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Singapore Comments on Singapore
About Singapore
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Singapore (disambiguation).
Singapore ( Part of various local empires since being inhabited in the 2nd century AD, Singapore hosted a trading post of the East India Company in 1819 with permission from the Sultanate of Johor. The British obtained sovereignty over the island in 1824 and Singapore became one of the British Straits Settlements in 1826. Occupied by the Japanese in World War II, Singapore declared independence, uniting with other former British territories to form Malaysia in 1963, although it was separated from Malaysia two years later. Since then it has had a massive increase in wealth, and is one of the Four Asian Tigers. Singapore is the world's fourth leading financial centre and a leading global city, and its port is one of the five busiest ports in the world. The economy depends heavily on exports and refining imported goods, especially in manufacturing, which constituted 26% of Singapore's GDP in 2005. Singapore is a parliamentary republic with a Westminster system of unicameral parliamentary government. The People's Action Party has won every election since self-government in 1959, and governs on the basis of a strong state and prioritising collective welfare over individual rights such as freedom of assembly, an approach that has attracted criticism from organisations such as Freedom House. Some 5 million people live in Singapore, of whom 2.91 million were born locally. Most are of Chinese, Malay or Indian descent. There are four official languages: English, Chinese, Malay, and Tamil. One of the five founding members of the Association of South East Asian Nations, Singapore also hosts the APEC Secretariat, and is a member of the East Asia Summit, the Non-Aligned Movement, and the Commonwealth.
[edit] EtymologyMain article: Names of Singapore
The English name of Singapore is derived from its Malay name, Singapura (Sanskrit सिंहपुर "Lion City"), thus the customary reference to the nation as the Lion City. Lions probably never lived there; the beast seen by Sang Nila Utama, founder of ancient Singapore, who gave the city its name, was most likely a tiger.[9][10] [edit] HistoryMain article: History of Singapore
The earliest known settlement on Singapore was in the 2nd century AD. It was an outpost of the Sumatran Srivijaya empire, named Temasek ('sea town'). Between the 16th and early 19th centuries, it was part of the Sultanate of Johor. In 1613, Portuguese raiders burnt the settlement down, and the island sank into obscurity for two centuries.[11] In 1819, Thomas Stamford Raffles arrived and signed a treaty with Sultan Hussein Shah on behalf of the British East India Company to develop the southern part of Singapore as a British trading post. In 1824 the whole island became a British possession under a further treaty whereby the Sultan and the Temenggong handed it over to the British East India Company. In 1826 it became part of the Straits Settlements, a British colony. By 1869, 100,000 people lived on the island.[12] 
In World War II, the Imperial Japanese Army invaded Malaya, culminating in the Battle of Singapore. The British were defeated, and surrendered on 15 February 1942. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill called this "the worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history".[13] The Japanese occupied Singapore until the British repossessed it in September 1945 after the Japanese surrender.[14] Singapore's first general election, in 1955, was won by the pro-independence David Marshall, leader of the Labour Front. Demanding complete self-rule, he led a delegation to London but was turned down by the British. He resigned on return and was replaced by Lim Yew Hock, whose policies convinced Britain to grant Singapore full internal self-government for all matters except defence and foreign affairs.[15] In elections in May 1959 the People's Action Party won a landslide victory and immediately made Singapore a self-governing state within the Commonwealth, with Lee Kuan Yew as the first prime minister.[16]Governor Sir William Allmond Codrington Goode served as the first Yang di-Pertuan Negara until December 1959, when he was succeeded by Yusof bin Ishak, later the first President of Singapore. Singapore declared independence from Britain on 31 August 1963, before joining the new Federation of Malaysia in September along with Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak as the result of the 1962 Merger Referendum. Tunku Abdul Rahman separated Singapore from the Federation two years later, after heated ideological conflict between the ruling parties of Malaya and Singapore.[3] Singapore gained sovereignty as the Republic of Singapore (remaining within the Commonwealth) on 9 August 1965,[3] with Yusof bin Ishak as president and Lee Kuan Yew still as prime minister. In 1970 it joined the Non-aligned movement, and in 1976 it helped found the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.