The Albatross File — created, named and kept by Singapore's first Defence Minister Dr Goh Keng Swee — sheds new and never before published insights on the story of Singapore's separation from Malaysia on Aug 9, 1965.It contains cabinet papers, conversation records and handwritten notes detailing vividly, a «dramatic, blow-by-blow record» of how Singapore came to separate from Malaysia. Speaking at the launch of the Albatross File exhibition and a 488-page book titled The Albatross File: Inside Separation at the National Library along Victoria Street on Sunday (Dec 7), Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong said he decided, when he was prime minister, to declassify and publish the file. SM Lee said he also asked for the file to be published alongside relevant extracts from the oral histories of key participants involved in the separation, to bring together and put on public record a «full documented account» of the separation, which he describes as «a seminal event» in Singapore's independence journey.  Read more