Portal:Singapore References

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Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It is located about one degree of latitude (137 kilometres or 85 miles) north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bordering the Strait of Malacca to the west, the Singapore Strait to the south along with the Riau Islands in Indonesia, the South China Sea to the east, and the Straits of Johor along with the State of Johor in Malaysia to the north. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet; the combined area of these has increased by approximately 25% since the country's independence as a result of extensive land reclamation projects. It has the second highest population density of any country in the world, although there are numerous green and recreational spaces as a result of urban planning. With a multicultural population and in recognition of the cultural identities of the major ethnic groups within the nation, Singapore has four official languages: English, Malay, Mandarin, and Tamil. English is the lingua franca, with its exclusive use in numerous public services. Multi-racialism is enshrined in the constitution and continues to shape national policies in education, housing, and politics.

Singapore's history dates back at least eight hundred years, having been a maritime emporium known as Temasek and subsequently a major constituent part of several successive thalassocratic empires. Its contemporary era began in 1819, when Stamford Raffles established Singapore as an entrepôt trading post of the British Empire. In 1867, the colonies in Southeast Asia were reorganised, and Singapore came under the direct control of Britain as part of the Straits Settlements. During World War II, Singapore was occupied by Japan in 1942 and returned to British control as a separate Crown colony following Japan's surrender in 1945. Singapore gained self-governance in 1959 and, in 1963, became part of the new federation of Malaysia, alongside Malaya, North Borneo, and Sarawak. Ideological differences, most notably the perceived encroachment of the egalitarian " Malaysian Malaysia" political ideology led by Lee Kuan Yew into the other constituent entities of Malaysia—at the perceived expense of the bumiputera and the policies of Ketuanan Melayu—eventually led to Singapore's expulsion from the federation two years later; Singapore became an independent sovereign country in 1965.

After early years of turbulence and despite lacking natural resources and a hinterland, the nation rapidly developed to become one of the Four Asian Tigers. With its growth based on international trade and economic globalisation, it integrated itself with the world economy through free trade with minimal-to-no trade barriers or tariffs, export-oriented industrialisation, and the large accumulation of received foreign direct investments, foreign exchange reserves, and assets held by sovereign wealth funds. As a highly developed country, it has one of the highest GDP per capita (PPP) in the world. Identified as a tax haven, Singapore is the only country in Asia with a AAA sovereign credit rating from all major rating agencies. It is a major aviation, financial, and maritime shipping hub and has consistently been ranked as one of the most expensive cities to live in for expatriates and foreign workers. Singapore ranks highly in key social indicators: education, healthcare, quality of life, personal safety, infrastructure, and housing, with a home-ownership rate of 88 percent. Singaporeans enjoy one of the longest life expectancies, fastest Internet connection speeds, lowest infant mortality rates, and lowest levels of corruption in the world.

Singapore is a unitary parliamentary republic with a Westminster system of unicameral parliamentary government, and its legal system is based on common law. While the country is de jure a multi-party democracy with free elections, the government under the People's Action Party (PAP) wields widespread control and dominance over politics and society without much electoral competition. The PAP has governed the country continuously since full internal self-government was achieved in 1959, and currently holds a supermajority with 79 out of 93 elected seats in Parliament. One of the five founding members of ASEAN, Singapore is also the headquarters of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Secretariat, the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council Secretariat, and is the host city of many international conferences and events. Singapore is also a member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the East Asia Summit, the Non-Aligned Movement, and the Commonwealth of Nations. ( Full article...)

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The North–South Line (NSL) is a high-capacity Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line in Singapore, operated by SMRT Corporation. Coloured red on the Singapore rail map, the line is 45 kilometres (28 mi) long and serves 27 stations, 11 of which, between the Bishan and Marina South Pier stations, are underground. It runs from Jurong East station, located in Western Singapore, to Marina South Pier station in the Central Area, via Woodlands station in northern Singapore. The line operates for almost 20 hours a day (from the first departure 5:07 am to approximately 1 am the next day), with headways of up to 1 to 2 minutes during peak hours and 5 to 8 minutes during off-peak hours. All the trains on the North–South Line run with a six-car formation.

