SG60 exhibition focusing on 1965 separation now open for booking

On Aug 10, 1965, Singaporeans woke up to newspaper headlines that Singapore had been turfed out of Malaysia, and henceforth would be an independent country.

- Chin Soo Fang Senior Correspondent

Alongside then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew’s teary-eyed “moment of anguish” press conference from the day earlier, the city state’s separation from Malaysia has long been seen as something akin to an ejection.

Over the years, however, a more nuanced picture of Singapore’s birth has emerged, such as in Mr Lee’s 1998 memoirs The Singapore Story, and a 2007 biography of former deputy prime minister Goh Keng Swee.

These accounts had relied on oral histories of Singaporean leaders and secret papers documenting separation negotiations that have not been made public - until now.

The newly declassified documents — Cabinet papers and handwritten notes compiled by Dr Goh and known as the Albatross File — are the subject of a permanent exhibition that opens on Dec 8 at the National Library Building in Victoria Street.

Jointly developed by the National Library Board (NLB) and the Ministry of Digital Development and Information, it was created by the team behind SG60’s Heart&Soul Experience and the 2019 Bicentennial Experience.