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Glossary -- Singapore
- Asian Development Bank (ADB)
- Established in 1967, the book assists in economic development
and promotes growth and cooperation in developing member countries.
The Bank is owned by its forty-seven member governments, which
include both developed and developing countries in Asia and
developed countries in the West.
- Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN)
- Founded in 1967 for the purpose of promoting regional
stability, economic development, and cultural exchange, ASEAN's
membership includes Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Singapore, and Thailand.
- Baba Chinese
- Descendants of marriages between Chinese men and Malay women,
many of whom moved to Singapore from Malacca in the early
nineteenth century. Although mixed parentage gradually disappeared
through marriage with Chinese immigrants, the Babas usually spoke
Malay or English as their first language and identified more
closely with Singapore and Malaya than with China. After
establishment of Straits Settlements (q.v.) in 1826, their
descendants also came to be known as Straits Chinese
(q.v.).
- Barisan Sosialis
- The Socialist Front, a left-wing political party that was the
primary challenger to the People's Action Party (q.v.) in
the 1960s and early 1970s.
- Commonwealth of Nations
- Often referred to as the British Commonwealth, the Commonwealth
is formally an association of forty-nine sovereign, independent
states that acknowledge the British monarch as symbolic head of the
association. Commonwealth membership is expressed in cooperation,
consultation, mutual assistance, and periodic conferences of
national leaders.
- Communist International
(Comintern)
- Founded in Moscow in 1919 to coordinate the world communist
movement, the Comintern was officially disbanded in 1943.
- Communist Party of Malaya (CPM)
- Known as the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) until the 1960s.
Founded in Singapore in 1930 with a predominantly Chinese
membership, the party carried out armed resistance to the Japanese
during World War II. From 1948 to 1960, its military arm, the
Malayan Peoples Liberation Army, practiced guerrilla warfare in the
rural areas of peninsular Malaya with the support of underground
organizations in Malaya and Singapore. In the late 1980s, an
estimated 500 guerrillas and the party leadership maintained
themselves in the jungles of the Malaysian-Thai frontier.
- Confrontation (Konfrontasi)
- Indonesia's 1963-66 effort to disrupt the new state of
Malaysia, which Indonesian leaders regarded as a front for a
continued British colonial presence in Southeast Asia.
- Emergency
- The 1948-60 communist insurgency in peninsular Malaya and
Singapore; most active between 1948 and 1951.
- European Economic Community (EEC)
- Originally established by the 1957 Treaty of Rome and sometimes
referred to as the Common Market, an association of twelve West
European nations with common economic institutions and policies
toward trade with non-Community nations. One of three communities;
besides the EEC, there are the European Coal and Steel Community
and the European Atomic Energy Community, collectively known as the
European Community.
- fiscal year (FY)
- April 1 to March 31.
- Five-Powers Defence Agreement
- A 1971 agreement (not a treaty) in which Australia, Britain,
and New Zealand promised military support for Malaysia and
Singapore if they were attacked by a foreign power.
- Generalized System of Preferences
(GSP)
- A policy promoted by the United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development under which developed countries grant tariff exemptions
to imports from developing countries. The United States GSP program
was authorized by the International Trade and Tariff Act of 1974
and was extended by the International Trade and Tariff Act of 1984.
Singapore "graduated" from the United States GSP program as of
January 1, 1989, as it was no longer considered a developing
country.
- gross domestic product (GDP)
- The value of domestic goods and services produced by an economy
in a given period, usually a year. Only output of goods for final
consumption and investment is included, as the value added by
primary or intermediate processing is assumed to be represented in
the final prices.
- gross national product (GNP)
- Gross domestic product (q.v.) plus income from
overseas investments and wages minus earnings of foreign investors
and foreign workers in the domestic economy.
- Group of 77
- Founded in 1964 as a forum for developing countries to
negotiate with developed countries for economic aid, by the 1980s
its membership had expanded from the original 77 nations to
include the 127 members of the Nonaligned Movement (q.v.).
- Her Majesty's Privy Council
- As the final court of appeal for certain Commonwealth
(q.v) countries, the Judicial Committee of Her Majesty's
Privy Council includes privy counsellors who hold or have held high
judicial offices in Britain and present or former chief justices of
Commonwealth countries.
- International Monetary Fund
(IMF)
- Established along with the World Bank in 1945, the IMF is a
specialized agency affiliated with the United Nations and is
responsible for stabilizing international exchange loans to its
members when they experience balance of payments difficulties.
- International Telecommunications
Satellite Organization (INTELSAT)
- Established by two international agreements effective in
February 1973, INTELSAT promotes the development of the global
telecommunications satellite system. In the late 1980s, there were
109 signatory member nations and 30 nonsignatory user nations.
- Jawi-Peranakan
- Malay term for the descendants of marriages between Indian
Muslim men and Malay women.
- Malayan Communist Party (MCP)
- See Communist Party of Malaya.
- Nanyang
- Chinese term meaning southern ocean and used to refer to
Southeast Asia.
- newly industrializing economics (NIEs)
- A category of cconomies of nations or other political entities
that experienced rapid industrial expansion and concomitant growth
in their per capita GNP in the 1981s.
- Nonaligned Movement (NAM)
- Formed at a conference in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in 1961, the
NAM promotes the sovereignty and territorial integrity of
nonaligned nations. By the late 1980s, there were 127 member
nations.
- Organisation for Economic Co-
operation and Development (OECD)
- Organized in Paris in 1961, the OECD represents developed
nations. Its twenty-four-nation membership, originally confined to
Western Europe, includes the United States, Japan, Canada,
Australia, and New Zealand.
- People's Action Party (PAP)
- Singapore's dominant political party, which has controlled the
government by winning every general election since 1959.
- sharia
- Muslim law, based on the Quran and precedents established by
early Muslim jurists.
- Singapore dollar (S$)
- Singapore's monetary unit, which in late 1989 had an exchange
rate of US$1 to S$1.94.
- Straits Chinese
- Chinese born in the Straits Settlements (q.v.) in the
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and more oriented to
Southeast Asia than to China. They often spoke Malay or English as
their first language.
- Straits Settlements
- Trading ports along the Strait of Malacca that were under
direct British rule during the colonial period in contrast to the
Malay States, which retained their native rulers. Governed from
1826 as part of British India, the Straits Settlements became a
crown colony in 1867. Although the major Settlements were
Singapore, Penang, and Malacca, the Straits Settlements also
included Dindings, south of Penang, and Labuan Island, off the
northern coast of Borneo.
- Total Defence
- Singaporean national defense strategy calling for a small but
well-equipped military force backed by trained reserves and an
extensive civil defense organization.
- World Bank
- The informal name used to designate a group of three affiliated
international institutions: the International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the International
Development Association (IDA), and the International Finance
Corporation (IFC). The IBRD, established in 1945, provides loans to
developing countries for productive projects. The IDA, a legally
separate loan fund administered by the staff of the IBRD, was
established in 1960 to furnish credits to the poorest countries on
much easier terms than those of conventional IBRD loans. The IFC,
founded in 1956, supplements the activities of the IBRD through
loans and assistance intended to encourage the growth of productive
private enterprises in developing countries. The three institutions
share a common president and senior officers and are owned by the
governments of the countries that subscribe their capital. To
participate in the World Bank group, member states must first
belong to the International Monetary Fund (q.v.).
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