Outlier Nation

By Ronald Hee

Outlier Nation?

Singapore is so small, it may not show up even in maps of Southeast Asia, let along world maps. It is the only independent city state left in the world. It is the only Chinese majority country in the world not to claim to be the real China. It is the only country in the world to achieve independence against its will. It was the improbable nation that no one expected to survive.

Yet today, by every metric one judges a nation’s success – economic, social, education, housing, social welfare, Singapore is often within the top few.

Yet today, 5.6 million people pack into a tiny island, one of the most densely population countries in the world, and while very ethnically, linguistically and religiously diverse, there is harmony and riots and protests of any sort are nearly unheard of. And still finds plenty of space for parks and nature reserves, and has learned to live cheek by jowl with wildlife.

In this book, a Singaporean born and bred, shares insights and highlights sometimes rarely known information, to illustrate just what makes what he calls, the Outlier Nation, tick. It wasn’t supposed to work, let along succeed beyond the wildest imaginations of the founding 1960’s generation. But it did. In this book, you will glean the answers to the two most important questions: how and why.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ronald Hee
• Release date: Apr 6, 2022
• ISBN: 9780463089705

Ronald Hee

Ronald Hee was born in Singapore in 1964. He is rather tickled that the delivery was done by a Dr G.H. Coffin, a fine name for a fine baby doctor. With some irony, he now lives minutes away from the hospital where he was born. The hospital no longer exists and the building has been taken over by the Salvation Army.After the usual run ins in school, he served in his limited capacity in his nation’s defence as a Combat Engineer. He is thankful he saw no combat and didn’t do much engineering, since he spent most of his stint as an instructor.He obtained a B.A. Honours in History from the National University of Singapore in 1989. After he left, the university started to gain international recognition for excellence.Leveraging on his complete lack of media experience, his first job was with the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation, as a feature writer. The broadcaster has undergone some corporate changes since and is now known as Mediacorp. In more recent years, Ronald has gone back as a writer / director for documentaries, and as an actor for some of the docudramas and for various corporate shoots. He plans on continuing to do both until they cease to be fun. He’s done some work for other broadcasters as well and considers Singapore 1942 (check out IMDB) to be his best work. So far.His next port of call was in exhibit development with the Singapore Discovery Centre, where he took charge of among other things, the centre’s interactive multimedia kiosks – in the days when the word ‘multimedia’ was still new, and he himself had just started using Windows 3.1. After leaving, he was contracted to research and script new exhibits and attractions. It was during his period that he started freelance writing for various publications. He plans on continuing to be an occasional journalist so long as it is fun.In 1996, he decided to enter the glamorous world of public relations and joined Ogilvy Public Relations. Leveraging on his complete lack of a tech background, he nonetheless found himself in charge of various technology accounts, some for MNCs which no longer exist (no coincidence).2000 was the Year of the Dragon and it seemed as good a time as any to try to build a company. He was drawn into a dotcom, The Internet CallCentre, which with uncanny timing, was officially launched a week before NASDAQ tanked and the dotcom bubble burst. It was fun yet stressful while it lasted. He eventually walked away wiser but poorer.After a short stint with property giant, Suntec City Development, in searching for a new port of call, fate linked him to a biotech company, CordLife. As before, leveraging on his complete lack of a biology background, he became the company PR guy, aiding in their expansion and Australian listing.Briefly joining a renewable energy company after, again as the PR guy, when his father passed away, it seemed, at the age of 44, a good time to take stock, realize that there is more to life, that his financial planner has done a great job, and it was time to retire. One, however, retires from formal work, and never from life itself. Lots to do and see still. Like doing some charity work for old soldiers. Like spending way too much time playing a Facebook game or on Civilization. Like being an evil slumlord. But that’s another story ....Ronald is unmarried, his former wife deciding to give him his freedom early for good behavior during that little dotcom bust. He has no children that he knows of; just a dog that acts like one. He is perversely proud of having probably the strangest eyesight in the country.1,001 Things You Didn’t Know Happened in April (2014) is his first book, and The Trial of Pontius Pilate (2015) is his second. He hopes you have enjoyed them.

