We had some wonderful food in Singapore, but none of them in the hotel we stayed in. One day, we made the grievous error of ordering Fattouch, a Lebanese salad, in our hotel. As for the result – My friends, what can I say? The pita bread was neither crumbled nor fried. The chef, in his/her hurry, had sent mile-long lettuce leaves without bothering to chop them up. Perhaps lemons were out of season, so s/he had substituted them with sauteed bell peppers. The olive oil, sans its “Virgin”ity was bland.

Sad realization dawned on me. The Far East is the wrong place to look for the Middle East. I beckoned the waiter. “This is the worst Fattouch I’ve eaten in my life” I said, valiantly attempting to swallow an insipid tomato. The chef had forgotten an important step between assembling the ingredients & serving the food. Its called “Cooking”.

What’s a trip to Singapore without shopping sprees? Some of the most expensive shops are in Orchard Road, where you can shop till you drop or max out your credit cards, whichever happens first. The mother of all these stores is Takashimaya, one of the largest in Singapore. Inveterate bargain hunters will manage to find steals even in such stores. Others will go there just to stare agape at snooty shops like Max Mara or Emporio Armani & the glitterati that patronize such establishments.

Mustafa Center in Little India is a good place to buy reasonably priced everyday items, from Towels to Tiger Balm, Frito Lays to Foreign Exchange, Peanuts to Pajamas – in short, the works. Its quiet possible to lose your moorings in this shop – We must have walked 3 miles in the aisles. The shelves are crammed with stuff, some of which we had never encountered before & some I hope I never see again. Piles of tacky mementos are in every floor, so look no further if you are in the market for those

The store is hounded by shopaholics, whining kids & their overflowing carts. I swerved to avoid some of them & stubbed my toe – very, very painfully – on what appeared to be a Pamir Mountain of suitcases. I thought the lights dimmed, but actually it was tears welling up in my eyes. Marvelous flowery language that streamed from me then, would have made sailors blush. I never knew I had such a fund of vocabulary at my disposal.

Naturally, we bought plenty of junk that we never knew we needed – Tote Bags, Herbal Medicines, Toe Nail Clippers, Hershey’s Chocolates, Plush Toys. When we came back to India, we gave it all away as gifts. So if you received any, you now know where it came from.

One of the pleasures of living in a 1st world country is access to clean walk-ways. Along both banks of the Singapore river is an excellent foot-path for jogging & walking & we made good use of it. Thanks to well-planned under-passages, people don’t have to stop for on-coming traffic ever.

Either banks of the narrow river are well connected by an array of bridges. At the farthest end of the walkway, at One Fullerton, stands the majestic Merlion – the symbol of Singapore. This sculpture of a lion’s head on a fish’s body was designed by Fraser Brunner of the Van Kleef Aquarium. It supposedly commemorates the discovery of Temasek – which later became Singapura – by the Indonesian Prince Sang Nila Uttama.

Along the way is Clark Quay, a vibrant, pulsating area of Singapore, which finds its rhythm late in the evenings. It is dotted with many interesting micro-breweries, malls, restaurants & bars. It is chock-full of people dressed to the nines. If you plan to visit, check out Shiraz, a Persian restaurant & Marrakesh, a Moroccan eatery.

For people that don’t feel like a 4 Km walk one way, Water Taxis are good options. For SGD $18 per adult, you can make a round trip of about 45 minutes along the river.

On the banks of the Singapore River is an old building called Empress Place. It has been converted to the 2nd wing of the Asian Civilizations Museum. Near the entrance stands the statue of Sir Stamford Raffles, a black edifice that overlooks another monument, the Dalhousie Obelisk. The latter was erected to commemorate the visit of the Marquis of Dalhousie, the Governor General of India, to Singapore.

I didn’t intend the above para to be a history lesson. They are major landmarks near the Raffles Landing site, plus they are near the photogenic Cavenagh Bridge, so they are worth checking out.

