REPUBLIC OF SINGAPORE Official name: Xinjiapo Gongheguo / Republic of Singapore / Repablik Singapura / Singapur Kutiyarasu Location: South East Asia International organisations: The Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation Forum<, The Association of South East Asian Nations, The Commonwealth of Nations, The Non-Aligned Movement, The United Nations, The World Trade Organisation Borders: None (Singapore is linked by Malaysia by a causeway.) Coastline: Johore Strait, Singapore Strait

Land area: 693 Km2
Population: 4,400,000
Ethnicity: Chinese 76.7%, Malay 14%, Indian 7.9%, other 1.4%.
Languages: Chinese, Malay, Tamil and English all have "national language" status, but in practice English is the official language and the language of business and communications. Actual spoken first languages are: Hokkien 25.4%, Hakka 15.1%, Teochew 13.0%, Yue 9.7%, Mandarin (Guoyu) 5.8%, Hainan 4.2%, Min Dong 1% (Total Chinese languages 76.4%), Malay 11.4%, English 6.5%, Tamil 3.2%, Bengali, Japanese, Javanese, Malayalam, Punjabi, Sinhala, all less than 1%.
Religion: The majority of the population are at least nominal adherents of the traditional Chinese mixture of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. There is a substantial Christian minority. Most of the Malays are Sunni Moslems, while a majority of the Indian community are Hindus.
Form of government: Parliamentary republic.
Capital: Singapore
Constitution: The Constitution of the Republic of Singapore came into effect on 3 June 1959. It was amended on independence in 1965.
Head of state: The President, elected by direct universal suffrage for a six-year term. The President's functions are largely ceremonial. President Sellapan Rama Nathan took office on 1 September 1999.
Head of government: The Prime Minister, appointed by the President. the Prime Minister is the leader of the largest party in the legislature and is accountable to it.
Legislature: Singapore has a unicameral legislature, the Parliament, which has 93 members elected for five-year terms. Of these, 84 are elected from a mixture of single-member and non-proportional multi-member constituencies, and nine are appointed by the President.
Electoral authority: The Elections Department of the Singapore Government administers national elections.
Freedom House rating: Political Rights 5, Civil Liberties 4

Political history

The port of Singapore was founded in 1819 by Sir Stamford Raffles, Lieutenant-Governor of Bencoolen, as a dependency of British India. The island had previously belonged to the Sultan of Johore. By the 19th century most of its population was Chinese, although Indians, Malayans and Indonesians were also attracted to the busy port. There was no constitutional development in Singpore before its occupation by the Japanese in February 1942.

After the war pressure for self-government grew, especially from the labour movement. An elected Legislative Council was introduced in 1948, and full self-government followed in 1955. In 1959 Lee Kwan Yew's People's Action Party, then a socialist party, won government and has remained in power ever since. In 1961 Singapore, with its Chinese majority, rather reluctantly agreed to become part of the federation of Malaysia, but in August 1965 it peacefully withdrew and became an independent republic.

Under Lee's long prime ministership, Singapore enjoyed spectacular growth and a large degree of social harmony despite its complex ethnic mix. The PAP has long shed its socialist ideology and has provided efficient and corruption-free government. It has also created what is in effect a one-party state, with an electoral system designed to keep opposition parties out of Parliament, a tame press and draconian laws restricting political activity and opinion. Lee retired in 1990 and was succeeded first by Goh Chok Tong and then by his son Lee Hsien Loong.

The only opposition party represented in the Parliament is the Workers' Party of Singapore. Other parties include the National Solidarity Party, the Singapore People's Party and the Singapore Democratic Party. There is no chance that these parties can defeat the PAP, or even form an effective opposition. It is something of a mystery why the PAP, which rightly boasts that it has made Singapore into a "first-world" country, and would certainly win a free election on merit, feels the need to go on ruling like a third-world dictatorship.

Amnesty International's 2002 report on Singapore noted that: "The ruling People’s Action Party continued its domination of the political scene, winning 82 out of 84 parliamentary seats in elections in November. The opposition parties complained that constituency changes and a range of regulations imposed by the PAP made it more difficult for them to win votes. The Parliamentary Elections Act was amended, curbing the use of the Internet for political campaigning and banning the publication of opinion polls during elections.

"The threats of potentially ruinous civil defamation suits against opponents of the PAP continued to inhibit political life and engendered a climate of self-censorship. The Internal Security Act (ISA) and other restrictive legislation remained in place, thus continuing to allow for indefinite detention without trial and undermining the rights to freedom of expression and assembly. Government controls imposed on the press and civil society organisations also curbed freedom of expression and were an obstacle to the independent monitoring of human rights. In April a law was passed empowering the government to restrict or suspend foreign broadcast services considered to be engaging in domestic politics. Foreign print media were already subject to similar restrictions."