State of Singapore (Malaysia)
| State of Singapore Negeri Singapura | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| State of Malaysia | |||||||||
| 1963–1965 | |||||||||
A 1959 map of Singapore | |||||||||
| Anthem | |||||||||
| Majulah Singapura | |||||||||
| Capital | Singapore City | ||||||||
| Area | |||||||||
• 1964 | 670 km2 (260 sq mi) | ||||||||
| Population | |||||||||
• 1964 | 1,841,600 | ||||||||
| Government | |||||||||
| • Type | Parliamentary government within a federal constitutional elective monarchy | ||||||||
| Yang di-Pertuan Negara | |||||||||
• 1963–1965 | Yusof Ishak | ||||||||
| Prime Minister | |||||||||
• 1963–1965 | Lee Kuan Yew | ||||||||
| Legislature | Legislative Assembly | ||||||||
| Historical era | Konfrontasi, Cold War | ||||||||
• Independence from the United Kingdom declared | 31 August 1963 | ||||||||
| 16 September 1963 | |||||||||
| 9 August 1965 | |||||||||
| |||||||||
Singapore (Malay: Singapura), officially the State of Singapore (Malay: Negeri Singapura), was one of the 14 states of Malaysia from 1963 to 1965. Malaysia was formed on 16 September 1963 by the merger of the Federation of Malaya with the former British colonies of North Borneo, Sarawak and Singapore. This marked the end of the 144-year British rule in Singapore which began with the founding of modern Singapore by Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819. At the time of merger, it was the smallest state in the country by land area, but the largest by population.
The union was accelerated by all parties, in order to mutually avert the spread of communism within Southeast Asia (domino theory), as communism was perceived as an existential threat to the governance of all pre-merger anti-communist union states. However, from the onset, the union was unstable due to mutual distrust and sharp ideological differences between the leaders of Singapore and of the central government in Kuala Lumpur. They often disagreed about finance, politics and racial equity. Singapore continued to face significant trade restrictions despite promises of a common market in return for a large proportion of its tax revenues, and retaliated by withholding loans to Sabah and Sarawak. In politics, the Malay-based United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) and Singapore-based People's Action Party (PAP), entered each other's political arenas, despite previous agreements not to do so. These resulted in major race riots in Singapore in 1964, which were attributed (at least in part) to instigation by UMNO and its affiliated newspaper Utusan Melayu for affirmative action for Singapore's Malay population.
These culminated in the decision by Malaysian Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman to expel Singapore from the Federation, and on 9 August 1965, Singapore became independent.