Customer Reviews

Singapore: Wealth, Power and the Culture of Control (Asia's Transformations/Asia's Great Cities)

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In the book Singapore - Wealth, Power and the Culture of Control the author, Carl Trocki, describes the history of Singapore with a focus on the political environment, society, and the economy. He leads us through history in a chronological order from the early 1800's to current times, pointing out key periods and going into detail to describe important events during each period. I like the way the author structured the book; six chapters, the first three related to the colonial era (1819-1945) and the last three chapters focus on the years following 1945. That break-out makes sense because of the significant changes made in Singapore in the 1940's. The first three chapters focus on three separate topics; economies, society and politics. These topics are ideal in giving the reader an overview of how people lived during that time, the challenges they faced and the demographics. The factual data included in the book was fascinating. The author goes through the who's, what's, where's, and why's of Singapore's initial growth. Estimates of Singapore's population in 1850 were 52,000 males and only 7,500 females. The author blends in speeches and quotes from different time periods to support the author's views on activity during the time. From describing the demographics, the different products being produced and sold, the influence of politics and special interest groups, and the relationships with other countries, this book gives a wonderful historical perspective of life in Singapore.
An area that I think needs more depth is the economic section. This author goes into the economy and what changes occurred in the environment that caused the economy in Singapore to grow so rapidly during certain periods of time, but I would have liked a more thorough analysis of the 1990's. The author mentions the impact of oil companies and names a few of the companies that have invested in ports in Singapore. More information about the companies that started businesses in Singapore would have enhanced the section on the economy.
If you are looking for a historical view of Singapore's culture supported with demographic data, historical quotes from people in Singapore and personal experience and research conducted by the author then you'll enjoy this book.

The first thoughts that spring to mind when you mention the country of Singapore is a small island located somewhere in the middle of Asia that is overpopulated and good at math. Singapore is all of that and a whole lot more, from its seedy beginnings involving illegal drugs to a nation of high-rises, high-tech, and governmental control.

Author Carl Trocki does a good job of introducing us to the history of Singapore as we currently know it, but he also attempts to introduce to us the history of Singapore that we don't know about. He makes a good point of explaining that those who record history define it. According to Western civilization, Sir Thomas Raffles founded Singapore in 1819 when he established a British colony there. The reality is that there were people living there as far back as the 14th century. However, a weakness of the book is that this is the only mention of civilization possibly being on the island prior to Raffles, which is ironic because the reason the book was written was to explain the history of Singapore from a non-western historical point of view and leaving out what could be key information is disappointing.

As Trocki describes the beginnings of the British colonial society in Singapore, I couldn't help but notice the similarities between our country and theirs. In order to support the growth of a nation requires a large amount of low skilled, low paid workers. In Singapore, the cheap labor came from China from a group called the Coolies who paid to be brought there. Living conditions in Singapore were so bad that women were not allowed to live there until the early 20th century. The ones who did live there were mostly in the sex trade. Without much to do, many Coolies turned to using opium themselves and essentially became indentured servants who couldn't afford to repay the people brought them there in the first place.

I was surprised by how little the author covers the current government. Other than commonly known facts, there is virtually no additional information about Prime Minister Yew or the veil of ignorance he employs to retain his control. There is also limited information about how justice is administered other than to say the government does not allow for unions or dissent, which I finding surprising because I thought the book would be about learning the history of Singapore from a perspective other than the popularly held one.