, who served as the first
resident of Singapore from 1819 to 1823 On 30 January 1819,
Sir Stamford Raffles, an Englishman who was the Governor of Bencoolen (now
Bengkulu, Indonesia), entered into a preliminary agreement with the
Temenggung of
Johor, Abdul Rahman Sri Maharajah, for the
British East India Company to establish a "
factory" or trading post on the island of
Singapore. This was confirmed by another agreement signed by Raffles, the Temenggung and
Sultan Hussein Shah on 6 February. In June 1823 Singapore ceased to be a dependency of Bencoolen and was placed under the control of the
Presidency City of Calcutta (
Kolkata) in the
Bengal Presidency. On 24 June 1824, Singapore and
Malacca were formally transferred to the East India Company, with the result that they came under the control of
Fort William. Full
cession of Singapore to the company by the Sultan and Temenggung was effected by a treaty of 19 November 1824, which was ratified by Calcutta on 4 March 1825. Between 1819 and 1826, Singapore was headed by two
Residents of Singapore in succession, Maj.-Gen.
William Farquhar and Dr.
John Crawfurd. In 1826, Malacca,
Penang and Singapore were amalgamated into the
Straits Settlements, which were made a
Crown colony with effect from 1 April 1867. The colony was governed by a
governor together with a
legislative council. An executive council was introduced in 1877 by
letters patent issued by
the Crown, Composed of "such persons and constituted in such manner as may be directed" by royal instructions, it existed to advise the governor and wielded no executive power. The governor was required to consult the executive council on all affairs of importance unless they were too urgent to be laid before it, or if reference to it would prejudice the public service. In such urgent cases, the governor had to inform the council of the measures he had taken. During the
Second World War, the
Japanese Empire invaded Singapore; the Japanese were victorious and set up their own government for a few years. Following the Second World War, the Straits Settlements were disbanded and Singapore became a Crown colony in its own right. The reconstituted Executive Council consisted of six officials and four nominated "unofficials". In February 1954, the Rendel Constitutional Commission under the chairmanship of Sir
George William Rendel, which had been appointed to comprehensively review the constitution of the Colony of Singapore, rendered its report. Among other things, it recommended that a Council of Ministers be created, composed of three
ex officio Official Members and six Elected Members of the
Legislative Assembly of Singapore appointed by the Governor on the recommendation of the Leader of the House, who would be the leader of the largest political party or
coalition of parties having majority support in the legislature. The recommendation was implemented in 1955. In the general election held that year, the
Labour Front took a majority of the seats in the Assembly, and
David Saul Marshall became the first
Chief Minister of Singapore. Major problems with the Rendel Constitution were that the Chief Minister and ministers' powers were ill-defined, and that the Official Members retained control of the finance, administration, and internal security and law portfolios. This led to confrontation between Marshall, who saw himself as a Prime Minister governing the country, and the
Governor, Sir
John Fearns Nicoll, who felt that important decisions and policies should remain with himself and the Official Members. , Singapore's first
Prime Minister, photographed in 2002 In 1956, members of the Legislative Assembly held constitutional talks with the
Colonial Office in London. The talks broke down as Marshall did not agree to the British Government's proposal for the
casting vote on a proposed Defence Council to be held by the British High Commissioner to Singapore, who would only exercise it in an emergency. Marshall resigned as Chief Minister in June 1956, and was replaced by
Lim Yew Hock. The following year, Lim led another delegation to the UK for further talks on self-government. This time, agreement was reached on the composition of an Internal Security Council. Other constitutional arrangements were swiftly settled in 1958, and on 1 August the
Parliament of the United Kingdom passed the
State of Singapore Act 1958, granting the colony full internal self-government. Under Singapore's new constitution which came into force on 3 June 1959, the Governor was replaced by the
Yang di-Pertuan Negara (Head of State), who had power to appoint as Prime Minister the person most likely to command the authority of the Legislative Assembly, and other Ministers of the Cabinet on the Prime Minister's advice. The Constitution also created the post of the British High Commissioner, who was entitled to receive the agenda of each Cabinet meeting and to see all Cabinet papers. In the
1959 general elections, the
People's Action Party (PAP) swept to power with 43 out of the 51 seats in the Assembly, and
Lee Kuan Yew became the first Prime Minister of Singapore. Nine other ministers were appointed to the Cabinet. The executive branch of the Singapore Government remained largely unchanged, although now it governed a state within a larger
federation. However, with effect from 9 August 1965, Singapore left the
Federation of Malaysia and became a fully
independent republic. On separation from Malaysia, the Singapore Government retained the executive authority it held, and took on additional executive authority over Singapore that the
Parliament of Malaysia relinquished. The
Yang di-Pertuan Agong, the Supreme Head of State of Malaysia, also ceased to be the Supreme Head of Singapore and relinquished his sovereignty, jurisdiction, power and authority, executive or otherwise in respect of Singapore, which was revested in the Yang di-Pertuan Negara of Singapore. The Republic of Singapore Independence Act 1965 then vested the executive authority of Singapore in the newly created post of President, and made it exercisable by him or by the Cabinet or by any Minister authorised by the Cabinet. The PAP has been repeatedly returned to power by voters and has thus formed the Cabinet since Singapore's
1959 general election. The Government is generally perceived to be competent in managing the
country's economy, and largely free from
political corruption.
Transparency International's 2010
Corruption Perceptions Index, which compares countries according to the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians, ranked Singapore in joint first place with Denmark and New Zealand out of 178 countries. In addition, Singapore was second only to New Zealand in the
Asia-Pacific region. On the other hand, the Government has been criticised for using unfair election tactics, such as discouraging voting for opposition parties in the
2006 general election by stating that wards that elect opposition candidates will receive state-subsidized improvements to public housing only after all PAP-held wards have been attended to. It has also been accused of violating
freedom of speech through Ministers bringing
defamation suits against opposition politicians, and by restricting the circulation of foreign newspapers deemed to have engaged in
domestic politics. ==Composition==