General Information and Demographics

“Singa-Pura” which means The City of the Lion is from where Singapore derives its name. The official name is The Republic of Singapore. It is a diamond shaped island in South East Asia, having an endless coastline of 193 km, surrounded by 60 smaller islets which are a part of the country. This ‘City-State’ is located in the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, serves as a meeting point between two vast water bodies – the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. Singapore is separated from Indonesia by the Singapore Strait and from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor. Due to this critical location of the country, it serves as one of the largest ports in Southeast Asia and is also one of the busiest in the world. Thus, Singapore is counted as the worlds 4th leading financial center, and plays a critical role in international finance as well as trade.

Topographically, the nation has hills of sedimentary rocks in the northwest region and sandy flat land in the east. Bukit Timah, which is built of igneous rocks and granite and is 206 m above sea level, is considered as the highest peak in the country. The island was initially covered with dense and tropical forests inland and mangroves along the coast. 40% of the land is utilized for parklands, reservoirs and plantations and 50% of it is urbanized.

Singapore is a city-state. A ‘City-State’ may be defined as that independent country which consists of a city which is not under the administration of another local government. The government lays special emphasis on essentials like water, and also stores resources like oil and sand. This way, they are not dependent economically or politically on any larger enterprise and meet the definition of a city as well as a fully sovereign state.

Taking into consideration all the islands, the total area of this country is about 704 sq.km, and as of year 2007 the approximate population is 4.8 million people. The Chinese constitute around 78% and 14% of the people are Malays. Indians also make up around 7% of the population of this multi-lingual state whose national language is Malay. The other official languages are English, Mandarin and Tamil. It is one of the most densly populated countries in the world, and in 2008 the population growth rate was 3.1%. The literacy rate in this country in 2009 was 96.3% and its currency is the Singapore Dollar. 1 Singapore dollar is approximately 0.74 U.S. dollars.

The Political System

On the 9th of August, 1965 Singapore became an independent republic from the Federation on Malaysia. Since then, the politics has been dominated by the People’s Action Party (PAP) even though in theory there exists a multi party system. In the election held in 2006, 82 of the 84 seats in the parliament were won by the PAP. The framework is that of a Parliamentary Republic and the Head of State is the Prime Minister. There exists a dominant party system and there are 3 branches present in the government – The Executive, The Legislature and The Judiciary.

The legislative power lies in the hands of the Parliament as well as the Government and the Judiciary is free of the other two divisions of the government. The executive power is vested in the government. Elections in Singapore are held every 5 years and after the election, the President appoints, from one of the members of parliament, the Prime Minister. It is known that the President is a figurehead or more of a representative character and has no actual power to make decisions for the state.

The Executive – It consists of the cabinet of Singapore which is composed of the President and the Government. It is collectively responsible to the parliament and controls law making to some extent. The cabinet is appointed by the President, after consulting the Prime Minister.

The Legislature – This body along with the President comprises the Parliament. It is made up of the elected representatives of the people. The charge of administration is in the hands of the speaker. The main purpose revolves around controlling finances, making laws and ensuring accountability.