Book preview

Outlier Nation: Why And How Singapore Works

Ronald Hee

Copyright © 2022 by Ronald Hee

All rights reserved worldwide. Reproduction, distribution, or transmission of any part of this publication in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any electronic or mechanical methods without the permission of the author, is illegal and punishable by law, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Trademarked names appear throughout this book. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked name, names are used in an editorial fashion, with no intention of infringement of the respective owner’s trademark.

The author does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

The information in this book is distributed on an as is basis, without warranty. Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this work, neither the author nor the publisher shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this book.

No humans, animals or trees were deliberately harmed in the production of this book. Apologies to any human, animal or tree that may have been accidentally harmed.

Cover image: I like this map of Singapore. Regrets I can only trace its owner back only to a dead link: http://mr-architecture.com/mapping-singapore/. If you are the owner, please contact me! I would love to seek your permission and acknowledge you! To explain what you are seeing: The white is Singapore in 1965. The pink is Singapore in 2010. The red is what it is expected to be, once the current phase of land reclamation is completed in 2030. Singapore; the expanding outlier nation. Thank you Adeline Hee, for your cover design work!

Past works by the author

Non-Fiction

1.001 Things You Didn’t Know About April (2015)

Battle Islands: A Game Guide (2021)

Fiction

The Trial of Pontius Pilate (2015)

Contents

Outlier Nation?

History

Place

People

Politics

Housing

Education

Economy

Healthcare

Social Security

Foreign Policy

Defence

Race & Religion

Safety

Transportation

Food

Nature

Potpourri

Future

About the Author

Outlier Nation?

Many countries claim that they are exceptional. Other says they have a special destiny in world affairs. Some claim mythic or divine origins. Singapore does not. Singapore is rather like Jango Fett in The Phantom Menace, or his son Boba Fett in The Mandalorian, declaring, I’m just a simple man trying to make his way in the universe.

Contained in this quiet statement, is a lot of underlying complexity and strength. So too, it is with a little nation trying to make its way in the world. A little nation that is often called the Switzerland of Asia, or the Silicon Valley of Asia, or one of the four Asian tigers, or Disneyland with a death sentence, or as Asia for Beginners, or as merely, the little red dot. One of the freest economies in the world, yet also called an authoritarian nanny state or less politely, a police state. Our status led the BBC to ask in 2013, Why does Singapore top so many tables? Or inspired videos like this one. Outliers defy easy categorization. We kinda don’t care, so long as what we do, works for us.

It’s a country that has been frequently emulated or compared to. Post Brexit Britain wants London to be Singapore-on-Thames, or the UK, the Singapore of Europe, which is quite a compliment from Singapore’s former colonial master. Rwanda has followed so many policies, it’s been called the Singapore of Africa. Ghana, Mauritius and others are following in the same path. When China sought to open itself to the world, then supreme leader Deng Xiaopeng looked to Singapore, a close relationship that still continues to this day. Other countries from across the world, great and small, developed and developing, are also looking to see what they can learn and adopt, of the so called ‘Singapore model’.

I do acknowledge that there are other countries in the world that are outliers; Israel springs to mind, as do the emirates that make up the UAE. Nonetheless, I call dibs, and anoint Singapore as the outlier nation. I think you will see in the course of this book, that Singapore is more outlierly than even the outliers.

This is not just a book of history. It is a mélange of history, economics, sociology, politics, and public policy. Mixed in there are also elements of my personal experience as illustration. This book is an observation by a Singaporean born and bred, about the unique country he calls home. So unique in so many ways weird and wonderful, you might indeed say, and agree, it is an outlier. This book, in and of itself, by defying neat categorization, is kinda an outlier too?

