Abstract
Since at least the 1970s, Singaporean leaders have consistently extolled the virtues of their rapidly modernizing landscape as a symbol of their great success. This success has traditionally been plotted along two lines. First, unlike their Southeast Asian neighbors, Singaporeans swiftly cleared away traditional kampong 1 dwellings and shophouses, and ordered the city-state into clean New Towns connected by pristine highways.2 Second, unlike New Yorkers and Londoners, Singaporeans distributed the fruits of rapid urban development among the populace and consequently better fulfilled the promise of social equality According to the national government, Singaporeans leveled the field, literally and figuratively. Former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew proudly explained at a national rally that the governing People’s Action Party’s (PAP) vigorous urban planning had resulted in “a deep sense of pride in the progress of Singaporeans as a whole,” a collective sense of “security, neighbourliness and well-being of residents in our HDB [public housing] estates and new towns.”3
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Richard Harris’s recent work on the late colonial period of British rule is especially relevant here. Harris argues the Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT) laid the groundwork for an efficient building industry despite its lack of funds and limited legal powers, contrary to the Housing and Development Board (HDB) narrative which excoriates the SIT for its lack of productivity. Richard Harris, “Singapore in Context: The Origins and Evolution of British Colonial Housing Policy, 1930s–1962,” paper presented at the Institute for Asian Research, National University of Singapore, March 13, 2002.
Lee Sheng Yi, “Business Elites in Singapore,” in Studies in ASEAN Sociology: Urban Society and Social Change, ed. Peter S. J. Chen and Hans-Dieter Evers (Singapore: Chopmen Enterprises, 1978), 46.
C. J. W.-L. Wee, “Our Island Story: Economic Development and the National Narrative in Singapore,” in New Terrains in Southeast Asian History, ed. Abu Talib Ahmad and Tan Liok Ee (Singapore: Singapore University Press, 2003), 146–47.
NAS, HDB 1094, Report by the Manager of the SIT, J. M. Fraser, September 24, 1951; National University of Singapore, Malaysia, and Singapore Collections; J. M. Fraser, The Work of the Singapore Improvement Trust (Singapore: The Trust, 1948).
United Nations, Tropical Housing Mission, Low Cost Housing in South and Southeast Asia, Report of Mission of Experts 22 November 1950–January 23, Document, ST/SOA/3/rev.1 (New York: United Nations, 1951), 34–35.
Seminar on regional planning, Regional Planning: Seminar on Regional Planning, Tokyo, 28 July to 8 August, 1958, ST SOA Ser. C 12 & 13 (New York: United Nations, 1958).
International Labour Organization (ILO), The Development of the Cooperative Movement in Asia (Geneva: The Office, 1949); UN Report of Mission of Experts 10, no. 28.
NAS, HDB Box 1239, ILO Report on “Workers’ Housing Problems in Asian Countries,” 1954, as referenced in ECAFE Committee on Industry and Natural Resources, “Urbanization and Housing in Asia and the Far East,” Seventh Session, September 25–29, 1962.
“Profile 4: International Labour Organization,” Population Index 44, no. 2 (April 1978), 213–14; J. M. Fraser, “Singapore, a Problem in Population,” Town and Country Planning 139 (November 1955) as cited in Gregory Clancey, “Toward a Spatial History of Emergency: Notes from Singapore,” Asia Research Institute Working Paper Series No. 8 (August 2003).
Pierre-Yves Saunier, “Sketches from the Urban Internationale: Voluntary Societies, International Organizations, and U.S. Foundations at the City’s Bedside, 1900–1960,” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 25 (June 1999): 380–403.
Quoted in David Belloch, “Bold New Programme: A Review of United Nations Technical Assistance,” International Affairs 33, no. 1 (January 1957): 36; C. M. Turnbull, “Regionalism and Nationalism,” in The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia, ed. Nicholas Tarling (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 2:597.
“Resolutions of the Economic and Social Council on Technical Assistance for Economic Development of Underdeveloped Countries, August 14 and 15, 1949,” International Organization 3, no. 4 (November 1949): 770–71; NAS, Microfilm NA 2618, “Housing in the Tropics,” UN Housing and Town and Country Planning Bulletin 6 (1952): 83.
NAS, Microfilm NA 2618, J. Graham Parsons, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs, “Asia and Western Policy,” Singapore American, September 15, 1959.
NAS, Microfilm NA 2618, Ralph I. Straus, “Role of American Business,” report to the Departments of State and Commerce as requested by Congress, February 15, 1960.
The mission explicitly referenced Jacobus P. Thijsse’s paper in their report. CU, Charles Abrams Papers, Reel 24, Report for the Government of Singapore as prepared by an Expert Mission appointed under the UN Technical Assistance Programme, c. 1963; “Metropolitan Planning in the Netherlands” (United Nations, New York, 1959).
Lee Sheng-Yi, The Monetary and Banking Development of Singapore and Malaysia (Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1991), 248.
CU, Charles Abrams Papers, Reel 24, “UN Experts’ ‘Go Ahead’ for Big City Face-Lift,” most likely Straits Times, c. 1963.
Provident Funds were begun in India (1948), Malaya (1952), Iraq (1956), Ceylon (1958), and a number of African countries in the 1960s as well. Victor Gerdes, “African Provident Funds,” Industrial and Labor Relations Review 24, no. 4 (1971): 572–87.
Lim Kim San, Minister of National Development, quoted in NAS, Microfilm NA 563, “New HDB priorities,” Straits Times, November 1, 1975.
NAS, Microfilm NA 563, “Home Comfort,” Straits Times, May 28, 1975.
Ibid.
Eighty-four percent of the total population lived in HDB flats in 1985, and eighty-six percent in 1995. Linda Low and T. C. Aw, Housing a Healthy, Wealthy and Education Nation through the CPF (Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1997), 45.
Robert Powell et al., No Limits: Articulating William Lim (Singapore: Select Publishing, 2002), 83–84.
Ibid., 74.
Robert Powell, Tay Kheng Soon, and Akitek Tenggara, Line, Edge, and Shade: The Search for a Design Language in Tropical Asia (Singapore: Page One Publishing, 1997), 15.
William S. W. Lim, Cities for People: Reflections of a Southeast Asian Architect (Singapore: Select Books, 1990), 44.
Xavier Guillot, “Flux economiques, transferts d’expertises et production immobiliere haut de gamme en Asie orientale,” Geocarrefour 80, no. 3 (2006): 171–82.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2008 Pierre-Yves Saunier and Shane Ewen
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kwak, N.H. (2008). Selling the City-State. In: Saunier, PY., Ewen, S. (eds) Another Global City. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230613812_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230613812_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-37395-6
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-61381-2
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)