Anyone who knows me will tell you what a lily liver I am, when it comes to heights. I have vertigo of the worst kind. But, in Singapore, we met a guy who made me feel like a brave lioness. The most scenic way to go to Sentosa, the site of the most popular attractions in Singapore, is to take a Cable Car from Mount Faber. Poor guy, he had marshmallows in his stomach. Every time his wife moved a muscle, he screamed “OW! OW! Don’t Move!”. We had to pat his hands to comfort him. Compared to him, I’m Sir Edmund Hillary.

As night falls, the last show in Sentosa starts – a Sound & Light show by the beach. Even Priya Raju the lion-heart turned deadly pale when confronted with the mode of transport: A Chair Lift. Imagine a park bench without a foot-rest or arm-rests. Now imagine suspending this cable-car style, 50 storeys high. We had to travel in this fashion from 1 end of the island to another. I clutched the backrest of the bench, curled my toes, closed my eyes shut & clung to dear life.

Really, there must be a better way for the yellow-bellied to travel across Sentosa at night. I chattered non-stop along the way, to preserve my nerves. I know I held a discourse on Chechnya & Ingushetia, but I’m not sure if I arrived at a properly packaged plan to solve the unrest.

On the last day of our trip, we visited the Singapore Botanic Gardens. An MRT station near the gardens is under construction, so the best way to reach there is by cab. The garden was the brain-child of Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of modern Singapore. I wish we had seen the website of the gardens before leaving for Singapore: for it has a Mission & Vision statement How banal.

The gardens were a huge disappointment. It looked beautiful, it had a sprawling acreage – and I’m sure their botanists do yeoman work to make their city-state a greener place. But for a tourist, the user experience left a lot to be desired. The plants & trees were poorly documented, the guided tours were conducted by volunteers – once a week, there were no audio guides & there were no pamphlets to help the visitors glean more information about the planted species.

The “Palm Valley” section – the very section that me & Sukumar had hoped would shed some light on native plants in our Indology work – played host to families on picnic, dogs gamboling without leashes & kids playing throw-ball. I think its fair to say that the Gardens function as the city’s green lung, provide a much-needed backdrop for families to have a pot-luck & aid academics in their research. But, it had precious little for the geekier visitors that want to learn something from their brief sojourn in the gardens.

That’s All Folks! That concludes our travelogs on Singapore. Toodles. See you all again in my next post on Srilanka.

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Hope all of you are enjoying the series on Singapore. Priya Raju’s entertaining posts have definitely enlivened the proceedings – Here is her previous post. Thanks Priya.

All along the trip, we kept hearing the term “Peranakans” and it piqued our curiosity. Therefore, we decided to explore the Peranakan Museum, which is a wing of the Asian Civilizations Museum. We signed up for the tour of the museum and were fortunate to have a guide who was passionate about Peranakan Culture. Throughout the tour,  she would ask us to guess why Peranakans did something a certain way.  Given my current preoccupation with Symbology, I was able to crack many of them. The guide quipped that I must have been a Peranakan in my prior birth!

Who are the Peranakans?

Peranakan means “Local Born” – the people that were born in Singapore. Though the term usually means Peranakan Chinese, it also includes Chitty Melaka Peranakan – Indian Hindu + Local Malay mixture and the Jawi Peranakan. – Indian muslim + Local Malay. Chitty Melaka speak Malay with quite a few Tamil words.

Peranakan Religion

They follow a syncretic religion that has a mix of beliefs from Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, which they brought from Southern China. Over time they developed their own customs.

Previously in the tour, we had seen the temple of the Goddess of the Sea – Ma Cho Po. It was built by Tan Tock Seng, an  early Peranakan Chinese leader. We could see gods from all the constituent parts of the religion. The temple in Kusu Island that Priya Raju mentioned is also from the same syncretic religion.

The Peranakan fathers were Chinese Traders and hence they didn’t have scholars amongst them. Interestingly, that meant that, they didn’t have all the details of their religion accurately. For instance, the 8 immortals were key gods of the religion but are represented incorrectly as 6 or 7  in the Peranakan art, cutlery, furniture and other symbols.  One could say this is how ideas get distorted when they travel long distances.