In the words of CP Scott, Comment is free, but facts are sacred. I have endeavoured to present the truth as faithfully as possible, as well as tried to make it clear where it is my interpretation or opinion of those facts. As a historian by training, I did also try to be fair while knowing that my selection of facts fits a bias. I hope you will forgive these shortcomings. I hope in turn, you will enjoy the personal experiences shared as well.

So, why does Singapore work? Ultimately, because it has had to. As Flight Director Gene Kranz didn’t say during the events recounted in the movie, Apollo 13, Failure is not an option. Singapore has had to find ways to succeed, or cease to exist as an independent nation. It has been an incredible journey to get us to now.

This could have been a rather scholarly work full of citations, but I’ve chosen not to do so, so that it’s more accessible and fun, and you get my particular brand of humour. Meant as an ebook, you’ll find bookmarks and hyperlinks, rather than footnotes and endnotes. Particularly interesting works – and not too scholarly works – have been peppered into the text for anyone who would like to explore further. If you’re a policy wonk, you’ll just love the ebooks available at the Centre for Liveable Cities. Less so the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy – heavier reading, though it also has videos, as does the CLC.

A word about COVID-19 as well; I’ve used data as far as possible from 2019, as, well, the last coupla years have been kinda an outlier too. Every country’s numbers, especially economic ones, are waay off …. Here’s to hoping to a return to normality soon.

Talking about numbers, facts and figures, my sources are mainly from books, official websites and publications, the CLC, the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National Library eResources, Statista, Statistics Singapore, the Urban Renewal Authority, Wikipaedia. Thanks also to the folks at the National Library Reference Point for answering my pesky questions in great detail and for their very readable papers. If you have a question, and no one else can help you … try Reference Point.

Special mention must also be made of Lee Kuan Yew’s memoirs, both volumes, as well as some other books in which he had done extensive interviews, especially Lee Kuan Yew: Hard Truths To Keep Singapore Going. His insight on many issues is top notch, and he pulls few punches. Also pulling few punches is Dr Michael Barr in his book, Singapore: A Modern History, which also acted as a good counterpoint to Lee’s memoirs.

While there are many videos on Singapore on YouTube, and believe you me, I have watched a lot, the best IMHO in covering Singapore have been Asianometry, Bloomberg Quicktakes, PolyMatter and VisualPolitik, with rather varying degrees of inaccuracy.

Thanks for picking up this book! I hope you will enjoy this journey. I hope you will find things here that will make you laugh or go, I didn’t know that. I’d love to hear what you think.

Last and never least, this book is dedicated to my fellow Singaporeans; past, present and future. To past generations, thank you for your hard work and dedication, without which there would be no special place called Singapore. To the present generation, our future as the Outlier Nation will be as bright as we make it. To the future generation, in time we will past the baton on to you. If Singapore then ceases to be an outlier, it’s your fault.

Ronald Hee

7th April 2022

[e-mail]

History

Ask a historian or a geopolitical analyst, and they’ll tell you, to understand a country, you start with its history, and history is all about maps and chaps. Maps are factors like location, weather, size, features like rivers, coasts and mountains – or lack thereof. Chaps are the people, their nature, their numbers, their demographics, and the leaders they throw up. From both, nations rise to greatness – or sink into decline.

For Singapore, it is fated to be in a part of the world that had been … messy. It is also fated to sit on possibly the best place in the world for global trade, as well as fated to be the plaything of bigger powers. But it had been blessed with an interesting cast of characters over the centuries. And luck, good and bad. Fasten your seat belts, it's gonna be a bumpy ride.

Before there was a country called Singapore, the waters and islands around it was already part of a major trading route, sometimes called the Maritime Silk Road. European traders handed over to Arab traders, who handed over to Malay traders, who handed over to Chinese traders, and vice versa. Along the way, there be pirates and there be trading powers and empires, all vying for a piece of this trading pie.

The earliest known reference to Singapore dates back all the way to the 2nd Century, where it was marked on a map by Claudius Ptolemy, one of the top scientists of the Roman Empire. It was referred to as Sabana and as a trading port, though this might not be Singapore; maps weren’t exactly derived with GPS level accuracy at the time.

