Lee Kuan Yew declared de facto independence - August 31, 1963

On this day in 1963, the prime minister of Singapore declared de facto independence for the country. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Welcome back to This Day in History Class,
where we reveal a new piece of history every day.
Today it's August thirty one, nineteen. The day was August

(00:24):
thirty one, nineteen sixty three, Prime Minister of Singapore Lee
Kuan You declared de facto independence for Singapore. It wasn't
until two years later, on August nine, nineteen sixty when
Singapore left the Federation of Malaysia and became an independent
sovereign nation. In nineteen fifty nine, Singapore held national elections

(00:50):
and the People's Association Party or p A P one
forty three of the fifty one seats in the Legislative Assembly.
The p AP he was founded in nineteen fifty four
as a pro independence political party. After the elections, it
became the first fully elected post colonial government. Singapore gained

(01:13):
a great degree of self rule, and the p A
P appointed Lee Kuang Yu the Prime Minister of Singapore.
The Federation of Malaya was made up of the nine
Malay states and the straight settlements of Penang and Malacca.
It had replaced the Malayan Union, which was a British
Crown colony and it gained its independence within the Commonwealth

(01:37):
of Nations on August thirty one, nineteen fifty seven. The
leadership of the p a P thought that Singapore, which
was small with few resources, would fare better if it
united with the Federation of Malaya. In a nineteen sixty
two referendum, seventy one of people voted in favor of

(01:58):
this merger, and on August thirty one, nineteen sixty three,
Prime Minister at Li Kuan You declared Singapore's independence from
British rule from the steps of City Hall. In order
to push for the merger, he pledged Singapore's loyalty to
the Federal government and Kuala Lumpur. At the ceremonial rally,

(02:20):
Lee said, we have the will and the wherewithal to
be a nation in our own right. That is the
right that we the people of Singapore today proclaim. But
the British government denied that this speech meant Singapore was
de facto independent. The federal and British government's questioned the
legality and validity of Singapore's claim to powers over its

(02:43):
defense and external affairs. The Federation of Malaysia was supposed
to be inaugurated on this day, to coincide with the
date of Malayan independence, but that was postponed until September
six so that the United Nations could have more time
to determine whether people in the Borneo territories of Saba

(03:04):
and Sarawak wanted to be part of Malaysia. On September six,
Singapore united with the Federation of Malaya, Saba and Sarawak
to form Malaysia. The p a P one thirty seven
seats in a general election five days later, but that
union did not last long. Malayan and Singaporean leaders could

(03:28):
not agree on political approach and economic and racial policy.
Singaporean politicians were unhappy with provisions in the Malaysian constitution
that gave the ethnic Malay majority special privileges, and Malaysian
politicians thought that Singapore's mostly Chinese population was a threat

(03:49):
to their Malay heritage. The p A P and the
United malays National Organization, the other major political party in Malaysia,
accused one another of communalism. Racial violence broke out in
Singapore in nineteen sixty four, and Malaysia's parliament voted to
expel Singapore from Malaysia. The two parties agreed to a

(04:12):
two year truth in September of nineteen sixty four, but
tensions did not ease by nineteen sixty five. On August nine,
nineteen sixty five, Singapore separated from Malaysia. The proclamation declaring
Singapore's independence was announced on Radio Singapore at ten am
that day. Singapore TV also aired a press conference that

(04:36):
Lee called for. He explained that the separation needed to
happen even though he believed in the merger. Lee's statements
had a much sadder tone than his announcement on August
thirty one, nineteen sixty three, and the initial response was disappointment.
Now National Day in Singapore is celebrated on August nine,

(04:59):
in Dependence Day in Malaysia is August thirty one. I'm
each Jeffcote and hopefully you know a little more about
history today than you did yesterday. You can learn more
about history by following us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
At t d I h C podcast Come back tomorrow

(05:22):
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