It was the first MRT line to be built in Singapore, with the first section from Yio Chu Kang station to Toa Payoh station beginning service on 7 November 1987, followed by an extension southwards to Raffles Place station on 12 December the same year and northwards to Yishun station on 20 December 1988. After the southern extension to Marina Bay station opened on 4 November 1989, the North–South Line was formed and split from the East–West Line. In the 1990s, the line extended to the north and west connecting to the Branch line via Woodlands through the Woodlands line extension. ( Full article...)

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Selected picture

Credit: TteckK (5 October 2002)

The Parliament House of Singapore. Thid building was designed to represent a contemporary architectural expression of stateliness and authority. Its prism-shaped top was designed by former president Ong Teng Cheong. Read more...

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General images

The following are images from various Singapore-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Jurong Industrial Estate, Singapore, with Jurong Island in the background (from Geography of Singapore)
Image 2Sign board with warnings in Singapore's four main languages: English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil (from Culture of Singapore)
Image 3Enlargeable, detailed map of Singapore (from Geography of Singapore)
Image 4The Sultan Mosque, built in 1826 in the Kampong Glam district, is the oldest and one of the largest mosque in Singapore. (from Singaporeans)
Image 5The country celebrates its National Day on 9 August each year. (from History of Singapore)
Image 6Traffic in Singapore, 1981. Prior to the introduction of the Certificate of Entitlement (COE) in 1990, vehicles per capita in Singapore was the highest in ASEAN. (from History of Singapore)
Image 71888 German map of Singapore (from History of Singapore)
Image 8A hawker centre in Lavender, Singapore (from Culture of Singapore)
Image 9The Supertree Grove at Gardens by the Bay (from Culture of Singapore)
Image 10The Marina Bay Sands integrated resort. Opened in 2010, it has become a key feature of Singapore's modern skyline. (from History of Singapore)
Image 11The Thian Hock Keng, completed in 1842, served as a place of worship for early immigrants. (from History of Singapore)
Image 12Engraving of Sir Stamford Raffles by James Thomson
Image 13Hainanese chicken rice (from Singaporeans)
Image 14Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival, led by a Japanese officer, marches under a flag of truce to negotiate the capitulation of Allied forces in Singapore, on 15 February 1942. It was the largest surrender of British-led forces in history. (from History of Singapore)
Image 15 Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum (from Culture of Singapore)
Image 16A busy Victoria Dock, Tanjong Pagar, in the 1890s. (from History of Singapore)
Image 17Afternoon thunderstorms are a frequent occurrence in Singapore, which has an equatorial climate. (from Geography of Singapore)
Image 18 Deepavali decorations in Singapore. (from Culture of Singapore)
Image 191955 stamp with the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II (from History of Singapore)
Image 20Centre square of Raffles Place (from Culture of Singapore)
Image 21Men of various ethnicities - Chinese, Malay, and Indian gather at a street corner in Singapore, circa 1900. (from Singaporeans)
Image 22Old Supreme Court of Singapore (from Culture of Singapore)
Image 23The Plan of the Town of Singapore, or more commonly known as the Jackson Plan or Raffles Town Plan. (from History of Singapore)
Image 24Fireworks over the Marina Bay skyline following the conclusion of the 2015 National Day Parade on 9 August 2015. (from History of Singapore)
Image 25The Mao Kun map from Wubei Zhi which is based on the early 15th century maps of Zheng He showing Temasek (淡馬錫) at the top left, and Long Ya Men (龍牙門) on the right panel. (from History of Singapore)
Image 26 Baedeker map of the city and environs, c. 1914
Image 27Singapore's urban geography is often characterised by extensive use of HDB flats, which the majority of citizens reside in. (from Geography of Singapore)
Image 28A statue of Raffles by Thomas Woolner now stands in Singapore, near Raffles's landing site in 1819. (from History of Singapore)
Image 29Chinese community in Singapore carrying the Flag of the Republic of China (written Long live the motherland) to celebrate the victory, also reflected the Chinese identity issues at that time. (from History of Singapore)
Image 30Shophouses in Singapore (from Singaporeans)
Image 31Top view of Bukit Batok West. Large scale public housing development has created high housing ownership among the population. (from History of Singapore)
Image 32Upper Seletar Reservoir (from Geography of Singapore)
Image 33 Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum (from Singaporeans)
Image 34Restored shophouses running along a street in Chinatown, which reflects the Victorian architecture of buildings built in Singapore during the earlier colonial period, with styles such as the painted ladies. (from History of Singapore)
Image 35A fragment of the Singapore Stone, inscribed with an Indic script, c. 10th to 13th century. (from History of Singapore)
Image 36 St Andrew's Cathedral (from Singaporeans)
Image 37Quadrilingual sign (from Singaporeans)
Image 38The Jurong Industrial Estate was developed in the 1960s to industrialise the economy. (from History of Singapore)
Image 39The old and the new Singapore as seen from an alley behind Boat Quay (2023) (from History of Singapore)
Image 40Japanese POWs are taken to work where they were made to clear up the city during the British reoccupation in September 1945