In the 3rd Century, a Chinese trader referred to the island as Pu Lou Zhong, which is thought to be based on the Malay name of Pulau Ujong, or island at the end. The inhabitants may have been a small fishing community of orang luat, or a Malay tribe of sea nomads. From this point, history gets a little blurry and mixed.

In 1819, the British discovered an artifact at the mouth of the Singapore River. Which they blew up in 1843 to widen the channel. Vandals. It was said to be a sandstone monument measuring some 3m tall and 3m wide, and had about fifty lines of indecipherable text on it. A remnant called the Singapore Stone resides in the National Museum. The monument might have been as old as the 10th Century. The text points to Singapore at the time being either part of the Srivijaya Empire or the Chola Empire. We will never know from the fragment that remains. Thanks, British.

In the 13th Century, the Srivijaya Empire, based out of Palembang, Sumatra, was one of the powers fighting to control this region, and the trade that flowed through it, for at least three centuries. They had been badly hit by the Chola Empire, based out of the Kaveri River, southern India. At some point, the island was likely a vassal of the Cholas. Srivijaya was also under pressure by the Majapahit Empire, which was based out of Trowulan, East Java. Even the Mongols got into the act, launching a failed invasion of Majapahit-held Java in 1292.

In the Srivijayan capital of Palembang, a Majapahit attack had forced the rulers to flee. One of these was the prince, Sang Nila Utama. Legend has it (the Malay Annals) that Sang was washed ashore in a storm, and saw an animal he did not know. His crew said the animal was a lion, even though there are no lions indigenous to the region! Perhaps a tiger having a really bad hair day? He nonetheless named his new settlement, Singapura, or lion city in Sanskrit in 1299.

The truth may have been more prosaic. Singgah means layover in Malay. Back in the day, with the monsoon winds, sailing ships had long been using the island, then called Temasek or sea town in Malay, as a layover, while waiting for the winds to change for their return journey; a layover that would last months. Temasek might have already been a trading hub for a century at this point.

According to the Malay Annals, Sang was the first of five rulers of the new Kingdom of Singapura. I believe Singapura was a vassal state of the Srivijayans, and at best semi-independent. The last ruler was Iskandar Shah or Parameswara. The expanding Majapahit Empire had come knocking on Singapura’s gates in 1398.

Legend (again) has it that the invaders numbered 200,000 soldiers, carried on hundreds of ships. My guess is knock off a zero and it’ll be closer to the real figure. Still the kingdom would hold out for a month before treachery led to defeat and a massacre. Parameswara fled northwards to found what would become Sultanate of Malacca.

Singapura was rebuilt back into one of several trading ports in the region, by no means the most important one. It remained also, says the Malay Annals, the seat of the laksamana, or admiral of the fleet, of the Sultanate. The legendary Hung Tuah was once the laksamana, and it is said he commanded a massive fleet of 40 three masted ships.

Confusingly, records show that in 1320, the Mongols sent a delegation to Temasek, or Danmaxi to the Chinese, seeking elephants, and not Singapura. The people at the settlement then sent a tribute and trade mission to China in 1325, which of course was then ruled by the Mongols. Temasek was also mentioned in a 1365 Javanese poem and that it was as part of the Majapahit Empire.

In 1349, a Chinese trader named Wang Dayuan mentioned two settlements on Temasek, not Singapura, one was the Dragon’s Teeth Gate, or long ya men, which was the passageway between the mainland and the island now known as Sentosa – as well as the area being a hotbed of pirates. Which means by the 13th Century, there was already enough ships passing through to attract pirates – and the island was rich enough to send tribute to China. The Dragon’s Teeth, a rocky outcrop, was blown up by the British in 1848, to widen the channel for their bigger ships. This time, not vandals, just practical.

The other settlement was called Banzu and is believed to have been around present day Fort Canning. Banzu is derived from the Malay word, pancur, or spring. This spring at Fort Canning would be used into the 1830’s for ships wanting to replenish their fresh water stores.