[17] In 1990, Goh Chok Tong succeeded Lee as prime minister. During his tenure, the country faced the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, the 2003 SARS outbreak, and terrorist threats posed by Jemaah Islamiyah. In 2004, Lee Hsien Loong, eldest son of Lee Kuan Yew, became the third prime minister.[18] [edit] Government and politicsSingapore is a parliamentary republic with a Westminster system of unicameral parliamentary government representing constituencies. The Constitution of Singapore establishes representative democracy as the political system.[19] The People's Action Party (PAP) has won control of Parliament in every election since 1959.[20]Freedom House ranks Singapore as "partly free" in its "Freedom in the World report",[21] and The Economist ranks Singapore as a "hybrid regime", the third rank out of four, in its "Democracy Index".[22] Singapore is consistently rated one of the least corrupt countries in the world by Transparency International.[23] 
The bulk of executive power rests with the cabinet, headed by the Prime Minister. The President of Singapore, historically a ceremonial post, was granted some veto powers in 1991 for a few key decisions such as the use of the national reserves and the appointment of judges. Although the position is to be elected by popular vote, only the 1993 election has been contested to date. The legislative branch of government is Parliament.[24] Parliamentary elections in Singapore have been plurality-based for group representation constituencies since the Parliamentary Elections Act was modified in 1991.[25] Members of Parliament (MPs) consist of elected, non-constituency and nominated members. Most MPs are elected to Parliament on a "first-past-the-post" (plurality) basis and represent either single-member or group-representation constituencies (GRCs).[26] Although Singapore's laws are inherited from English and British Indian legislation, with many elements of English common law, in some ways they have departed from that tradition since independence. Thus, trial by jury has been abolished. Singapore has penalties that include judicial corporal punishment in the form of caning for rape, violence, rioting, drug use, vandalism, and some immigration offences.[27][28] There is a mandatory death penalty for first-degree murder, drug-trafficking, and firearms offences.[29]Amnesty International has said that some legal provisions conflict with the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, and that Singapore has "possibly the highest execution rate in the world relative to its population".[30] The government has disputed Amnesty's claims.[31] In a 2008 survey, international business executives believed Singapore, along with Hong Kong, had the best judicial system in Asia.[32] [edit] GeographyMain article: Geography of Singapore
Singapore consists of 63 islands, including the main island, widely known as Singapore Island but also as Pulau Ujong.[33] There are two man-made connections to Johor, Malaysia: the Johor–Singapore Causeway in the north, and the Tuas Second Link in the west. Jurong Island, Pulau Tekong, Pulau Ubin and Sentosa are the largest of Singapore's smaller islands. The highest natural point is Bukit Timah Hill at 166 m (545 ft).[34] There are ongoing land reclamation projects, which have increased its land area from 581.5 km2 (224.5 sq mi) in the 1960s to 704 km2 (272 sq mi) today; it may grow by another 100 km2 (40 sq mi) by 2030.[35] Some projects involve merging smaller islands through land reclamation to form larger, more functional islands, as with Jurong Island.[36] About 23% of Singapore's land area consists of forest and nature reserves.[37] Urbanisation has eliminated most primary rainforest, with Bukit Timah Nature Reserve the only significant remaining forest.[36] Singapore has a tropical rainforest climate with no distinctive seasons, uniform temperature and pressure, high humidity, and abundant rainfall. Temperatures usually range from 23 to 32 °C (73 to 90 °F). Relative humidity averages around 79% in the morning and 73% in the afternoon. with daily sunrise and sunset times of around 7AM and 7PM respectively. The length of the day is nearly constant all year round.
[edit] EconomyMain article: Economy of Singapore
Singapore has a highly developed market-based economy, based historically on extended entrepôt trade. Along with Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan, Singapore is one of the Four Asian Tigers. The economy depends heavily on exports and refining imported goods, especially in manufacturing, which constituted 26% of Singapore's GDP in 2005[43] and includes significant electronics, petroleum refining, chemicals, mechanical engineering and biomedical sciences sectors. In 2006 Singapore produced about 10% of the world's foundry wafer output.[44] The country is the world's fourth leading financial centre.[45] This country information has been retrieved from wikipedia.org and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
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