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Edwin Nadason Thumboo B.B.M. (born 22 November 1933) is a Singaporean poet and academic who is regarded as one of the pioneers of English literature in Singapore.

Thumboo graduated in English from the University of Malaya in 1956. Although he applied for a position at the university, he was rejected as few locals held academic posts at that time. He therefore worked in the civil service for about nine years before finally joining the university, then renamed the University of Singapore, in 1966 following Singapore's independence. He received a Ph.D. from the university in 1970. Thumboo rose to the position of full professor in the Department of English Language and Literature, heading the department between 1977 and 1993. After the merger of the University of Singapore and Nanyang University in 1980 to form the National University of Singapore (NUS), he was the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences from 1980 to 1991, NUS's longest-serving dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Thumboo was the first Chairman and Director of the university's Centre for the Arts from 1993 to 2005, and continues to be associated with the university as an emeritus professor, a position he has held since retiring from full-time teaching in September 1997. ( Full article...)

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Ho Yuen Hoe Gan Eng Seng Hugh Hickling Zubir Said Tang Da Wu Teresa Hsu Fandi Ahmad Denise Phua Li Jiawei Glenn Knight Laurentia Tan Tao Li Yip Pin Xiu Neila Sathyalingam Walter Woon Han Sai Por Rex Shelley Feng Tianwei Lee Choon Seng Balaji Sadasivan Choor Singh Kelvin Tan Xiaxue

Did you know (auto-generated)

... that COVID-19 lockdown restrictions caused a 37-percent increase in infections of dengue fever in Singapore's 2020 outbreak?
... that Singaporean activist Thum Ping Tjin called the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act an attempted coup?
... that Singapore's North East MRT line saw the first launch of the Art-in-Transit (AiT) programme – a public artwork showcase on the MRT network?
... that Singaporean swimmer Marc Tay served in the Gulf War as an eye surgeon?
... that YouTuber Ghib Ojisan visited Yishun, a Singaporean town, expecting danger after reading of cats being slaughtered but instead found it "home to nice people and cute cats"?
... that the Hainanese chicken rice at the Singaporean restaurant Chatterbox was developed by a German chef?

In this month

1 April 1867: The Straits Settlements becomes a crown colony of the British Empire.
2 April 1955: David Saul Marshall becomes the first Chief Minister of Singapore.
18 April 2005: Casino-gambling is legalised and the construction of two Integrated Resorts is approved by the government.
19 April 1968: The People's Action Party won all seats in Singapore's first general election after independence.
20 April 2004: A section of Nicoll Highway collapses, killing 4 people.

More Anniversaries...

More did you know - show different entries

... that there have been proposed urgent eradication of Limicolaria flammea (pictured) in Singapore?

... that Ong Kim Seng is the only Asian artist outside the USA to be admitted into the American Watercolor Society, having won six awards from the society?

... that free MMS were sent out to all 5.5 million mobile phone subscribers in Singapore to alert them of the prison break of ISA detainee Mas Selamat bin Kastari?

... that Singapore paid uneducated women to get sterilised as part of its Stop at Two campaign?

... that John Little, established in 1845, is the oldest department store in Singapore?

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Selected panorama

Credit: Chensiyuan (11 May 2012)

A night time view of Bishan Park after its renovation under the Active, Beautiful, Clean Waters (ABC Waters) Programme.

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