Flag of Singapore

The flag of Singapore was approved on December 3, 1959 and consists of two equal-sized stripes of red and white, with a crescent moon and five white stars on the red stripe in the upper left corner.

What is the meaning of the symbols and colors of the Singapore flag?

Singapore used to come from the Malay culture, which is closely related to Islam, so it had the following meanings: 

• The crescent symbolizes Islam;
• 5 stars symbolize the 5 pillars of Islam, which are highly respected by Muslims.

However, this was during the Malay Islamic period. Now the meanings of the crescent and five stars are different:

• the crescent means a young developed country. 
• The five stars stand for the five principles of Singapore: democracy, security, progress, justice and equality.

How did the flag of Singapore come about? History of creation

The flag of Singapore was designed in 2 months in 1959. In that year, Singapore received special autonomy to manage its internal affairs, so it was necessary to have its own flag to represent Singapore.

A flag committee was set up to design the flag and received several design proposals:

• The communist community (dominated by ethnic Chinese) wants a five-star symbol, like the flag of the People's Republic of China(1);
• The Chinese community wants a red color, which symbolizes happiness;
• the Malay community wants to have the symbol of Islam - the moon and stars, as on the Malaysian flag(3).

The symbols of the moon and stars are placed in such a way as not to seem too Islamic or too communist. This is because the leaders of the time wanted Singapore to be a country open to all ethnicities and religions.

The original design was a red flag with a crescent moon and five stars. But the red flag was considered too communist. In addition, the flag committee realized that Singapore is surrounded by two large archipelago countries, namely Malaysia(3) and Indonesia(2), so it was deemed necessary to create a flag that symbolizes Singapore as part of the archipelago. Therefore, white was added to the flag.

The flag of Singapore was officially approved on December 3, 1959. When Singapore joined Malaysia on September 16, 1963, and then became independent on August 9, 1965, the flag did not change.