EXCEPTIONAL CITY-STATE: SINGAPORE THROUGH LOCAL EYES

The Exceptional City-State traces Singapore's phenomenal development from the 1950s to the 60th anniversary (2025) of the independent city-state. It identifies and analyses the major factors that contributed to the city-state's development. The central thesis is that cultural, social and geopolitical factors were crucial to the Lion City's exceptional development and that the first-generation leadership laid the foundation of the city-state through a culture of achievement. The book presents a host of deepfelt insights into what brought Singapore's maturation and its ability to navigate and survive politically and economically as an independent nation. Readers are offered a more stable and thoughtful platform to examine concerns, such as the sustainability of city-states, by looking back at history. At the same time, the tome comes across as a narrative, the author's particular style, that offers the reader more than an academic exercise. Finally, local voices have the clearest say raising the issues in the city-state. The book has kept the spirit of the speakers, sometimes tongue-in-cheek. The reader might ask, "Do you really want to say that?" Response: "He, she, they said it!" Or, "It's my book!"