1988

Parliamentary Elections: PAP wins 63% of votes in contested districts.
The Ministry of Education enforces the use of the right clenched fist over the heart during recital of the pledge.
The Privy Council restores JBJ to the practice of law and claims that he and a co-defendant from WP "have suffered a grievous injustice".
A law requiring the flushing of toilets and urinals is enacted, with fines of up to $1,000. Ministry of Environment inspectors are employed to look out for offenders. The Straits Times publishes "Toilets of Shame" articles when alerted to dirty toilets by its readers calling a hotline number. Amar Mohamed, a guilty non-flusher, has his face printed in the papers in June 1989.
The first independent schools begin functioning: Chinese High, Anglo-Chinese School and St Joseph's Institution.
SBC organises its first “Star Search”, a high-profile competition in search of local talents. A new star, Zoe Tay, is born.
The Artists Village is formed in a kampung on the outskirts of Singapore.
Action For Aids is formed.
Arthur Yap publishes “Man Snake Apple”, his most sophisticated collection of poetry.
Russell Heng's “Lest the Demons Get to Me” is banned. A staged reading is given in 1992.
(Two other gay plays also banned)
Catherine Lim's “O Singapore!: Stories in Celebration” published.
Adrian Tan publishes “The Teenage Textbook”
Dick Lee's “Beauty World” is performed.
GRCs are introduced with the 1988 elections.
The introduction of the first analogue mobile phone system under Singapore Telecom sees 6000 subscribers ringing in that year. Today, there are about 5 million mobile subscriptions in Singapore.
Teo Kim Seng, aka “The Terror of Bedok” is at large, raping four women from Jan-March 14, whereupon he is arrested in an ambush. He is sentenced to 25 years of prison on Feb 13 1989 and commits suicide by hanging himself in his Changi Prison cell on Feb 16 1990.
April: 9 of the original detainees of Operation Spectrum release a public statement describing their mistreatment in prison and declaring that they had been advocating not Communism but more democracy and freedom. 8 of them are arrested the same day, the 9th is out of the country and remains in self-exile.
May: Francis Seow, who has plans to run for Parliament as an opposition candidate, appears in court to represent Teo Suh Lung, the lawyer for the Operation Spectrum detainees. Hours after his court appearance, he is arrested and charged with being in close contact with an American embassy diplomat E. Mason Hendrickson (Seow claims he was meeting actually to arrange a cocktail party for visiting American judges). The government releases Seow after 72 days, in time for him to run for Parliament but not to organise a broad opposition movement.Hendrickson is expelled by the government alleging that he has been meeting with antigovernment lawyers to "manipulate and instigate Singaporeans in order to bring about a particular political outcome". When the American media reports on this expulsion, the Singapore government releases a torrent of abuse at the US, resulting in a bizarre diplomatic clash between close trade partners.
10 August: Kuo Pao Kun's "Mama Looking for Her Cat" is performed. It is Singapore's first multilingual play.
September: In parliamentary elections, the PAP wins all seats except for one, taken by Chiam See Tong. Francis Seow takes a non-constituency seat.
December: A Singapore appellate court rules against the government, ordering the release of 4 prisoners under the Internal Security Act. The following month, Parliament amends the constitution to eliminate judicial review of ISA detentions. The amendment is made retroactive to 1971.
December: The government hires private detectives to follow Seow for seven weeks.