The Albatross File: Inside Separation

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”.

SUSAN SIM | EDITOR
Susan Sim has been a police officer, an intelligence
analyst, a foreign correspondent, a diplomat and a
counter-terrorism consultant.

Her biography of independent Singapore’s first Minister
for Law, EW Barker: The People’s Minister (Singapore:
Straits Times Press, 2016), won the Best Non-Fiction
Title at the 2017 Singapore Book Awards.

She also wrote two books on the National Crime
Prevention Council while serving as a board member,
and worked on the Singapore Police Force’s tribute
to its pioneers, Setia dan Bakti: 50 Stories of Loyalty
and Service.

She still writes the occasional commentary on terrorism
in Southeast Asia.