Singapore: The Jewel of Southeast Asia

By: Rivkah Muendelein

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Singapore was first written about in the fourteenth century by a Chinese scribe on a merchant ship and described as a hub for pirate ships that was lawless and forgotten about. A couple of centuries later the Dutch destroyed it as all the ports in the Malacca Strait were controlled by them, and they didn't want the competition. In 1819, General Raffles bought Singapore for the British East India Company, and its modern history began. British Malaya existed for nearly 150 years before the Japanese annexed the territory in 1942 and killed millions in their reign of terror in East Asia and Southeast Asia. Following the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Emperor Hirohito formally surrendered to the Allied Forces on the USS Missouri on September 2, 1945, after 90 million citizens and soldiers of Allied countries had met their deaths, 58% of which were everyday children, women, and men. In 1959, Singapore held its first democratic elections as an independent state and was kicked out of a union with Malaysia by Prime Minister Rahman as a result of ethnocentrism. Prime Minister Yew and the People's Action Party of Singapore were authoritarian, visionaries, and capitalists, and against all odds, they brought a country with no natural resources to be the most modern country in Southeast Asia and the fourth wealthiest country in the world by the 1990s. They took an ethnically, linguistically, and religiously divided nation, and they made it a gorgeous cherry blossom surrounded by weeds and shrubs. This has continued through the twenty-first century, and people who benefit from free trade worldwide should care as 30% of all goods traded globally pass through the Malacca Strait today, and the Port of Singapore is the busiest transshipment hub in the world. Singaporean citizens have four national languages, one of the highest standards of living, some of the best healthcare and education, and one of the most multiethnic, multicultural, and multireligious countries in the world, and they enjoy a nation with low crime rates, high fertility rates, great life expectancy, and one that boasts the most well-trained and well-equipped militaries in the world. Despite this, travelers will say that it is one of the least fun nations to visit in Asia, which is true. Like ancient Chinese music missing the notes "fa" and "ti", Singapore is lacking many of the pleasantries in nations that make their money from tourism, but the reality is that this makes up a minute portion of its GDP. Regardless of this fact, Yew and PAP had no other choice but to use extreme measures to create a bustling, successful, and extremely wealthy society that they did that is based on education, industry, free trade, and the rule of law. Today, it's undeniable that Singapore is the jewel of Southeast Asia, and the success of former Prime Minister Yew and the PAP will continue to be modeled by nations throughout the world for decades to come!