About Us

SG101 tells the stories of Singapore’s journey as a nation, and through the stories, help Singaporeans understand what makes Singapore it is today, and what makes us Singaporean.

The content is organised into five main chapters – ‘Defence and Security’, 'Foreign Policy', ‘Economy’, ‘Environment’, and ‘Society’, each covering the following broad themes:

• Our fundamentals, national identity and core values – what defines Singapore?

• Our enduring challenges and the new challenges that await us.

• What we did to succeed against the odds and what we need to progress together.

‘Defence and Security’ recounts how our pioneers built our defence and homefront security from scratch in the early days of our independence, to become the professional and competent Singapore Armed Forces and Home Team today. It also discusses how Singapore is transforming itself to meet evolving security challenges.

‘Foreign Policy’ outlines Singapore’s long-term national interests and how our foreign policy decisions are guided by them, so as to protect our independence and sovereignty, and to create political and economic space for ourselves. It discusses Singapore’s foreign policy principles and approaches behind the decisions, why we need to preserve the strategic autonomy and freedom to make our own choices, and why domestic support for our foreign policy is important.

‘Economy’ covers our founders’ efforts in building and growing the economy, and creating jobs for our people. It depicts Singapore’s early circumstances when we first gained independence in the 1960s and discusses our economic strategies during different periods of our growth.

‘Environment’ discusses Singapore’s perennial resource constraints such as water and energy, and how we have overcome them through resourcefulness and innovativeness. It also highlights our leaders’ visions for and the long-term approach behind our city’s urban-planning, and the dilemmas we face in finding a balance between preserving our heritage and meeting the community’s growing infrastructural needs.

‘Society’ traces how Singapore has come a long way in building and maintaining our multiracial society, from managing the communal tensions and racial riots of the 1950s and 60s, to forging a sense of belonging, inclusiveness and shared identity amongst Singaporeans. A huge part of being Singaporean is our experience of growing up in Singapore, which is the intangible aspects of the culture we share, be it in the food we eat or the Singlish we speak.