On The Military Withdrawal Of Britain And The Independence Of Singapore

The Second Word War was a tremendous strike to the British Empire. Because of the limited power, Britain had to shrink or regulate its strategy after the war. The withdrawal of troops from Singapore was one of these important steps. The pullout of troops meant colonial withdrawal and the end of British colonial domination of Singapore, which lasted for one hundred and fifty years. The British colonial withdrawal offered an opportunity of national independence as well as a brand-new challenge to Singapore. It was the period of furious combat in Indochina peninsula and South East Asia because of the cold war between the East and the West. So Singapore was put in the dilemma and had to resolve many problems both internal and external.When facing the rigorous reality, Lee Kuan Yew, who was the prominent spokesman of the new generation leader of Singapore, began to explore a path of national independence from various aspects together with his fellow colleagues. Defensive safety was the first realistic problem so the Singaporean government implemented a schedule of three important steps, which included the system of national service, the construction of naval and air forces and the development of foreign military cooperation. Britain's colonial withdrawal made a great impact on Singapore's economy. In order to fulfill the independence of economy, the government transformed the hangovers from British military withdrawal into civil facilities, reformed the precolonial union and encouraged the foreign investment in an active way. All these jobs were done in an open, flexible and pragmatic manner. As a British colony, Singapore conducted useful probes during the course of the political development. While taking over the colonial heritage such as separation of powers and the concept of the rule of law, this nation mixed the idea of nation, collectivism and authority up together and a kind of new political system which had special Singaporean features came into being. In social construction the government carded out a policy of social harmony which contained the equality of race and religion as well as language coexistence. This promoted the social welfare construction which had Central Provident Fund as its foundation.On the independent path of its initial phase of modernization Singapore possessed three magic weapons for succeeding to the colonial inheritance of Britain, venturesome innovation and people's devotion in the period of difficult times.