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If I remember correctly from my visits in SG then the country was not rich from "the beginning", in fact it was very underdeveloped until the late 60s and beginning of the 70s and it worked out for them because of it was a dictatorship under Lee Kuan Yew and made the right decisions... and was tolerated by the West at the same time.

[cunthorpe]

Underdeveloped by whose standard? An underdeveloped city does not seek independence. You have to place it in its context. It probably was not the poorest city by a long shot even at its birth.

[emteycz]

It never seeked independence, it was expelled

[unmole]

That's the official position but the truth is a bit more complicated than that.

[notahacker]

It wasn't the poorest city, but it was a lot poorer than most of the cities it's now richer than.