1964 Race Riots

On 21 July 1964 in Singapore, about 25,000 Malays gathered at Padang to celebrate Prophet Mohammed birthday. After the speeches, the procession went on to Geylang. Along the way, a group that was dispersed was asked to rejoin the procession by a policeman. Instead of obeying the orders, the group attacked the policeman. This incident lead to a race riot after the group of Malays also attacked Chinese passers-by and spectators.

A curfew that lasted from 9.30pm to 6am was then imposed to restore orders, but as soon as the curfew was lifted, the conflict grew more tense, and thus another curfew was imposed - only lifted for short periods for people to buy food. The curfew was completely lifted on 2 August in the same year. After the riots, goodwill committees were set up made up of community leaders from the various racial groups. The main job of these leaders was to help restore harmony and peace between the Malays and the Chinese by addressing the concerns of the residents. About 23 people lost their lives and 450 people were injured during the riot.

A second race riot occurred just a month after the first. This time, a Malay trishaw-rider was found murdered at Geylang Serai and his attackers were believed to be a group of Chinese. The race riot ensued, and another curfew was imposed. In this incident, 13 people lost their lives and 106 people were injured. Under the presence of troops and the imposing of curfews, these tensions eventually eased. However these and other tensions led to Singapore's expulsion/secession from Malaysia.