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Singapore ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE, 1955-65
In 1953 the colonial government appointed Sir George
Rendel to
head a commission to review the Singapore constitution and
devise
a "complete political and constitutional structure
designed to
enable Singapore to develop as a self-contained and
autonomous unit
in any larger organization with which it may ultimately
become
associated." The commission recommended partial internal
selfgovernment for Singapore, with Britain retaining control
of
internal security, law, finance, defense, and foreign
affairs. It
also proposed a single-chamber Legislative Assembly of
thirty-two
members, twenty-five of whom would be elected, and a
nine-member
council of ministers that would act as a cabinet. The
governor
retained his power to veto legislation. The British
government
accepted the commission's recommendations, and the Rendel
constitution went into effect in February 1954, with
elections
scheduled for the Legislative Assembly for April 1955.
Voters were
to be automatically registered, which was predicted to
greatly
enlarge the size of the turnout over previous elections.
Although
the new constitution was a long way from offering
Singapore full
independence, election fever gripped the country as new
political
alliances and parties were formed.
Two former members of the Singapore Labour Party, Lim
Yew Hock
and Francis Thomas, and a prominent lawyer, David
Marshall, formed
a new political party, the Labour Front, in July 1954.
Marshall,
who was a member of Singapore's small Jewish community,
had studied
law in Britain, fought with the Singapore Volunteer Corps
during
the Japanese invasion, and worked in the coal mines of
Hokkaido as
a prisoner of war. Under the leadership of Marshall, a
staunch
anticolonialist, the party campaigned for immediate
independence
within a merged Singapore and Malaya, abolishing the
Emergency
regulations, Malayanization of the civil service within
four years
(by which time local officials would take over from
colonial
officials), multiligualism, and Singapore citizenship for
its
220,000 China-born inhabitants. Marshall, a powerful
speaker,
promised "dynamic socialism" to counter "the creeping
paralysis of
communism" as he denounced colonialism for its
exploitation of the
masses.
Data as of December 1989
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