Interestingly, Wang described the two settlements as populated by different peoples. Dragon’s Teeth Gate was populated by largely pirates, and almost certainly orang luat. Banzu was populated by mostly traders, and looked and dressed differently. Wang further commented that there were over a hundred Chinese in these settlements, which were survivors from the 1292 Mongol attack on Java, and that they were mixed up with the native families. That rather sounds to me that these Chinese had settled down, married local women, adopted local customs and dress. Proto-Peranakans? (See the chapter on People.)

Wang also mentioned that Temasek had recently survived a month long siege – by the Siamese. This was then the Kingdom of Ayutthaya, based out the Chao Praya Valley. It wasn’t small scale; the Ayutthayans attacked with a fleet of 70 ships. Temasek had defences strong enough to hold out for a month. In addition Wang said Temasek wasn’t independent, but a vassal of a greater power, which may have come to end the siege.

One possibility is that the Malay Annals got it wrong (deliberately?), and that it was Parameswara who really founded Singapura, and in 1389. Parameswara was a little less honorable than Sang. He took over by killing the local ruler after enjoying his hospitality for nine days. The Majapahits came for revenge, and he fled again to found Malacca. Says Wikipaedia:

There are differing accounts of the origin and life of Parameswara given in the Malay Annals and Portuguese sources. The Malay Annals was written during the heyday of Malacca and re-compiled in 1612 by the Johor court. It is the basis for accounts of the founding of Singapura, the succession of its rulers and its eventual decline. According to the account by the Malay Annals, Iskandar Shah (Parameswara) was a descendant of Sang Nila Utama said to have founded Singapura. However, historians cast doubts on the accuracy and historicity of the Malay Annals on its accounts of Singapura. Portuguese sources such as the Suma Oriental by Tomé Pires were written shortly after the Portuguese conquest of Malacca and they give a different account of the origin of Parameswara.

Both Suma Oriental and Malay Annals do contain similar stories about a fleeing Srivijayan prince arriving in Singapura and about the last king of Singapura who fled to the west coast of Malay peninsula to found Malacca. However, both accounts differ markedly on the identity of the prince: Suma Oriental identified the fleeing prince and the last king of Singapura as the same person known as Parameswara, while the more detailed Malay Annals identified the fleeing prince and the last king as completely two different persons separated by five generations (Sang Nila Utama and Iskandar Shah).

Suma Oriental noted further that the fleeing Srivijayan prince usurped the throne of Singapura from a Siamese viceroy named Temagi sometimes around the 1390s. Portuguese accounts by Tomé Pires and João de Barros, which may have been based on a Javanese source, suggest that Parameswara was a prince from Palembang who attempted to challenge Javanese rule over Palembang sometime after 1360.

In this version, the Javanese attacked and drove Parameswara out of Palembang, who then escaped to Singapore. Parameswara soon assassinated the local ruler with the title Sang Aji, Sangesinga. Parameswara then ruled for five years before he was driven out by people from the Kingdom of Patani, possibly for killing Sang Aji whose wife may have been from Patani. The account by Pires also indicates that Iskandar Shah was the son of Parameswara who became the second ruler of Malacca. Many scholars believe that Parameswara and Iskandar Shah are the same person, although some argued for Megat Iskandar Shah being the son of Parameswara.

As I said, history gets a bit blurry and mixed …

That a bustling port on this island existed centuries before the arrival of the British was proven beyond any doubt in 1984, by the discovery of artifacts at Fort Canning and elsewhere in Singapore by John Miksic, findings he shared in his book, Singapore And The Silk Road Of the Sea, 1300-1800. If you erm, dig that kinda stuff, here’s his presentation in 2019. When the British first came, John Crawfurd, the second Resident of Singapore, discovered ruins at Fort Canning, as well as Chinese coins dating back to the 10th Century, about the time that Song China established trading relations with the Srivijayan Empire. Perhaps one day, Singapore’s history may be pushed back once again by another few centuries. You can see why Miksic really dug Fort Canning. Concluded Miksic:

Singapore is 700 years old. It was not isolated before 1819; it was an important connecting point between east and west for 300 years. It was prosperous before the arrival of the Europeans. Chinese, Mayas, Indians and other Southeast Asians lived there. It had local industries: imported raw materials, finished products of metal, clay, glass. The economy was sophisticated: Singaporeans used money. It had at least a cosmopolitan, possible hybrid society.

