Singapore Government Military of Singapore Singapore relies primarily on its own defense forces, which are continuously being modernized. Its military was formed after the British pulled out of Singapore in December 1971. The defense budget accounts for approximately 28% of government operating expenditures (or 5% of GDP). A career military force of 20,000 is supplemented by 55,000 men on active National Service for a term of 2 to 2½ years depending on educational level and assigned military vocation, service is compulsory for all able-bodied young men who has reached 17½ years of age and not on deferment for educational reasons. Another 225,000 reservists who have completed active National Service and are placed in a 13 years stand-by period. These 'reservists' are liable for up to 40 days of active service every work year. Singapore defense forces engage in joint training with all the ASEAN nations and with the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Republic of China (Taiwan), and India. Singapore is a member of the Five Power Defence Arrangement together with the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Malaysia. Designed to replace the former defense role of the British in the Singapore-Malaysia area, the arrangement obligates members to consult in the event of external threat and provides for stationing Commonwealth forces in Singapore. Singapore has consistently supported a strong U.S. military presence in the Asia-Pacific region. In 1990, the U.S. and Singapore signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which allows the U.S. access to Singapore facilities at Paya Lebar Airbase and the Sembawang wharves. Under the MOU, a U.S. Navy logistics unit was established in Singapore in 1992; U.S. fighter aircraft deploy periodically to Singapore for exercises, and a number of U.S. military vessels visit Singapore. The MOU was amended in 1999 to permit U.S. naval vessels to berth at the Changi Naval Base, which was completed in early 2001. Military branches: Army (Three Combine-Arms Divisions: 3 Div, 6 Div & 9 Div, and two "Commands" : 1 & 2 People's Defence Forces) Air Force (Seventeen squadrons and four air bases) Navy (Seven squadrons and two naval bases) Police Military manpower - availability: males age 15-49: 1,354,857 (2002 est.) Military manpower - fit for military service: males age 15-49: 986,101 (2002 est.) Military expenditures - dollar figure: $4.47 billion (FY01/02 est.) Military expenditures - percent of GDP: 4.9% (FY01/02) Foreign relations of Singapore Singapore is non-aligned. It is a member of the United Nations--occupying a rotational seat on the UN Security Council 2001-02--and several of its specialized and related agencies, and also of the Commonwealth. Singapore has participated in UN peacekeeping/observer missions in Kuwait, Angola, Namibia, Cambodia, and East Timor. Singapore supports the concept of Southeast Asian regionalism and plays an active role in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. Disputes - international: two islands in dispute with Malaysia; referred to the International Court of Justice for arbitration. Illicit drugs: transit point for Golden Triangle heroin going to North America, Western Europe, and the Third World; also a money laundering centre. Laws Laws are often strict with a slight tendency to relax some laws, e.g.: chewing gum was forbidden until recently; discarding a candy wrapper on the street is heavily fined; car ownership is curbed through a government scheme in which residents must bid for a Certificate of Entitlement (COE) eating and drinking on buses and metro trains (also known as the Mass Rapid Transit system) also carries heavy fines; vandalism, if severe, is punished using caning. there is tough censorship for the older population: pornography is not allowed; depiction of sex and nudity is restricted, e.g. Playboy is not allowed; if allowed at all, the sex and nudity must be relevant to the context (even Cosmopolitan Magazine was banned until recently); The popular US Erotic HBO show " Sex and the City " is banned in Singapore private ownership of satellite dishes is banned, and international TV broadcasts can only be received by cable. drugs laws are very strict but efficient; anyone caught with 13-14 g (0.5 ounces) of heroin, 28 g (1 ounce) of morphine or 480 g (17 ounces) of cannabis faces a mandatory death sentence. People's Action Party The People's Action Party (PAP) is a political party in Singapore. The party was formed in 1954 by English-educated middle-class Chinese who had come back from Britain. It has controlled the Singapore government since the first official election there in 1959. Between 1963 and 1965, Singapore was a part of Malaysia and the PAP functioned as a Malaysian party. However, the prospect that the PAP might rule Malaysia upset the ethnic balance between Malays and Chinese. A crisis ensued and led to Singapore's separation from Malaysia. For many years the party was led by Lee Kuan Yew, who was prime minister from 1959 to 1990. The current prime minister, and secretary general of the PAP, is Goh Chok Tong. Lee Kuan Yew (ch. 李光耀, py. Lī Gūangyào, alternatively romanized Lee Kwan-Yew) (born September 16, 1923) is the current Senior Minister of Singapore. He was the Prime Minister of Singapore from 1959 to 1990. He was born in Singapore, and received his university education from the University of Cambridge in Britain. He returned to Singapore in 1949 to work as a lawyer. In 1954, Lee and a group of fellow English-educated, middle-class Chinese formed the People's Action Party (PAP), to agitate for self-government for Singapore and an end to British colonialism . Five years later, in 1959, Lee was elected as the first Prime Minister of Singapore. He was regularly re-elected until November 1990, when he stepped down and assumed the post of senior minister in the government cabinet, which he holds to this day. During the three decades in which Lee was in office, Singapore grew from a Third World country into a financial and economical powerhouse, despite its lack of natural resources and small population. He is widely respected by the people of Singapore, and has often been credited as the architect of its prosperity. Lee Kuan Yew has written down his memoirs in the book The Singapore Story, which covers his view of Singapore's history until its separation from Malaysia in 1965.