Little red dot

The sovereign country and city-state, comprising the main island and all its islets, has a total land area of approximately 750 square kilometres (290 sq mi; 190,000 acres) and is much smaller than its Southeast Asian neighbours.

Initially used as a pejorative by other countries to refer to Singapore, the term was quickly adopted and reappropriated by Singaporean politicians and citizens with pride as a sense of the nation's prosperity and success despite its physical limitations.

The term "little red dot" gained currency after the third Indonesian president, B. J. Habibie, was regarded as having criticized Singapore in an article published in the Asian Wall Street Journal on 4 August 1998.

Goh called the effect of the 1997 Asian financial crisis on Indonesia a "major tragedy", noting that the rupiah was worth only a fifth of what it had been against the US dollar in June 1997.

Other things mentioned by Goh include that the banking system had almost collapsed, the economy was expected to contract by 15% in 1998, and that riots had taken place in the country in May 1998, mostly targeting Chinese Indonesians.

"[2][5] The term "little red dot" has come to be used by both Singaporean politicians and ordinary citizens with pride and with a sense of the nation's success despite its physical limitations.