Portal:Singapore

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Welcome to the Singapore Portal

Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree of latitude (137 kilometres or 85 miles) north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bordering the Strait of Malacca to the west, the Singapore Strait to the south along with the Riau Islands in Indonesia, the South China Sea to the east, and the Straits of Johor along with the State of Johor in Malaysia to the north.

In its early history, Singapore was a maritime emporium known as Temasek and subsequently a major constituent part of several successive thalassocratic empires. Its contemporary era began in 1819, when Stamford Raffles established Singapore as an entrepôt trading post of the British Empire. In 1867, Singapore came under the direct control of Britain as part of the Straits Settlements. During World War II, Singapore was occupied by Japan in 1942 and returned to British control as a Crown colony following Japan's surrender in 1945. Singapore gained self-governance in 1959 and, in 1963, became part of the new federation of Malaysia, alongside Malaya, North Borneo, and Sarawak. Ideological differences led to Singapore's expulsion from the federation two years later; Singapore became an independent sovereign country in 1965. After early years of turbulence and despite lacking natural resources and a hinterland, the nation rapidly developed to become one of the Four Asian Tigers.

As a highly developed country, it has one of the highest PPP-adjusted GDP per capita. It is also identified as a tax haven. Singapore is the only country in Asia with a AAA sovereign credit rating from all major rating agencies. It is a major aviation, financial, and maritime shipping hub and has consistently been ranked as one of the most expensive cities to live in for expatriates and foreign workers. Singapore ranks highly in key social indicators: education, healthcare, quality of life, personal safety, infrastructure, and housing, with a home-ownership rate of 88 percent. Singaporeans enjoy one of the longest life expectancies, fastest Internet connection speeds, lowest infant mortality rates, and lowest levels of corruption in the world. It has the third highest population density of any country, although there are numerous green and recreational spaces as a result of urban planning. With a multicultural population and in recognition of the cultural identities of the major ethnic groups within the nation, Singapore has four official languages: English, Malay, Mandarin, and Tamil. English is the common language, with exclusive use in numerous public services. Multi-racialism is enshrined in the constitution and continues to shape national policies.

Singapore is a parliamentary republic and its legal system is based on common law. While the country is de jure a multi-party democracy with free elections, the government under the People's Action Party (PAP) wields widespread control and political dominance. One of the five founding members of ASEAN, Singapore is also the headquarters of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Secretariat, the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council Secretariat, and is the host city of many international conferences and events. Singapore is also a member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the East Asia Summit, the Non-Aligned Movement, and the Commonwealth of Nations. (Full article...)

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The right to vote in Singapore is not explicitly stated in Singapore's Constitution, but the Government has expressed the view that it may be inferred from the fact that Singapore is a representative democracy and from specific constitutional provisions, including Articles 65 and 66 which set out requirements for the prorogation and dissolution of Parliament and the holding of general elections. Speaking on the matter in Parliament in 2009, the Minister for Law, K. Shanmugam, said that the right to vote could not be a mere privilege as this would imply the existence of an institution superior to the body of citizens that is empowered to grant such a privilege, but that no such institution exists in a free country. In 1966 a Constitutional Commission chaired by Chief Justice Wee Chong Jin advocated entrenching the right to vote within the Constitution, but this was not taken up by the Parliament of the day. When this proposal was repeated during the 2009 parliamentary debate, the Government took the view that such entrenchment was unnecessary.

In Taw Cheng Kong v. Public Prosecutor (1998), the High Court suggested on an obiter basis that voting is a privilege rather than a right. It has been suggested by law academic Thio Li-ann that, if called upon to decide the issue, the court might infer the existence of the right to vote in the Constitution from its text and structure, and from the fact that it is an adaptation of the Westminster system of democracy. If the right to vote were to be found to be implicit in the Constitution, the judiciary would be better able to protect the right when issues arise before the courts. (Full article...)

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Selected picture

Credit: Socksiong (15 November 2007)

The new and old buildings of the Supreme Court of Singapore. The older building was constructed in the 1930s and is now the National Art Gallery of Singapore. The new supreme court building was constructed between 2002 and 2005. Read more...

