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”.