In 2015, Singapore will celebrate its 50th anniversary of independence. Few countries anticipate the future with more confidence. This book unravels the complex historical forces and circumstances that shaped this extraordinary nation. It tells of Britain’s late imperial visions and schemes, and of how their failure cast a long shadow on the story of Singapore’s incorporation into the Federation of Malaysia and expulsion from it. It tells of how leaders of Singapore’s PAP government rose from their debacle in Malaysia to disprove a myth that they and an entire generation had believed in, that a nation based on Singapore alone would be a joke.