Peranakan Customs

It is this part that is the most fascinating for an Indian Tourist. Being a male dominated culture there were so many customs that sounded eerily familiar to our own.

The daughters were trained to cook, clean, sew etc, so that they can be excellent housewives.  They were called Nonyas. Arranged marriage to well-employed men, called Babas, with an elaborate 12-day wedding (yes, 12 days) was the norm.

The elderly women went scouting for daughters-in-law. The bride to be had to prepare and serve  Sireh. Sireh had Betel leaf lightly smeared with lime paste as well as betel nut slivers (Seeval) like Tamil Vethala Pakku. The Nonyas had to know how to make the Sireh well. If she folds the Sireh in the correct way then she is  thought to be well-trained. If the bride to be was not acceptable for any reason, the elder will simply not accept the Sireh indirectly saying “No” to the Nonya.

The 12 day wedding was very interesting. On the wee hours of Day 1 the bride and groom have to go through what they call as the “Hair Combing” ceremony in their own homes. It is supposed to be symbolic of the coming of age.

Later on day 1, the First Meal Ceremony happens when the bride and groom share a meal for the first time. They also feed one another some portions.  Most likely this the first time they meet each other. Sounds familiar, eh!

Then a procession of the bride and groom happens. Both of them have an attendant holding a  large umbrella to give them shade (the umbrellas looked somewhat like the ones we carry during processions of Hindu Gods in Southern India).

Aunts of the bride & groom follow them behind like in our Hindu Brahmin weddings.  But the Peranakan twist is that these guests will have to be specifically invited based on whether their horoscopes were matching with the bride and groom. Widows were never invited. If the lady had many sons, she was much preferred!

On Day 3, the Tea Ceremony with in-laws happens. Traditionally, this is when the in-laws give their wedding gifts to the bride and groom.

Like in our arranged marriages, a lot of gifts – furniture, vessels etc are given by the bride’s family to the newly weds. Interestingly, the Peranakans never use any nails in the furniture because of its association with coffins.

On the 12th day, the white kerchief placed on the bed for the first night is checked for virginity and if not the marriage could be canceled!

Peranakan Mourning

They also had elaborate rituals for their ancestors. Every home had an altar that has a cupboard which contains the ancestral tablets – one for each ancestor.

When the man of the house dies, the women go into mourning for 3 years. She has to wear a dress made of sackcloth for a period of time after which it is burnt. As time passes, the color of the dress changes to specific colors that indicate the elapsed time of mourning. It is only after 3 years that she can wear normal clothes. Of course, there are no such rules for men!

Overall, the brief tour of the Peranakan culture indicated how conservative cultures think alike across the world.

Epilog

Questions for the readers. When did Hinduism go to South East Asia? Was it with the Chola conquests in South East Asia?

Click here for the next post on Singapore.

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Ok, back to where I unceremoniously dumped you in my previous post.

One of the things people do in Singapore is, go on a High Tea Cruise. Most ferries start from the Marina South Pier & go on a 2.5 hour ride, past the Offshore Oil Drills. If weather permits, there is a stop-over at Kusu Island. Do this if you love being bored out of your skull. This was the lamest part of our trip.

After spending a mind-numbing hour on the ferry, drinking weak tea & nibbling on cloyingly sweet cakes – we couldn’t eat the savory puffs, since they only came in 2 kinds: Chicken & Beef – we got out on the island & stretched our legs. We were eager to see the Chinese Buddhist temple & the Malay Muslim Dargah in the island.  We were curious to learn the history of the temples & the significance of the Gods enshrined there.

But, there were no inscriptions in English. Nor could we find anyone to explain a damn thing to us. There were more mosquitoes on the island than there were tourists in the ferry. And the hungry buggers did a tattoo on my arm. Perhaps its not a coincidence that the island is named “Kusu”. Ask the nearest Tamil speaker to translate the word for you. This blog is all about decorum, propriety & prudery. So, I can’t tell you that “Kusu” means “Fart” in Tamil. You have to figure it out yourselves.

