Into government buildings bedecked with red and white bunting last week filed 10,000 Singaporeans with two things in common. All were 19 years old, and all were being drafted. It was a new experience for Asia's newest state, which has never even had an army before, but it did not mean that Singapore was preparing for war. The creation of a National Service was simply the latest and most dramatic step in Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew's campaign to meld Singapore's polyglot population (1.5 million Chinese, 300,000 Malays, 175,000 Indians) into what he calls a "Rugged Society." Says Lee: "Societies...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
