Happy 50th birthday, Singapore

NEXT month Singapore will be throwing the biggest party in its short history, to mark the 50th anniversary of its independence. The tiny island-state has every reason to celebrate. In 1965, when it was expelled from a federation with Malaysia, its very survival seemed uncertain. Now it is one of the world’s richest countries, admired for its clean government, orderliness and efficiency. It combines low taxes with good public services, and regularly leads global rankings of the ease of doing business. Yet it also faces problems, such as a rapidly ageing population that is insufficiently creative and startlingly reluctant to have babies (see our t in this issue). To address them, it will need fresh thinking.Singapore’s success came despite long odds. This month an interviewer reminded the prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, that his father, Singapore’s founding leader, Lee Kuan Yew, had once called the notion of an independent Singapore “a political, economic and geographic absurdity”. It had no resources—not even enough water—no hinterland and a population made up of a combustible mix of Chinese (about three-quarters), Malays and Indians. It had parted brass rags with a neighbour five times more populous (Malaysia) and faced a campaign of “confrontation” from one 50 times bigger (Indonesia).