greatreporter.com, December 31st, 2006
Area: 699 sq km (270 sq mi)
Population (2006 est.): 4,408,000
Head of state:
President
S.R.
Nathan
Head of government:
Prime Minister
Lee Hsien
Loong
Singapore
found itself in the international headlines more than usual in 2006. When Temasek Holdings, the state investment agency, in January purchased a controlling stake in Shin Corp., a Thai conglomerate owned by Thai
Prime Minister
Thaksin
Shinawatra
,
Thaksin
's political opponents portrayed the sale as antinationalist. Months of protests followed, and
Thaksin
was ousted on September 19 in a military coup backed by Thai King Bhumibol
Adulyadej
. (See
Biographies.)
News of the coup diverted media attention away from the World Bank–International Monetary Fund meetings, which drew to a close in
Singapore
on September 20. The event was the biggest international conference ever organized by
Singapore
. The government was eager for all to go well and said that it would bar 27 individuals, all nongovernmental organization activists. The decision generated much controversy, and eventually
Singapore
allowed 22 of the barred individuals to attend.
On the domestic front, drama-starved Singaporeans followed closely the general election on May 6. The ruling People's Action Party (PAP) was led into battle for the first time by
Lee Hsien
Loong
, who had assumed the premiership in 2004. The PAP won 82 of the 84 seats in the parliament, and the status quo was maintained with the opposition retaining its 2 seats. PAP's 66.6% share of the popular vote, however, was down from the 75% it had received in the 2001 balloting. The results showed that the prime minister's coattails alone were no longer sufficient to carry the rest of the relatively inexperienced slate. The opposition Workers' Party was equally surprised that it had not done worse, given its slate of almost all political freshmen.
Official sanction for casinos in
Singapore
—an idea that had split the country the previous year—proved a nonissue at the polls, probably because it had been given more than sufficient airing earlier. There would be two major casino resorts in
Singapore
within the next five years, one in the downtown Marina Bay area, to be run by Las Vegas Sands, and the other on the resort island of Sentosa. The license to run the latter would be awarded at the end of 2006 or in late 2007.
In July the Kyoto Protocol on climate change took effect in
Singapore
. Even as officials worked out a national plan to meet its requirements, however, air acrid with hot burned ash—known locally as "haze"—blew into
Singapore
for weeks in October from Indonesian forests in Sumatra and Kalimantan. High prices for palm oil were apparently driving the rapid conversion of forest into palm-oil plantations.
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