Singapore: Singapore is an island lying on the southern tip of Malaya Peninsula, facing Sumitra, Java and Borneo on the south. Stanford Raffles of East India Company landed at Singapore in 1819 and eastablished a trading post there and looked to Singapore as a natural place for the development of port facilities. Subsequently, it was taken over by the British Government in 1826 and thereafter, it became a regional centre, under the jurisdiction of British India in 1836. Later on, with the establishment of rubber industry in 1890, it became a global centre for rubber sorting and export of rubber. After the first world war, the British developed a large naval base at Singapore from strategic considerations. During, the second world war, Japan captured Malaya and knocked at the doors of Singapore, where the Japanese commander Tomoyuki Yamashita issued an ultimatum to the British garrison to surrender. The British commander asked for 24 hours time to consider the surrender, which was not accepted by Tomoyuki Yamashita, who announced that the assult will continue. Ultimately Japanese captured Singapore and forced the British garrison of 85000 personnel to surrender. That was a turning point in the fortunes of the British. The act of surrender has been captured and preserved at Singapore, through a memorial, with real life images of the participating commanders during the surrender ceremony.
Singapore after the world war: With the surrender of Japan during the world war on 15 August 1945, the British regained possession of Signapore and Singapore became a crown colony headed by a governor. Before the second world war, the sun did not set under the British empire. Everything had changed for the British after the war, as they had been thoroughly mauled and bleeded during the second world war and had lost the physical strength and resources to keep the colonies under subjugation. Wide spread demands for self rule were coming up from almost all colonies during the post war period. General elections were held in Singapore in May 1959 and the Peoples Action Party won a land slide victory. Thereafter, Singapore became an internally self governing state, within the commonwealth, with Lee Kuan Yew as the first prime minister. Subsequently, Singapore gained independence and became the Republic of Singapore on 9 August 1965 and the process of turning a third world state into a world class economy, sparked a miracle and transformed almost everything.
Singapore is a parliamentary democracy. Executive power rests with the cabinet of Singapore, led by the prime minister. Peoples Action Party has won all elections in Singapore, with large majorities, commencing from 1959 during the self rule period and thereafter, from 1965 to 2015, when it gained independence and became a sovereign republic. Lee Kuan Yew became the first prime minister of Singapore in 1959 during the self rule period and thereafter, continued as prime minister after independence and formation of the republic from 1965 to 1990. Goh Chok Tong succeeded Lee in 1990 and served as prime minister upto 2004. Lee Hsien Loon the eldest son of Lew Kuan Yew, became prime minister of Singapore in 2004 and continues to be in the saddle.
Colombo Plan Staff College for technician education: Colombo Plan Staff College for Technician Education was established in 1973 for the promotion and development of a regional centre for technician education and vocational training by member countries of the Asia and the Pacific region. The member countries are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Iran, South Korea, Malaysia, Maldives, Myannar, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand. The staff college was deeply involved in the conduct of courses, conferences and seminars for qualitative development of teachers and administrative personnel of technical and vocational institutions of the region. It is an international, inter-governmental organization and its services are freely available to all member countries.
The first director of Colombo plan staff college for technician education was L.S. Chandra Kant from India, who was responsible, during his term of five years from 1975 to 1980, for the establishment of the college at Singapore and for providing opportunities to teachers and administrators associated with technician and vocational education in South Asian Region, for providing leadership for the design and conduct of entrepreneurship and skill development programmes in the region. Before taking up his assignement as Director of Colombo Plan Staff College at Singapore, L.S. Chandrakant was deeply associated with all development programmes of technician education in India during his tenure as Deputy Educational Adviser in the Ministry of Scientific Research and Cultural Affairs of the Government of India.
Conference of Directors of Technical Education: A conference of directors of technical education from countries of the South Asian Region was held at Colombo Plan Staff College for Technician Education, sometimes during July 1976. I happened to be one of the participants. The flight from Jodhpur to Bombay and thereafter, from Bombay to Singapore took me to the island state. We were lodged at Queen’s Hotel on Orchard Road and we had reasonably comfortable time there. The conference opened next morning in the conference room of Colombo Plan Staff College with all the fanfare, traditional handshakes and complimentary greetings. The number of participants attending the conference was twenty seven, which included directors of technical education and administrative personnel associated with training programmes of technician and vocational education from member countries. LS Chandrakant Director of Colombo Plan Staff College made the ball rolling with an informal introduction of the participants and their significant attainments and passed on the baton to the participants with the hope, that, they shall have sufficient time for free and unfettered discussions and deliberations, for meeting the challenges of technician and vocational education and entrepreneurship and skill development programmes in the region. The three week conference was a great learning experience. The participants interacted freely with each other and had opportunities to chair the formal sessions of the conference by rotation.
Economic Development Board: Economic development board of Singapore had started functioning in Singapore sometimes in 1973. During our stay at Singapore, the economic development board had invited the participants of our conference to attend the meetings of the board. I had an opportunity to attend one such meeting in July 1976. Singapore was an island state and therefore, availability of free land and natural resources were extremely limited. The major resource of Singapore was its strategic location. That raised visions of making Singapore as the business, cultural and trading hub of the world. At that time, 75% of the residents of Sigapore were of Chinese origin, 14% of Malaya origin and 10% of Indian origin. The rest were from other places. Initial planning was centred on providing living accommodation and avenues for work for every resident of Singapore. It was intended to build one room accommodation for bachelors, two bedroom accommodation for married persons and three bedroom accommodation for married persons with children, thereby, delinking the eligibility for public housing from considerations of income or financial resourses. It was also planned to provide avenues for employment for 80% of the people at their place of residence, for minimizing movement of people from place to place and to keep the traffic moving smoothly. Singapore has been able to extend its land area by almost 23% through extensive reclamation and has covered all available space into green parks and gardens full of tropical flora and therefore, it is popularly known as a garden city.
My days at Singapore: Three weeks of conference, with all types of people, speaking different languages and having widely varying backgrounds was a tremendous learning experience. In 1976, one US dollar was equivalent to 2.5 Singapore dollars and one Singapore dollar was equivalent to 2.5 Indian rupees. Singapore was full of plazas, which sold almost everything. The prices of food, clothing and most of the items of daily consumption were comparatively, very cheap. A branded shirt would cost two to three Singapore dollars. A suit length of cloth could be taken for ten Singapore Dollars and stitiching it to exact measurements involved another ten dollars. A large range of synthetic SARI from Japan were sold for ten to fifteen Singapore dollars. South Indian restaurants were a few blocks away from Queens Hotel. It was very relaxing in the evenings to walk down along Orchard road and to get a hearty south Indian meal of Idlis and Doshas for one Singapore dollar.