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Was Singapore's Decolonization Process Different from Its Neighbours in Southeast Asia? Explain Your Answer.

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According to Duara, "From a historian's perspective, decolonization was one of the most important developments of the twentieth century because it turned the world into the stage of history. " Therefore, it is of no surprise that much historical research has been devoted to this phenomenon; and the various nuances among the decolonization processes undergone by the various Southeast Asian countries have been of interest. For the purpose of this essay, I shall define ‘decolonization' as "the process whereby colonial powers transferred institutional and legal control over their territories and dependencies to indigenously based, formally sovereign, nation-states ". Singapore's ‘neighbours' in Southeast Asia are namely: Laos, Vietnam, …show more content…

This is somewhat akin to most of its neighbours' processes, albeit subjected to several nuances. Secondly, the controversial debate of whether Lee Kuan Yew entered heated debates with Tunku Abdul Rahman, therefore engineering the whole separation from Malaysia has also raised the question of whether Lee did seek to have the independence of Singapore as an individual nation-state. The second salient point of dissimilarity when comparing Singapore's decolonization process with that of her neighbours is the matter of whether a mass-based indigenous nationalist movement had emerged on the Singapore political landscape before WWII; and even if it did after the war, Albert Lau argues that "commentators are still not agreed about its efficacy in ending British rule in Singapore ". The lack of this movement can be gleaned from the stances the various spectrums of Singaporean society took: the Indian community remained "politically quiescent" throughout most of the interwar years, and few issues actually roused the Indians from their "traditional docility" ; the political awakening among the dominant Chinese and minority Malay, and Indian communities by

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