Singapore in Malaysia Federation, leading to the independence of Singapore on 9 August 1965. Racial tensions increased dramatically within a year. They were fuelled by the Barisan Sosialis's tactics of stirring up communal sentiment as the pro-Communist party sought to use means to survive against the crackdown by both the government of Singapore and the Federal Government. In particular, despite the Malaysian government conceding citizenship to the many Chinese immigrants after independence, in Singapore the Chinese disdained the Federal policies of affirmative action, which granted special privileges to the Malays guaranteed under Article 153 of the Constitution of Malaysia. These included financial and
Federation independence from the sovereign state, which only takes care of their foreign relations and defence. However, they are neither considered to be part of it, nor recognised as sovereign or associated states. The distinction between a federation and a unitary state is often quite ambiguous. A unitary state may closely resemble a federation in structure and, while a central government may possess the theoretical right to revoke the autonomy of a self-governing region, it may be politically difficult for it to do so in practice. The self-governing regions of some unitary states also often enjoy greater autonomy than those of