Singapore Hotels - Singapore history since its early beginnings

GAINING INDEPENDENCE
After the war, the British grouped the peninsula Malay states and the British-controlled states of Sabah and Sarawak in Borneo under the Malayan Union. Singapore, which unlike the other states had a predominantly Chinese population, was left out of this union.

Rebuilding itself after the war was a slow and difficult task. In the post-war climate of poverty, unemployment and lack of idealogical direction, communist groups such as the Malayan Communist Party and the Communist General Labour Union, and the socialist Malayan Democratic Union, gained popular support.

In the late 1940s, the Communists launched a campaign of armed struggle in Malaya, prompting the British to declare a state of emergency where the Communists were outlawed. Twelve years of guerilla warfare from the Communists on the peninsula ensued, and left-wing politics was gradually snuffed out in the Malay states and Singapore.

LEE'S LEGACY
In the 1950s, a rising star emerged in the local political scene -- Lee Kuan Yew, who headed the socialist People's Action Party (PAP).

Lee, a shrewd politician, is a third-generation Straits-born Chinese with a law degree from Cambridge University. When the PAP won a majority of seats in the newly-formed Legislative Assembly in 1959, he became the first Singaporean to hold the title of prime minister.

In 1963, the British declared Singapore, the Malay states and Sabah and Sarawak as one independent nation -- Malaysia. But Singapore's membership in this union lasted only two years. In 1965, it was booted out of the federation, owing to disagreements on several fronts including racial issues.

Left on its own, Singapore embarked on an ambitious industrialisation plan -- building public housing, roads and modernising its port and telecommunications infrastructure. English was chosen as the official language, to facilitate communication between the different races, and to put the nation in the forefront of commerce.

In about 25 years, by the late 1980s, Singapore had moved from a fragile and small country with no natural resources to a newly industrialised economy.

pg 3 of 4