Our wish to see a beautiful, functioning Buddhist temple was granted soon enough. In fact, it was the most memorable part of our trip: Visiting the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple in China Town. When we visited the temple at 10 AM, a group of monks were chanting the scriptures in unison. I don’t know if its the acoustics of temples, maybe the resonating frequency – but it gave us goose-bumps. The monks were dressed in yellow robes & the other practitioners of the faith had black cloaks on. The images of a 100 Buddhas serenely eyed the proceedings from the chamber walls, smiling beatifically.

The 4th floor of this temple houses the tooth relic of the Buddha. It is kept under a Stupa made of beaten gold & it is taken out only twice a year: Chinese New Year & Vesak day. The public can see a video of the consecration of the tooth. Many people question the authenticity of the relic, though. As far as the wider Buddhist world holds, only Srilanka & China have original tooth relics of the Buddha. The one in Singapore was a gift from a monk in Myanmar & it could very well be a fake. For that matter, how do we ever ascertain the veracity of the relics in Srilanka & China? Matters of faith are best left unquestioned.

Back to the Singapore Zoo’s “Fragile Forest”. This section is at the very end of the zoo. As we entered the enclosure, we found a bunch of mesmerized people on the viewing platform. 2 ring-tailed lemurs were spiritedly playing, while a 3rd one languorously watched from its perch. Remember, this is an open zoo, with freely roaming animals. The lemurs were prancing about, brushing against people, their patterned tails flicking incessantly. They didn’t seem to mind the oglers. Nor were they even a teeny bit afraid of us.

I had a map of Singapore in my hands. One of the lemurs came near me, its amber eyes glistening impishly. It took – not snatched, took – the map from me, with its curious hand-like front paws. Upon inspection, which involved chewing, the lemur must have decided that the map wasn’t a toy. I sat down beside it & asked politely, “May I have my map back?”. The lemur raised it head & looked at me, face tilted to one side. Then, it gave me back the tattered map – which of course, was in a sad state of disrepair & rendered useless.

It then stood on me – my legs, actually – to get a better look at me, debating whether it should rag me further, thought otherwise, then pounced at another lady’s handbag.

BTW, the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) system in Singapore is a thing of beauty. There are 3 lines that criss-cross the island – East-West, North-South & North-East. The fares range from SGD $2 to SGD $2.80 per trip – SGD $1 of which is refundable. Passengers can recycle the tickets by feeding them into the automated vending machines to get their refund back.

If you ever plan to be in Singapore & have kids  or you are a kid at heart like us – do not miss the awesome Night Safari. We loved the “Creatures of the Night” show, an interactive performance in an amphitheater. Easy, cupcake. This amphitheater has no gladiators or hungry carnivores mauling each other. This is a show where cute animals perform their bag of tricks. But, the animal that stole our hearts completely did not do anything. It merely showed up in style.

There was a vine tied high up above the amphitheater. A pair of Binturongs clung to the vine & looked down at us, their whiskers quivering. These civet-like critters looked adorable, like teddy bears made of dark chocolate. Their size was comparable to a smallish dog. Once they were above the audience, they clung to the vine with their hind-legs & hung face down-wards, like bats, drooling copiously on a hapless man seated right beneath them.

They then gently alighted on their trainer’s shoulders & coiled themselves around his neck like a furry scarf. I very badly wanted to stroke & scrunch up their sweet, pointy little faces. But that’s against the zoo’s policy. That, plus the Binturongs seemed to sport syringe-like dental equipment. And I like having all my fingers intact, I’m rather attached to them.

If you press me to say out loud the 1 thing that irritated me the most in the trip – It has to be Flash Photography. In the Night Safari, the guide requested us – in 6 languages, to boot – not to use our flashes. Most of the animals were nocturnal creatures unused to bright lights & the flash might blind them. Or, scare them enough to make them lose control & run into the tram in panic, hurting themselves & the visitors. And you know what the morons did? Repeatedly? Used Flash!

