Lee Kuan Yew has been the supreme political leader since 1959. He formally retired as prime minister on November 26 , 1990 . He continued as a senior minister in the cabinet until he was given the status of mentor minister.
Singapore's crucial ties with trade and finance centers in the Western world and Japan have been helped by an English language education.
Singapore is practically a single party, The PAP consistently held all the seats in the legislature until 1981 when the Workers Party's J.B. Jeyaretnam won a seat.
In early 1990 , the Constitution was amended to create six non- constituency members of parliament, allowing the six highest losing candidates to be members of parliament provided they have secured at least 10% of the vote. It is the only democracy in the world to have such a provision in the constitution.