered successful if the parent state is governed as a federation rather than a unitary state.

Singapore and Malaysia were both similarly colonized by the British. However, their development after independence differed in many ways. In this paper, I will examine, with help from resources provided in the course and minimal research, how their colonial experiences affected their political and social development after independence. After which, investigating the depth of influence their colonizers had, and why, differing racial ideologies had the greatest impact on their development.

a progress which man himself can induce or control.’ The firm control that the pre-WWII

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy asserts that the term ‘Nationalism’ can be used to describe two singularities. The first denotes the actions that people of a nation take to achieve/sustain autonomy or sovereignty over their state. The second refers to the attitudes that people of a nation have in relation to their national identity (Miscevic, 2001). Looking in particular at nationalism as the latter, which places emphasis on the notion of national identify

My research will be based on Political, Economic, and Social Organization of Singapore—an industrialist city-state.  Even though Singapore 's history dates from the 11th century, the island was little known to the West until the 19th century. Singapore is one of the World 's largest ports, because the city of Singapore has become a major port, with trade exceeding that of Malaya 's, Malacca and Penang combined. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 and the advent of steamships launched an era of prosperity for Singapore as transit trade expanded throughout Southeast Asia (Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, 2010). Singapore is a very

Second, nationalism is defined as active conscious decisions made by members of a “nation” when aiming to maintain their national sovereignty and independence. The key focus in this definition is sovereignty, and its prerequisites (needing absolute control over internal and external decisions, otherwise known as full statehood or quasi-statehood) is sufficient. Hence, geographic dominance over a nation’s territorial parameters has been seen as a necessary feature to achieving “full statehood”, which inevitably results in nationalistic prerequisites being fulfilled for sovereignty & nationalism. This is contrasted with the first definition of nationalism, based on the notion of culture and values versus geography. History has itself shown many examples of socially cohesive nations as well as socially conflicting nations. This leads to the formation of the debate as to whether nationalism is a source of social cohesion or of

However, the development of Singapore’s society cannot be predicated on pure economics alone. Even though globalization has enabled Singapore to fare well in economic development, however, termed the perils of success, globalization has brought about undesirable

The Republic of Singapore celebrated its 42 years of independence in year 2007. Situated at the southern tip of Malaysia, Singapore currently holds a population of 4.68 million as of June 2007. At 704.0km2, it is ranked 4th in the world for its population density. During the past four decades, the economy as measured by real Gross Domestic Product (GDP), multiplied by over 20 times (Ghesquiere, 2007, p.11). As a small and extremely open economy, Singapore long term survival is very much dependent on the ability to maintain its viable position and remain afloat in the sea of global competition (Mun Heng et al, 1998, p.14).

How might the Singapore society differ were it not for these technologies – would the society be more or less heavily regulated? Lee recommends analysing politics and society by addressing how power struggles and relations were played out in the pre-Internet era, namely the maintenance of political control via public support (2005: 74). Foucault defines ‘governmentality’ as the point of contact where the technologies of power interact with the governed. This spurs Lee to postulate that, in order to retain power in the Internet era, 'governments need to be actively involved in shaping the design as well as the societal, cultural and regulatory environment in which the Internet and other new media technologies operate' (2005: 75).