Sometime in 1964, Dr Goh Keng Swee created a file code-named “Albatross” on Singapore’s increasingly fraught relations with Kuala Lumpur. In that file, he collected Cabinet papers as well as his own handwritten notes of his conversations with Malaysian leaders, leading to Singapore’s separation from the federation. Almost all the material in the Albatross file is being published here for the first time, together with the oral history recollections of Singapore’s founding leaders. Singaporeans can read the thoughts, fears and hopes of Mr Lee Kuan Yew and his comrades as they led the island-city to unexpected independence on 9 August 1965. Refusing to be intimidated and heedless of the personal risks they faced, they insisted on either a Malaysian Malaysia or negotiated constitutional rearrangements. As unexpected as it was — and for many of Singapore’s leaders then, an outcome they did not wish — Separation turned out to be “the best thing that ever happened to Singapore”.
