The Politics of Nation Building and Citizenship in Singapore

A Malaysia of Citizens: Ethnicity, Membership and Politics of Merger

“…Citizenship was a tool used by the Alliance to maintain Malay political dominance. Singapore's more liberal and egalitarian policies threatened this endeavour from the outset (Hill and Lian 1995). These two widely different citizenship models limited the possibilities of convergence.…”

“…The dichotomy has legal consequences in terms of the right to vote and to stand for election to the legislature (1964, xlviii). Lau (1998Lau ( , 2009), Tan (2008) and Hill and Lian (1995) have thoroughly examined the subject of citizenship in Singapore's merger with Malaysia. Written with the benefit of access to previously closed archival sources, the authors provided useful insights on the subject.…”

Issues of Citizenship, National Identity and Political Socialization in Singapore: Implications to the Singapore Education System

“…Indeed, the city-state is the primary agent in constructing a national identity (Hill & Lian, 1995;Koh, 2005). The state has enshrined in policy and in practice the important elements of Singaporean identity that can be subsumed into "multiculturalism, multilingualism, multiracialism and multi-religiosity" (Siddique, 2002, p. 563).…”

“…The PAP style of governance of the nation has been sterling and has produced tangible results both in the economy and general well-being of Singapore. Much of the success of PAP can be attributed to its corps of competent and dedicated leaders driven by the overriding governing philosophy of "pragmatism" (Hill & Lian, 1995;Khondker, 2002;Koh, 2005;H. Mutalib, 2002;Wee, 1995).…”

“…As a young nation-state it pursued a relentless and aggressive drive towards development necessitating the emergence and maintenance of a strong government. Guided by an elite corps of technocrats and leaders (Hill & Lian, 1995); (Vasil, 1984), Singapore has been able to amass significant amounts of capital both economic and human, to merit for the nation consistently top rankings as one of the world's most competitive nations (Garelli, 2007;World Economic Forum., 2009) and has even been described as the world's most globalized country (A.T. Kearney. & Carnegie Endowment for International Peace., 2007) .…”