Countries

Singapore

Singapore did not choose independence: it was expelled from the Federation of Malaysia in 1965, a forced separation Lee Kuan Yew announced on television in tears. It then built itself into one of the world's busiest ports and a major financial hub within a generation.

View from Marina Bay Sands over Gardens by the Bay and the Singapore skyline

Gardens by the Bay

Photo: Dietmar Rabich, CC BY-SA 4.0

Red stands for universal brotherhood and equality, white for purity and virtue. The crescent represents a young nation on the rise; the five stars stand for democracy, peace, progress, justice and equality.

© OpenStreetMap, URA

How it has changed

Lens