# Does (or did) Singapore own part of Borneo?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-or-did-singapore-own-part-of-borneo/167928
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 11, 2003, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-or-did-singapore-own-part-of-borneo/167928 "2003-04-11T00:45:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@TokyoTakarazuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoTakarazuka)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2003, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-or-did-singapore-own-part-of-borneo/167928/1 "2003-04-11T00:45:11Z")
I just finished reading a geography book by American author Kenneth C. Davis (which is probably not the most reliable source on the matter) that claims that, “Parts of Borneo joined Singapore when it became independent.” If true, what parts of Borneo did Singapore own, and do they still own them?
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### Author:  [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2003, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-or-did-singapore-own-part-of-borneo/167928/2 "2003-04-11T01:01:06Z")
Parts of Borneo and Singapore joined **Malaysia** when Malaysia became independent in 1963. Singapore left in 1965. No part of Borneo is or ever has been part of Singapore.
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### Author:  [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2003, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-or-did-singapore-own-part-of-borneo/167928/3 "2003-04-11T01:05:50Z")
> [@](#):
>
> [http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/sn.html](http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/sn.html)
> Founded as a British trading colony in 1819, Singapore joined Malaysia in 1963, but withdrew two years later and became independent. It subsequently became one of the world’s most prosperous countries, with strong international trading links (its port is one of the world’s busiest) and with per capita GDP equal to that of the leading nations of Western Europe.
> [@](#):
>
> [http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107963.html](http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107963.html)
> The Republic of Singapore consists of the main island of Singapore, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula between the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean, and 58 nearby islands.
> Inhabitants of the Malaysian peninsula and the island of Singapore first migrated to the area between 2500 and 1500 B.C. (see Malaysia). British and Dutch interest in the region grew with the spice trade, and the trading post of Singapore was founded in 1819 by Sir Stamford Raffles. It was made a separate Crown colony of Britain in 1946, when the former colony of the Straits Settlements was dissolved. The other two settlements on the peninsula—Penang and Malacca—became part of the Union of Malaya, and the small island of Labuan was transferred to North Borneo. The Cocos (or Keeling) Islands and Christmas Island were transferred to Australia in 1955 and in 1958, respectively.
>
> Singapore attained full internal self-government in 1959,. . . .
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### Author:  [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2003, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-or-did-singapore-own-part-of-borneo/167928/4 "2003-04-11T01:31:26Z")
Presumably the short excerpt quote in the OP was intending to infer that the Malay States, the two British colonies in Northern Borneo, and Singapore came together to form Malaysia… the sentence if written properly by the author would have read something like “Parts of Borneo joined Singapore, when it became independent, and the former Malay states to comprise the new nation of Malaysia.”
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2003, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-or-did-singapore-own-part-of-borneo/167928/5 "2003-04-11T04:06:41Z")
The funny thing about Singapore is that it _didn’t want_ to leave Malaysia in 1965 — but the other Malaysians kicked them out! I can’t think of a single other example of a country expelling part of itself. Usually countries try to get more territory, or at least keep what they’ve got.
The two Malaysian states in Borneo are Sabah and Sarawak. Sabah had been a British colony, known as North Borneo, prior to joining independent Malaysia in the 1960s.
But Sarawak was another oddment. Instead of being a British colony, for about a hundred years it was a kingdom ruled by a dynasty of Englishmen, known as the “White Rajahs.” An English adventurer named Brooke went there in the mid-19th century and helped the Sultan of Brunei put down a rebellion. As a reward, Brooke took most of the territory of Brunei!!! Leaving only a little smidgen which is the present-day Brunei. Sarawak was occupied by the Japanese in World War II, and after the war, Brooke’s grandson, the last of the White Rajahs, knew the game was up and he signed it over to the British government.