Singapore this year (2025) celebrates its 60th anniversary as an independent state. While no nation is perfect – and Singapore has its critics – there is no denying the island’s phenomenal success, racial and cultural integration, low crime and top international ranking when measured against a host of criteria. This article appeared in the January 2023 Proudly Independent newsletter.
SINGAPORE-ON-THAMES? DREAM ON
by Richard Pavitt
How often have you heard politicians aspire to mimic the success of Singapore? After all, who would not want low taxation, low crime, enviable racial integration, universal housing, exceptional schooling and world class healthcare.
The founder of modern-day Singapore and arguably the world’s most successful post-war leader, Lee Kuan Yew, was first and foremost a pragmatist. He recognised that key resources important to the island’s citizens should not be left to market forces. Consequently the island has a mixed economy with a high degree of government oversight of land, housing, municipal services and labour resources operating alongside a vibrant free market economy and enviably low corruption.
Singapore-on-Thames aspirants often overlook how this inter-relationship of state and private sector has contributed to the island’s success. For example, home ownership is enjoyed by more than 80% of the population thanks to state sponsored housing; and both government and citizens have an attitude to nature and the environment that recognises its crucial role in human wellbeing. Neither of these factors sit comfortably with the neoliberal tendencies of the UK’s Conservative-led government.
HOUSING FOR ALL
Compare and contrast housing policy. In the early sixties, when the Conservative Govt enshrined landowners’ right to profit in the Land Compensation Act, the Singapore govt did the opposite: it ensured enough land to build homes by enforcing compulsory purchase orders and capping land purchase prices. Lee Kuan Yew’s priority was the wellbeing of citizens not the profits of the privileged few.
Today, the majority of Singapore citizens live in homes built by the Government’s Housing & Development Board (HDB). Of these, some 90% are owner-occupied on 99 year leases purchased through various financing schemes. These can be sold in a govt-controlled resale market that allows for increased values. The HDB is also continuously building new housing.
By comparison, when the Thatcher government introduced right-to-buy for council house tenants in 1980 it was accompanied by a policy not to replace sold-off housing stock and instead to put housing supply in the hands – and at the mercy – of the market. This is now recognised as a strategic failure.
ECONOMIC CONTRAST
Singapore has the second-highest per capita GDP of any nation and AAA sovereign credit rating. The UK ranks 23rd in per capita GDP and is struggling to maintain AA credit rating. Turning the UK into a north Atlantic Singapore would require radical transformation of the British economy and a major change of mindset. Both Singapore and the UK are financial centres, but Singapore’s wealth goes far beyond banking. 22% of the island’s GDP comes from manufacturing. In the UK manufacturing represents less than 10% (down from 25% in the 1970s).
Singapore’s success owes much to a pragmatic, independently-minded approach that is not hung-up on ideology nor in awe of think tanks. Perhaps that is the model our political leaders should aspire to. Or perhaps Singapore simply has better politicians and a shared sense of purpose.
Declaration of interest: I was born in Singapore, my family base for 16 years before moving to Kota Kinabalu in Sabah, east Malaysia. My father was Director of Marine in the Singapore government in the 1960s.
RIVER CLEAN UP
Otters are now commonplace in Singapore city centre. It was not always the case. At one time the river that runs through the heart of the city was a smelly open sewer and otters were thought to be extinct. In 1977 Prime minister Lee Kuan Yew called for the clean up of Singapore’s rivers, saying “It should be a way of life to keep the water clean.” It took 10 years and kick started the island’s environmental improvement which today places Singapore in the top 10 greenest cities in the world. In 2007, the island’s state-run water and sanitation utility, the Public Utilities Board, received the Stockholm Industry Water Award for its holistic approach to water resources management.
Main photo (at top) of Otters in the city centre by Yong Lin Tan.