I was so furious. The guides begged the visitors again & again, to refrain from using flash. I cowed down some of those unthinking cads in my stentorian voice, but there were just too many of them. We even saw a fool give his camera to his child. And the kid promptly used flash to take a picture of a Barn Owl. Which was so shocked, that it flew to the highest branches of a tree & had to be coaxed down by a park ranger. Really, if people don’t have even an iota of consideration for their fellow beings, why travel? I beseech them to stay in their caves like all other Neanderthals before them!

I’ll pen a subsequent post on Singapore, its numerous walk-ways & other attractions. But before that, I hand the baton over to Sukumar, to write his much awaited post on the Peranakans.

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The Republic of Singapore is a clump of islands situated roughly 1° North of the Equator. It is extremely hot, humid & sticky even in December. Even 6 AM may prove too muggy for people unaccustomed to the tropics. Since we roamed around like wildebeest, we were sweating profusely & our shirts stuck to our backs & arms. Those who don’t want to stink like skunks  should plan for a “costume change” in the evening: Not exactly preening for the cameras like Shivraj Patil, hope you catch my drift.

During the Monsoon season, the clouds may burst any minute & drench you to your skin in a trice. Hooded Raincoats & Umbrellas that can withstand strong winds are must-haves for travelers.

What is in my top-of-the-mind recall when I think of Singapore?

On the 1st day of our trip, we were nervously negotiating our way to the nearest MRT station – Outram Park. Since punishments for even minor offenses like jay-walking are severe in Singapore, we were very jittery. We were dazed, sleep deprived & the day was sultry. We were wondering if we were lost, wondering if we should ask for directions – a massive ego-crusher which Priya Raju seldom stoops to. At Sukumar’s insistence though, I reluctantly agreed to take a bus & ask the driver meekly for directions.

When we alighted the bus, we were greeted cheerfully by the bus driver – “Vaanga, Vaanga” (“Please Come In”) in chaste Tamil. We’ve been to other 1st world countries before. But never before have we encountered helpful Indians, that too Indians proudly flaunting their heritage. In fact, some of the Indians we met in the United States pretended to be so Americanized as to feign ignorance of their roots.

The bus fare was SGD $1 – and embarrassingly enough, we didn’t have the right change. We bumpkins had just got off the flight & the smallest denomination we had was an SGD $50 note. Red in our faces, we admitted such to the driver. To our utter amazement, the gentleman driver smiled, gave us 2 tickets & said – “Parava illai” (”Don’t Bother”). One of the perils of living in a big city in modern India is, we are so accustomed to rudeness & orneriness in people, that such gestures of kindness knock the wind off our sails. We stammered our thanks awkwardly, but forgot to get the name of the driver. We aren’t forgetting him in a hurry though. He actually set the tone for our perception of Singapore.

No trip to Singapore is complete without a visit to the Jurong Bird Park. Located in the Industrial zone of Jurong Hill, the Bird Park is the brain-child of the legendary Finance Minister Goh Keng Swee. Our 1st stop in the Bird Park was the “World of Darkness” – and we saw HEDWIG! In reality, its an owlery that houses nocturnal birds, including a few Snowy Owls like Hedwig. I was so taken by surprise, that I’m relieved I didn’t chant “Hed-wig, Hed-wig” like the unadulterated Harry Potter maniac I am.

My most favorite place in the Bird Park is the Lory Loft. Its a 3000 square feet fly-in aviary for Lorikeets & it is roughly 9 storeys tall. Lories are colorful, vivacious parrots from Australia & its environs. Visitors can feed them with a special nectar in a cup. All you need to do is, hold the cup aloft – and these bold, raucous, multi-hued birds alight on your arm, shoulder, head or back-pack & feed hungrily. Its a strangely satisfying experience. We were all giggling like kids – 10 year olds & 60 year olds alike. Of course, the Lories had more fun than us – they setup a riotous din with their screeches.

A Rainbow Lorikeet landed on my arm & seemed satisfied with my potential as a perch. Emboldened by this, I crooned to the bird – “Aren’t you a sweetie?”. The Lory, obviously in agreement, closed its eyes & said “Peep” softly. I pleaded gently, “May I touch you?”. Of course, we aren’t permitted to touch the animals, but I figured the Lory may not know the rule. Bad idea. That must have mightily offended the parrot, for it lifted its tail & did its business on my pants. Then said “SCREEEE!!” so loudly that I must have jumped 3 feet in the air.

