ABSTRACT
On 9 August 1965, Singapore was thrust into independence. The new island state measured 23 km from north to south and 42 km from east to west. Its total area was a mere 646 square kilometres.2 It had joined the Federation of Malaysia two years earlier in the hope that this would provide an economic hinterland for an island lacking in natural resources, with 75 percent Chinese in a population of two million while surrounded by more than a hundred million Malay and Indonesian Muslims. With separation, Singapore was now on its own.
