It hits me every time I step off the plane: waterproof bottom pet pads sudden chill of full-blast air con and the distinct scent of orchid-tea fragrance diffuser. Airports can feel nondescript, but arriving at Changi – both today and long before the Covid-19 pandemic – is a uniquely Singaporean experience. On the way to passport control, walking through the perfumed air, you'll see immaculately kempt green walls and tidy water features, teams of janitorial staff (in both human and robot form) and high-tech washrooms with interactive feedback screens.

If you leave the airport expecting the rest of the city to be this orderly and clean, you won't be disappointed. Once described by the New York Times as a place "so clean that bubble gum is a controlled substance", Singapore is universally known for its perfectly paved roads, manicured public parks, and spotless, litter-free streets.

Singapore is known for its impeccable cleanliness and pristine public image (Credit: Credit: Tuul & Bruno Morandi/Getty Images)
Singapore is renowned for its impeccable cleanliness and pristine public image (Credit: Tuul & Bruno Morandi/Getty Images)
But cleanliness is more than a merely aesthetic ideal here. In this small city-state with just under 56 years of national independence under its belt, cleanliness has been synonymous with major social progress, unprecedented economic growth and, most recently, a coordinated containment of the coronavirus pandemic.

While Singaporeans themselves tend to humbly shrug off the suggestion their country is especially clean, its leaders have done everything they can to procure and maintain a pristine public image. "Singapore's clean reputation is something the government consciously sought to promote," explained Donald Low, a Singaporean academic and public policy scholar. "Originally, that cleanliness had at least two connotations: the first was physical, or environmental, cleanliness; the second was a clean government and society that didn't tolerate corruption.

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Having separated from Malaysia in 1965, Singapore, led by then-prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, had lofty ambitions of becoming a "first-world oasis in a third-world region", as he termed it. "As a newly independent city-state that was keen to attract foreign investments, Lee Kuan Yew believed, correctly, that these things would differentiate Singapore from the rest of South-East Asia," Low explained.

In practical terms, achieving cleanliness meant developing quality sewage systems, creating programmes to combat dengue and disease, a decade-long cleanup of the heavily polluted Singapore River, island-wide tree planting and the transition of once-ubiquitous street food vendors into covered hawker centres.

It also meant enacting a multitude of nationwide public hygiene campaigns appealing to Singapore's citizens to do their part. "Keeping the community clean requires a people conscious of their responsibilities," proclaimed Lee at the 1968 inauguration of Keep Singapore Clean, a now annual anti-littering initiative. Lee's speech sought to arouse a new sense of national pride among Singaporeans, appealing to a collectivist, waterproof and washable underpads that he saw as vital to achieving the nation's goals.