What about the food in Singapore? I have a small confession to make. I don’t like Chinese Food. I don’t exactly hate it – I just don’t share the world’s obsession with that cuisine. I happen to think that Thai & Indonesian cuisines are wonderful specimens of the heights that Far Eastern food can rise to. I accuse Chinese food of a heinous crime. It makes everything taste like meat. And I mean, everything! Even their water tastes strange.

I & Sukumar believe in the apothegm, “In Rome, do as the Romans do”. We had read that Singaporeans frequent Kopi Tiams – local coffee houses cum food courts. So, we took ourselves to a famous Kopi Tiam in Bras Basah Road. Oh My. It was a vegetarian’s nightmare. Most of the stalls had Korean, Chinese or Japanese food – or so we gathered. The stench from the grilled meat was unbearable. Though a pure vegetarian, I’m no stranger to meat. Thus far, the only food that revolted me so much was the Tripe Soup that a fellow traveler had in Greece.

I spied some long-dead, skinned animal that resembled an elongated bat hanging from a meat hook. In God’s name, I know not what it is. My stomach did a somersault. Only long years of refinement stopped me from bolting out of the doors of the Food Court. After a few more false starts in other food courts in Singapore, we mostly visited restaurants – Irish, American, Italian, Mexican – in fact, any place where the kitchen was hidden from our view.

Ever heard a waiter from the Far East say “Fried Rice”? Chances are, a Thai waiter will serve you “Flied Lice”, amidst your protestations. I’ve read that Japanese lacks an “L”, so Alice of the Wonderland fame had to change her name to “Arisu”. Apparently, the Chinese share this dreaded disease. A funny incident happened on our way to the Asian Civilizations Museum. We flagged a cab & asked to be taken to the Armenian Street. Imagine our horror when the driver tried to shake us out in Almeida Street! I had to spell the name of the street for him. Then, he promptly said – “Oh, Almenian Street. Why didn’t you say so earlier?”.

Of course, this does not apply to the sophisticated, educated elite from the Far East in the corporate world. But, watch out for the swapping of “R” & “L” in Singapore. When they say “Haverock Road”, they mean “Havelock Road”.

The crown jewel of Singapore is of course its zoo. It is an open zoo, where most of the animals are free to move around. It isn’t uncommon to see that the zebras have moved in with the elephants for the day. Or that the Meerkats have sublet their space to a Crowned Crane. Animal lovers who hate to see forlorn looking beasts in oppressive cages will rejoice in this zoo. Truth be told, I was scared out of my wits to see even lions & tigers without cages: only a puny watery moat separated these predators from the visitors. I was relieved to see that leopards & jaguars – that can jump across piddly little moats without disarranging their fur – kept in enclosures.

Our most unforgettable experience was with the ring-tailed lemurs in the “Fragile Forest” section. But to know about that, you should read my next post.

Its a pity that Singapore is thought of purely as a huge shopping mall. There’s more to the country than that. I plan to write a couple more posts on Singapore’s plenitude of charms, before moving on to my beloved Srilanka, the land of my dreams.

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3 Themes

In our visit, 3 broad themes emerged – first is Singapore’s remarkable rise from a third world country struggling to find its feet to a bustling city state with per capita annual income more than 22,000 USD (by 1999). Most of the credit for this remarkable transformation, achieved in just 30 years, goes to Lee Kuan Yew, the legendary Prime Minister, who took office as a 35 year-old in 1959 and stepped down in 1990.

Second, Singapore’s achievement in integrating its multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-lingual population into a single whole, devoid of ethnic strife, is an example to the rest of the world.  How did they do that?

Third, the fantastic attractions -  Singapore Zoo, Jurong Bird Park, Sentosa Island and the Botanic Gardens.

In the first few days of our trip, we were very impressed by the superb Changi Airport, the modern MRT (mass rapid transit) train service, bus service and the highway system – overall, a first world infrastructure.