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General images

The following are images from various Singapore-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Afternoon thunderstorms are a frequent occurrence in Singapore, which has an equatorial climate. (from Geography of Singapore)
Image 2Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum (from Singaporeans)
Image 3The Marina Bay Sands integrated resort. Opened in 2010, it has become a key feature of Singapore's modern skyline. (from History of Singapore)
Image 4Fireworks over the Marina Bay skyline following the conclusion of the 2015 National Day Parade on 9 August 2015. (from History of Singapore)
Image 5Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum (from Culture of Singapore)
Image 6Jurong Industrial Estate, Singapore, with Jurong Island in the background (from Geography of Singapore)
Image 7Men of various ethnicities - Chinese, Malay, and Indian gather at a street corner in Singapore, circa 1900. (from Singaporeans)
Image 8The Supertree Grove at Gardens by the Bay (from Culture of Singapore)
Image 9Chinese community in Singapore carrying the Flag of the Republic of China (written Long live the motherland) to celebrate the victory, also reflected the Chinese identity issues at that time. (from History of Singapore)
Image 10St Andrew's Cathedral (from Singaporeans)
Image 11Traffic in Singapore, 1981. Prior to the introduction of the Certificate of Entitlement (COE) in 1990, vehicles per capita in Singapore was the highest in ASEAN. (from History of Singapore)
Image 12Old Supreme Court of Singapore (from Culture of Singapore)
Image 13Hainanese chicken rice (from Singaporeans)
Image 14The Plan of the Town of Singapore, or more commonly known as the Jackson Plan or Raffles Town Plan. (from History of Singapore)
Image 15Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival, led by a Japanese officer, marches under a flag of truce to negotiate the capitulation of Allied forces in Singapore, on 15 February 1942. It was the largest surrender of British-led forces in history. (from History of Singapore)
Image 16The Mao Kun map from Wubei Zhi which is based on the early 15th century maps of Zheng He showing Temasek (淡馬錫) at the top left, and Long Ya Men (龍牙門) on the right panel. (from History of Singapore)
Image 171888 German map of Singapore (from History of Singapore)
Image 18The country celebrates its National Day on 9 August each year. (from History of Singapore)
Image 19Portrait of Stamford Raffles by George Francis Joseph, 1817 (from History of Singapore)
Image 20The old and the new Singapore as seen from an alley behind Boat Quay (2023) (from History of Singapore)
Image 21Mass Rapid Transit (from History of Singapore)
Image 22The Jurong Industrial Estate was developed in the 1960s to industrialise the economy. (from History of Singapore)
Image 23A hawker centre in Lavender, Singapore (from Culture of Singapore)
Image 24Baedeker map of the city and environs, c. 1914
Image 25Restored shophouses running along a street in Chinatown, which reflects the Victorian architecture of buildings built in Singapore during the earlier colonial period, with styles such as the painted ladies. (from History of Singapore)
Image 26Enlargeable, detailed map of Singapore (from Geography of Singapore)
Image 27A fragment of the Singapore Stone, inscribed with an Indic script, c. 10th to 13th century. (from History of Singapore)
Image 28A statue of Raffles by Thomas Woolner now stands in Singapore, near Raffles's landing site in 1819. (from History of Singapore)
Image 29Deepavali decorations in Singapore. (from Culture of Singapore)
Image 30View of Bukit Batok Estate. Large scale public housing development has created high housing ownership among the population. (from History of Singapore)
Image 31Upper Seletar Reservoir (from Geography of Singapore)
Image 32Sign board with warnings in Singapore's four main languages: English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil (from Culture of Singapore)
Image 33Centre square of Raffles Place (from Culture of Singapore)
Image 34Singapore's urban geography is often characterised by extensive use of HDB flats, which the majority of citizens reside in. (from Geography of Singapore)
Image 35The Thian Hock Keng, completed in 1842, served as a place of worship for early immigrants. (from History of Singapore)
Image 361955 stamp with the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II (from History of Singapore)
Image 37Japanese POWs are taken to work where they were made to clear up the city during the British reoccupation in September 1945
Image 38Shophouses in Singapore (from Singaporeans)
Image 39Quadrilingual sign (from Singaporeans)
Image 40A busy Victoria Dock, Tanjong Pagar, in the 1890s. (from History of Singapore)
Image 41The Sultan Mosque, built in 1826 in the Kampong Glam district, is the oldest and one of the largest mosque in Singapore. (from Singaporeans)

Selected biography - show another

The smaller of two pieces making up Han's Seeds (2006), at the National Museum of Singapore

Han Sai Por (Chinese: 韓少芙; born 19 July 1943) is a Singaporean sculptor. A graduate of the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), East Ham College of Art, Wolverhampton College of Art (now the School of Art and Design of the University of Wolverhampton), and Lincoln University, New Zealand, she worked as a teacher and later as a part-time lecturer at NAFA, the LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts, and the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, before becoming a full-time artist in 1997.

