SINGAPORE, FLAG OF

horizontally divided red-white national flag with a white crescent and five stars in the upper hoist corner. The width-to-length ratio of the flag is 2 to 3. In the 19th century, British settlements in Southeast Asia were combined to form the colony of the Straits Settlements; the flag badge for its use on the British Blue Ensign was white with a red inverted Y bearing three gold crowns to represent Singapore, Malacca, and Penang. Singapore had no flag of its own, although its seal showed a lion to recall the meaning of the name (Lion City). There was also a city coat of arms showing a lion, granted in 1911. After World War II Singapore became a separate colony with a badge similar to that of the Straits Settlements but containing only one crown. Finally, on December 3, 1959, with the introduction of self-government, Singapore acquired its own flag. The stripes of red and white, standing for universal brotherhood and equality and for purity and virtue, resembled those in a number of neighbouring countries, including Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaya. In the upper hoist corner was a crescent, which was defined as being symbolic of the growth of a young country. The crescent framed five stars representing democracy, peace, progress, justice, and equality. When displayed on other national flags, the star and crescent are officially associated with Islam, but this is not the case with the flag of Singapore. There was no change in its flag when Singapore became one of the states of Malaysia in 1963, nor on August 9, 1965, when Singapore separated from Malaysia and became an independent country. In addition to its national flag, Singapore has special ensigns used for private, government, and military vessels. All incorporate the crescent and five stars as well as the national colours, red and white. Whitney Smith History Singapore Island originally was inhabited by fishermen and pirates, and it served as an outpost for the Sumatran empire of Srivijaya. In Javanese inscriptions and Chinese records dating to the end of the 14th century, the more common name of the island is Tumasik, or Temasek, from the Javanese word tasek (sea). Rajendra, ruler of the southern Indian Cola kingdom, attacked the island in 1025, and there was another Cola raid in 1068. In 1275 the Javanese king Kertanagara probably attacked Temasek when he raided Pahang on the east coast of the peninsula. According to a Chinese traveler, Wang Ta-yuan, just before 1349 about 70 Tai war boats besieged Temasek for a month but had to withdraw. The Javanese epic poem Nagarakertagama (written 1365) includes Temasek among the conquests of the Javanese empire of Majapahit. At the end of the 14th century, Temasek fell into decay and was supplanted by Malacca (now Melaka). Yet in 1552 it was still a port of call from which St. Francis Xavier dispatched letters to Goa, and Joo de Barros described its busy shipping activity in his history Dcadas da sia (15521615). Rajendra may have named the city Singapura (Lion City), later corrupted to Singapore, or the name may have been bestowed in the 14th century by Buddhist monks, to whom the lion was a symbolic character. According to the Sejarah Melayu, a Malay chronicle, the city was founded by the Srivijayan prince Sri Tri Buana; he is said to have glimpsed a tiger, mistaken it for a lion, and thus called the settlement Singapura. Robert Ho Thomas R. Leinbach East India Company In January 1819 Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles of the English East India Company, searching for a trading site, forestalled by the Dutch at Riau, and finding the Carimon (Karimun) Islands unsuitable, landed at Singapore. He found only a few Chinese planters, some aborigines, and a few Malays and was told by the hereditary chief, the temenggong (direct ancestor of the sultans of modern Johor), that the company could purchase land. The temenggong, however, was a subordinate of his cousin Abdul Rahman, sultan of Riau-Johor, who was under Dutch surveillance. Furthermore, Abdul Rahman was a younger son and not a sultan de jure. Raffles, disobeying instructions not to offend the Dutch, withdrew his own recognition of Abdul Rahman's suzerainty over Singapore and installed Abdul Rahman's elder brother, Hussein (Husain), to validate the purchase of land there on behalf of the company. The Dutch protested. In London the court of directors, though it decided Raffles had contravened instructions, took no action. In 1824 an Anglo-Dutch treaty left Malaya and Singapore in the British sphere, and in August the whole of Singapore Island was ceded to the British for a monetary payment. Two years later Singapore, Penang, and Malacca (Melaka) were combined as the Straits Settlements to form an outlying residency of India. In 1830 they were reduced to a residency under Bengal, and two years later Singapore became their capital. When the East India Company lost its monopoly of the China trade (1833), it also lost its interest in Malaya. The settlements were transferred to the direct control of the governor-general of India in 1851. In 1867 they were made a crown colony under the Colonial Office in London.