The material in this post is from the following sources:

1. One entire day spent in the Singapore National Museum.

2. We met with some friends and family and gleaned some information about Singapore.

3. Based on a recommendation, we picked up Lee Kuan Yew’s book “From Third World to First”.

Singapura

Singapore’s modern history dates back to the 14th century when Indonesian Prince Sang Nila Uttama spotted the island and decided to establish a city. Legend has it that the Prince and his entourage encountered a strange animal with red body with white chest and black head (sic) and decided to call it Singapura (Lion City) because he thought the animal was a lion.  In the following centuries, merchants from China, Malaya, India and other neighboring areas start settling the city. Its strategic location on the Malacca straits and the easy navigation from China and India piggybacking on the monsoon winds made Singapura a key location in South East Asia.

Singapore

Later in 1819, Sir Stamford Raffles from Britain decided to make Singapura a key British port due to its strategic location.  It is then that it got anglicized to Singapore. Raffles is celebrated in Singapore as the founder of modern Singapore.  Britain sent its prisoners and convicts from its colonies in India and neighboring areas to build Singapore and it quickly became a key maritime, commercial and trading hub of the vast British Empire.

Later during the Japanese territorial expansion in the 1940s, Japanese won a war with the British and occupied Singapore – a period of great misery for the Singaporeans which lasted until the end of the 2nd world war in 1945. As it came out of the Japanese occupation and started to rebuild itself, the British empire started to collapse and Singapore became independently governed. The People’s Action Party led by Lee Kuan Yew won the elections in 1959 with a key plank of merger with Malaya to create the Malay Federation. But thanks to ethnic riots between Malay and Chinese and other  reasons, Singapore was asked to leave the federation and it became an independent republic in 1965 with Lee Kuan Yew continuing as the Prime Minister.

Visionary Leadership

The real of story of Singapore’s rise started then. Lee Kuan Yew had several outstanding members in his cabinet including the brilliant Finance Minister Goh Keng Swee. From the beginning, Lee and his team focused on building investor confidence because they envisioned correctly that it is the investors that will create jobs. Goh, in a landmark decision, decided to invest 50 million dollars to create the state-of-the-art Jurong Industrial Estate. Initially it was derided as Goh’s Folly, but over time it became a magnet for multinational companies which forever transformed Singapore’s labor force and the economy.

Lee’s book covers the far reaching decision to make Singapore into a financial center. In 1968, they found that the international financial system ground to a halt between 6pm San Francisco time and 9 AM Zurich time (in a cycle that includes Zurich, London, New York and San Francisco). They decided to inject Singapore into the system to make a 24-hour financial system possible.  Over time with smart policy making Singapore became a key financial center of the world.

Singapore Government also guarantees an apartment home for every citizen at dramatically subsidized rates. Homes are made available according to one’s earning power. There are no homeless people  and no beggars in Singapore.  Our friends mentioned that the healthcare system is excellent. A quick back of the envelope calculation showed that medicines are quite expensive compared to India but not as expensive as the USA, but the consulting fee for the doctor is affordable.

National Integration

Our friends talked about the National Service patterned after Israel – every citizen upon completion of high school serve 2 years in the National Service and can be pressed into military service within a few hours when needed. This way, they keep the investments in building a full time military to a bare minimum. Post the national service, the citizens have to do 3-4 weeks national duty every year to keep their military skills well-honed. Every company is mandated by law to support this time-off.  It is said that the National Services is an important ingredient in integrating Singaporeans.

The one big thing that stood out for us is Singapore’s decision to make English the main language. School students study in English medium and are asked to study their mother tongue as the second language so that they don’t lose their roots.  With 75% Chinese, 14% Malay and 8% Indian Tamil and others forming 3%, they could have easily made Chinese the main language. By not doing that they avoided making one ethnicity superior to others. That move also avoided minority bashing and other majority-isms that are familiar to us Indians.

This melding of various cultures and the strong western influence in Singapore impacted their food, fashion and lifestyle giving rise to the Peranakan Culture. Who are the Peranakans?

We will cover that in another post. To read the next post in this series, click here.

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