The Split of Malaysia Singapore Airlines (MSA) 1972

M'sia hoped to focus on domestic flights, SIA's first chief had global ambitions: Why S'pore-M'sia Airlines split

January 26, 2020

Speaking Truth to Power: Singapore's Pioneer Public Servants is a compilation of oral interviews with 11 of Singapore's pioneer public servants.

Edited by Loe Hoke Yong, the book features their personal accounts of the civil service's transition from the colonial era, their relationship with the political leaders of the time, and the rationale underlying the early years of Singapore's development.

Here, we reproduce an excerpt from the book featuring the perspective of J.Y. Pillay, the first Chairman of Singapore Airlines.

Pillay assumed his role in 1972, when Malaysia-Singapore Airlines split into Malaysia Airlines and Singapore Airlines. He held the position until 1996. From 2005 to 2019, he was Chairman of the Council of Presidential Advisers.

Speaking Truth to Power: Singapore's Pioneer Public Servants is published by World Scientific and you can get a copy of it here.

Xin Ming Road Bak Kut Teh

by Death Kopitiam Singapore

7 June 2025

𝐀𝐧𝐠 𝐘𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐞𝐡 洪荣生, 𝟔𝟓 (𝐝. 𝟏𝟎 𝐉𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓) 

Why Singapore banned Chewing Gum

[News Article from 2015 by BBC News Magazine.]

Why Singapore banned chewing gum

28 March 2015

IMAGE SOURCE,THINKSTOCK

By Elle Metz
BBC News Magazine


Lee Kuan Yew, who died on Monday at the age of 91, is famed as the man who turned Singapore from a small port into a global trading hub. But he also insisted on tidiness and good behaviour - and personified the country's ban on chewing gum. What was it about gum he so disliked?

Opium in Singapore - the history and background

 Video: Hikelopedia's [Singapore and the "Scourge of the Chinese"]

Hotel New World 1986

1986 seems not very long ago.

But it is almost 40 years ago (as of this writing in 2024)

And there was the disaster that was Hotel New World.

"Operasi Pukul Habis" - National Day 1991. Malaysia plays a prank on Singapore

 

Comments on the video:

Flashback 1931 - Adopting Convent Children

[From Aug 2018]

An application to adopt a young English girl whose father has abandoned her and her brother, and whose mother has passed away due to "consumption" (Tuberculosis).