The Historical Basis,Vision And The Goals Of Nation-Building And The Course Of Ethnic Integration Of Singapore

A batch of nation-states rise in Southeast Asia after The Second World War, many scholars believe that this marks the establishment of the nation-states, and as the prerequisite of the study. These Southeast Asian countries use the word "Nation" to define the independent state, however, the original meaning of "Nation" in English refers to single-nationality state, thus cover up the nation of the multi-ethnic of southeast Asia independent countries. Singapore belongs to one of post-war independent nations of Southeast Asia. This article presents that Singapore as a multi-ethnic society, there is a lack of understanding and trust among its race, much less for national identity. For the perspective of political science, independence simply means that Singapore won the political power of establishing country, and marks the establishment of a sovereign state. "Nation" is more of a political expression of ethnic lines, from the view of ethnonymics, Singapore’s independence is the beginning of the nation-state building, and it is a long way for the goal of nation-state conformation because of its complex ethnic background.Under the leadership of the People’s Action Party, Singapore government take the initiative to national integration consciously. From ethnic division and lack of ethnic understanding and trust to harmonious ethnic relations and strong national identity, this change is the result of Singapore’s nation-state building. On the "oughtness" side, Singapore’s nation-state building is not perfect and still has some problems, but on the "isness" side, it is successful. This article will discusses the conformation of nation-state from three aspects:historical basis, vision and goals and the course of ethnic integration of the conformation.