After the attack by the Majapahits that drove out Parameswara, Singapura became vassal of the Majapahit, then the Ayutthaya, then a part of the Sultanate of Malacca. After the Portuguese crushed Malacca in 1511, the rulers fled once again, this time to found the Sultanate of Johor in 1528, and Singapura once again fell under another sultanate, that of Johor. Thus began a triangular war – again – this time Johor versus the Portuguese based in Malacca, and against a rising Sultanate of Aceh, based in northern Sumatra, as the Portuguese sought to control trade against both. In 1613, Aceh launched a series of attacks against Johor, including destroying Singapura. Singapura was rebuilt once again.

In 1594, Flemish gem trader Jacques de Coutre reported a significant settlement in Singapura. In 1630, he recommended to the Spanish crown to construct at least two fortresses in Singapura. The first fortress would have been located somewhere near the present site of present day Fort Siloso on Sentosa, and the second fortification along the eastern coast, probably between present day Bedok and Changi point.

He made the recommendation to the King of Spain and not Portugal, because at the time, the two crowns were joined into the Iberian Union. He further recommended that given the important position of the island, the King should to acquire Singapura and populate the settlement with labour from China. Why Singapura was not acquired and the forts built remains obscure; it might have a matter of cost, plus the Portuguese were already on the back foot by then. This book came rather close to be in Portuguese or Spanish rather than English.

This idea of building fortresses to control trade was not new. In the 1570’s, the Portuguese considered building fortresses in or around Singapura. Due to the cost, they opted instead to boost their navy and patrol the straits, ie, blockade the area from ships not bound to or from their ports. In 1604, the Portuguese thought about it again, but again did not follow through. A 1604 Portuguese map of Singapura showed that it was bustling enough to rate a xabandaria, or habourmaster.

Meanwhile, the Dutch, in the form of their East India Company, the VOC, had been becoming stronger, based out of Batavia, today’s Jakarta, sparking war with the Portuguese. In and around Singapura, three naval battles were fought in 1603. The Portuguese wanted to punish the Sultanate of Johor for getting pally with the Dutch, and blockaded trade along the Johor River. The Dutch came in to fight off the Portuguese, leading to victory off the coast at Changi.

This also began a period of Dutch blockade in turn, of Portuguese traffic in the region. This actually forced the Portuguese to try to circumvent the region, even to reroute cargo overland along the Pahang and Muar Rivers. In the 1630’s, the VOC planned to build fortresses at five points along the straits, the closest to Singapura being at the mouth of the Johor River and the island of Pedra Branca, but didn’t in the end. Instead, they fought wars to control the Riau Islands. With Dutch forts just miles offshore, I doubt the British would have later chosen Singapura. This book came rather close to be in Dutch rather than English.

Two centuries later, when the British showed up in 1819, Singapura had shrunk to a small settlement of between 150 to a thousand mainly fishermen; Malays, the orang laut, with a few Chinese, mostly growing pepper and gambier, ruled by the Sultanate of Johor.

In those two centuries, as trading empires waxed and waned around it, Singapura had sunk back into obscurity partly due to uncontrolled piracy and the Dutch channeling trade to their own ports away from waters around Singapura, in particular, Malacca and Batavia. The VOC would fight to take over the Riau Islands, only to level the ports there as competitors. Also vying for power in the region were the Bugis, from South Sulawesi, and the Minangkabau, from central Sumatra.

The British, then in the form of the East India Company, were now coming into the picture, looking for a slice of that sweet, sweet, spice trade that was not controlled by the Dutch. In 1703,