My Smore Flyer
Done by Shafiqah
What did independence mean for Singapore?
There were also people who were upset and disappointed to separate from Malaysia as they felt that they could have a brighter future with them. Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew was extremely upset as he had believed in merger and unity of Singapore and Malaysia throughout his whole adult life. Mr S.Rajaratnam, Minister of Foreign Affairs also felt the same way as he said, "separation, to me, was the crushing of my dreams."
Most leaders in other countries were surprised as they didn't think that Singapore was capable to be independent but they expressed happiness for Singapore and hoped to have a friendly relationship with Singapore.
However, there were problems and changes that Singapore went through. They had lack of security as Singapore had a small defence force, so they had no defense against anything, making Singapore vulnerable. For example,Indonesia carried out attacks on Singapore by bombing Singapore from 1963 to 1966. Singapore's navy at that time only had two old gunboats and had no airforce. During the colonial times, Singapore depended on the British military for defence but was withdrawn by the mid 1970s thus threatening Singapore's security and stability.
The economy was also very poor since they had no natural resources to develop its economy. People fear that because of this, they can't be provide with jobs to which will eventually lead to starvation and poverty.