Insular Southeast Asia - Dragons and Tigers: A Geography of South, East and Southeast Asia - page 462

ing village known as T Temasek (Sea T Town) and later as
Singapura (Lion City). Control of Singapore meant that
the British East India Company (BEIC) controlled both
the northern and southern entries to the Strait of
Malacca.
By the 1830s, Singapore had become the major trad-
ing port in Southeast Asia. It was challenged by both
Manila and Batavia (Jakarta), but the island had certain
advantages. Most ships trading between China, India, and
Europe had to pass Singapore. Unlike its competitors,
Singapore was a free port. Furthermore, it was enmeshed
in the powerful British commercial and industrial empire.
Tin played a major role in Singapore' s development.
Tin miners in Malaya and Thailand imported their sup-
plies from Singapore and used the port to ship their tin to
the world. The island attracted traders of all kinds:
British, Indians, Malays, Arabs, and Chinese.
The Chinese were the labor force upon which Singa-
pore was built, and the city was the conduit for thousands
of Chinese laborers going to Malaya and the Netherlands
East Indies. Most Chinese came to Singapore as poor in-
dentured laborers hoping to make a fortune and send
money to their ancestral home. The forced opening of the
T Treaty Ports in China and the annexation of Hong Kong in
1842 (Chapter 10) accelerated the migration of Chinese—
not only to Singapore, but worldwide. Singapore remains
a predominantly Chinese country with a 78 percent
Chinese population.
By the late nineteenth century , Singapore had become
a major transshipment point as well as a commercial and fi-
nancial center. Here, products from Southeast Asia, such as
tin and rubber, were received, packaged, and re-exported.
The largest commercial firms were British. Growing num-
bers of Chinese-owned enterprises were linked to the
business web of the Chinese Diaspora . There was little
manufacturing in Singapore before 1960; three-quarters
of the population were involved in the service sector.
There was also a significant Indian contingent, fluctu-
ating from 6 to 12 percent of the population. The minority
was large enough to form its own community known as
“Little India.” The Indian community was far from united,
however. There were regional, religious, and caste divi-
sions. During colonial times, thousands were imported
from India as convict laborers to build Singapore' s infra-
structure. Free Indians were primarily merchants or
worked in public employment as teachers, policemen, and
the like. There were strong links between the Indian com-
munities of Singapore and Malaya. By the time of World
War II, Singapore was a multiracial, multireligious,
multilingual society governed by a British elite.

As of the 2001 census, Malays made up 66 per-
cent of the total population of Brunei. Most of the
rest are Chinese and a handful of indigenous
groups. About 11 percent are Asian and Western
expatriates (primarily British and Australian) con-
nected to the gas and oil industries.
Aside from oil, other primary sectors are not
well developed. Brunei is one part of the island of
Borneo where most of the forests remain intact. Oil
and gas are concentrated at Seria and Kuala Belait.
Production began at an onshore field at Seria in
1932. Now most production is from offshore fields
that continue to be explored by T Total and Shell. Re-
serves of oil and natural gas are expected to last for
40 years. There is little diversification of the oil in-
dustry . Downstream processing takes place in facili-
ties at Miri and Bintulu in Sarawak. In terms of
patterns of development, Brunei has emerged as a
tertiary-based economy with a small primary sector
and no secondary sector.
Brunei must import about three-quarters of its
food needs. Modern grocery stores are dominated
by halal foods—foods that are processed according
to Islamic law—but the main ones have small “non-
halal ” sections for the benefit of the expatriate com-
munity . McDonald' s and other fast-food chains are
prominent in Bandar.

Singapore: The “Intelligent
Island”

Geography is central to Singapore' is evolution. This 240-
square-mile (600 km 2 ) island, holding close to 5 million
people, is situated at the tip of the Malay Peninsula, sepa-
rated from the mainland by a narrow stretch of shallow wa-
ter. It is a pivotal, highly developed island in the Strait of
Malacca (Figure 16-14). This island city-state' is success is
contingent on its strategic location, as well as its relation-
ships with its closest neighbors—Malaysia and Indonesia.

ORIGINS
The British sought strategic ports to counter Dutch
power in insular Southeast Asia. They acquired Pinang in
1786, and, in 1819 the British flag was hoisted over Sin-
gapore by Sir Stamford Raffles. At that time Singapore,
with no more than a thousand people, was a small fish-