There are perhaps, islands in the sun more fabled than the island of Singapore. But few, if any, have developed so far and so fast. From a mere sandbank at the bottom of the long green Malay Peninsula, the city of Singapore has grown to become an island nation of superlatives.

The Republic of Singapore, all 270 square miles, is the smallest, youngest, yet most economically advanced nation is the whole of Southeast Asia. Singapore’s Changi International Airport is the third busiest airport in all of Asia, and the Port of Singapore is arguably the world’s most busy container port. It is also home to 4.6 million of the best educated, hardest working people anywhere.

Most, if not all of the clichés one hears about Singapore are true. It is clean; absolutely totally, clinically clean. It is also green; not the dark, deep, gloomy green of Ireland, but the lighter, multi-hued green of the tropics. Singapore’s climate is, to use yet another cliché, balmy. Situated a mere 60 miles from the Equator, Singapore is closer to the sun than any other Asian city; the humidity should be oppressive yet rarely is. Cooling winds from the South China Sea on the eastern coast and the Straits of Malacca on the west, keep the daytime temperatures down to a courtly 75-80 degrees, while refreshingly cool showers lend the air a pleasant and moist fragrance in the evenings.

With such a climate, reasoned Singaporean officials several decades ago, it was entirely feasible that the city could be turned into an island wide garden of great natural beauty. Strict laws were passed, trees planted where none grew before, and citizens from all walks of life, both corporate and private, were encouraged to plant flowers, trees and shrubs. And so it came to pass that Singapore became known as the ‘Garden City of Asia.’

Today, first time visitors often get the impression that Singapore is not so much a major international business capital, as a large, well-maintained golf course dotted here and there with clusters of gleaming white skyscrapers.

The real splendor of Singapore may well be its people. Nowhere in the world, not in New York, not in Tokyo or London, will you likely find a more hard-working, more driven, more outward looking people. Nor will you likely find a more cosmopolitan people. True, 70 percent of Singapore’s people are ethnic Chinese. But the Chinese of Singapore are unique in that they see themselves as Singaporeans first and foremost and as Chinese only secondly. They have come to Singapore from all parts of Asia, from the ancient kingdom of Siam, from the tin mines of Malaysia, and from China itself. Some have lived in Singapore for centuries. Indeed, a well traveled Chinese trader named Wang Ta Yuan reported seeing many of his fellow countrymen working on the island in 1349.

Though the Chinese Singaporeans tend to set the fast pace tempo of the Lion City by sheer weight of numbers, Malays make up a full and robust 15 percent of the Republic’s population, and Bahasa Melayu is, in fact, one of the national languages (English is the language of administration and business.)
The traditional warmth and hospitality of the Malays, whose ancestors were the making of present-day Malaysia, southern Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, has gone a long way toward tempering the often assertive business style of the Singaporean Chinese into a polite beguiling persuasion. And, despite all the wonderful Chinese food, for which Singapore is justly world famous, the national dish, satay — spicy grilled meats on a bamboo skewer — is actually an age old Malay treat.

The third most important group in Singapore are the Indians; mostly Tamils from the southern half of the great subcontinent, as well as Sindhis, Sikh and Gujaratis. Indians have been crossing the waters of the Bay of Bengal to the fabled ‘golden peninsula’ of Malaya for a thousand years, and their present day social and economic influence in Singapore is far greater than their small numbers might suggest. The original name for Singapore − Singapura, is from the ancient Sanskrit. It was the early Indian settlers, fresh from the rubber plantations just across the Causeway in Malaya, who built the Istana, Singapore’s elegant Presidential Palace. It was also Singapore Indian workmen who built the beautiful and typically English church, St. Andrew’s, in the 1850s. All the more impressive was this feat considering that the illiterate laborers had never before set eyes on a Western church.

The balance of Singapore’s multi-racial population is a kaleidoscope of nations. There are Armenians, as well as Americans − oilmen and scientists, lawyers and computer experts − as well as Japanese electronics experts, Australian airline pilots, German bankers, Indonesian travel agents and Filipino entertainers.
The British are still there, too, though not in the same numbers as before. For those who stayed behind the retreating Empire to become naturalized Singaporeans there is much reason to feel at home here; polo, rugby and cricket are still amazingly popular, and street names like Victoria Street and Elizabeth Walk still reflect the British heritage of this former British colony.

Part of the secret of Singapore’s stunning success in achieving racial and cultural harmony may be from sheer necessity. Over the past four decades as much as two thirds of the population has been housed in high quality public housing. Previously, the Chinese tended to stay very cloistered together, while the Malays kept to their quiet kampongs and the Indians seldom ventured outside the area known as ‘Little India.’ But through the use of social engineering, today most Singaporeans live in close quarters to each other, regardless of race, religious or cultural background. And in the process, they have learned tolerance and understanding of widely different customs and traditions.

Things work in Singapore and damned well at that. You can dial a phone number to anywhere in the world and get through in seconds. Taxi meters are never in need of repair (as is common in so many cities worldwide), buses run regularly and on time. Tap water in Singapore is absolutely safe, and the Republic’s expertise on both water purification and desalination techniques are now being studied by the governments of China and India.

The postal service is superb, immigrations and customs officials are politely proficient, begging is verboten, touting is taboo and both graffiti and littering will get you a serious fine. Medical standards are world class — with medical tourism becoming a major growth industry (See page 6 for details on this.). Violent crime is basically extinct and government corruption is virtually unknown. One reason for this may be because Singapore’s civil servants are extremely well paid. In fact senior government ministers are the highest paid in the world. Prime Minister Lee, for example, earns an annual wage of $2 million, five times more than George Bush’s $400,000 salary.

Singapore’s stunning flower-strewn Changi Airport, which handles close to 40 million passengers a year, has been named the Best Airport in the World for nearly 20 years in a row by Business Traveller magazine. While Conde Nast Traveler has named Singapore Airlines the world’s best airline virtually every year for almost two decades. The list of superlatives just goes on and on.

The stunning social and economic success of Singapore has been attributed to several factors. Its unrivalled geographic location within a few hours flying time to both the ‘Dragon’ and the ‘Elephant’ (China and India), as well as its close links to both the United States, and booming Southeast Asia, and the ambitious, hard-working spirit of its own people has certainly played its part.

No matter how you look at Singapore — historically, economically, diplomatically, culturally or socially; its people, its pace, its future prospects, make it an amazing place. This is a city which never fails to awe even the most jaded of jet-setters. Where else in the world, can a traveler be given the opportunity to peek into the future and be presented with a preview of tomorrow’s world today?