Han has participated in exhibitions locally and abroad, including events in China, Denmark, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, and South Korea. Her first solo exhibition, entitled Four Dimensions, was held at the National Museum Art Gallery in 1993. Her sculptures can be found around the world, in Osaka and Shōdoshima, Kagawa Prefecture, in Japan; Kuala Lumpur and Sarawak in Malaysia; and Washington, D.C., in Singapore, sculptures commissioned from her can be seen at Capital Tower, the Defence Science Organisation National Laboratories, the Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay, the National Museum of Singapore, Revenue House, Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 3, Suntec City Mall, and Woodlands Regional Library. In 2001, Han was the founding President of the Sculpture Society (Singapore) and remains its Honorary President. She was the first artist in residence at the Society's Sculpture Pavilion at Fort Canning Park in 2009, where she worked on sculptures made from the trunks of tembusu trees. (Full article...)

List of selected biographies
Ho Yuen Hoe Gan Eng Seng Hugh Hickling Zubir Said Tang Da Wu Edwin Thumboo Teresa Hsu Fandi Ahmad Denise Phua Li Jiawei Glenn Knight Laurentia Tan Tao Li Yip Pin Xiu Neila Sathyalingam Walter Woon Rex Shelley Feng Tianwei Lee Choon Seng Balaji Sadasivan Choor Singh Kelvin Tan Xiaxue

Did you know (auto-generated)

... that Chinese Garden MRT station did not originally have access to the Chinese Garden?
... that the Loyang Tua Pek Kong Temple in Singapore houses effigies of both the Jade Emperor and Mahaganapati?
... that Singaporean performance artist Josef Ng was fined S$1,000 for partially exposing his buttocks and snipping his pubic hair during a public performance?
... that Tropicana was reportedly the first building in Singapore to contain nightclubs, restaurants, and a theatre?
... that Singaporean chef and restaurateur Tan Kue Kim cooked while wearing a S$40,000 gold Rolex watch?
... that Singaporean zoologist Bernard Harrison was disliked by an orangutan?

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In this month

2 February 1963: Operation Coldstore takes place. At least 111 anti-government left-wing activists were arrested and detained, including key members of the Barisan Sosialis.
8 February 1819: Sir Stamford Raffles signs a treaty with Sultan Hussein of Johor, thus marking the founding of modern Singapore.
15–25 February 1915: The Singapore Mutiny occurs as British Indian sepoys rose up against the British.
15 February 1942: The Fall of Singapore to the Japanese during World War II. This was described by Winston Churchill as the "worst disaster" and "largest capitulation" in British history.
21 February 2008: The International Olympic Committee awards the hosting rights to the inaugural Youth Olympic Games to Singapore.

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More did you know - show different entries

... that there have been proposed urgent eradication of Limicolaria flammea (pictured) in Singapore?

... that Ong Kim Seng is the only Asian artist outside the USA to be admitted into the American Watercolor Society, having won six awards from the society?

... that free MMS were sent out to all 5.5 million mobile phone subscribers in Singapore to alert them of the prison break of ISA detainee Mas Selamat bin Kastari?

... that Singapore paid uneducated women to get sterilised as part of its Stop at Two campaign?

... that John Little, established in 1845, is the oldest department store in Singapore?

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Selected panorama

Credit: User:Sengkang (4 November 2006)

VivoCity (Chinese: 怡丰城) is the largest shopping mall in Singapore, located at the HarbourFront precinct . Opened on 7 October 2006, it marked the completion of the main structure by a topping-out ceremony on 18 April 2006 and was officially opened on December 1, 2006.

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Check for latest announcements and updates at the WikiProject Singapore
Make yourself known as a Singaporean Wikipedian
Create or improve on the articles listed in the to do list
Share with us your level of proficiency in Singlish by putting one of the 4 Singlish Babel tags (1 2 3 4) onto your user page
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