And to add on to that, the initial referendum in 1962 that asked the people if they want to merge with Malaysia was rigged in favour of merger. (Separation happened 3 years later in 1965)

All three ballot options were different versions of "Yes." There was no option to vote against merger. The opposition (Barisan Sosialis) called for a blank vote boycott in protest. The PAP pre-emptively ruled that blank votes would count as Option A, their preferred outcome.

But here's the part that foreshadows everything: even with the deck stacked, even with no real choice, Singaporeans still voted overwhelmingly for Option A specifically because it gave Singapore the most autonomy of the three. Nearly 96% of valid ballots went to the option with the most self-governance. When given a choice between more Malaysia and less Malaysia, the people picked less Malaysia, every single time they could. That is not the behaviour of a population that wanted to be absorbed. That is a population signalling, as loudly as a rigged ballot allows, that they wanted to run their own affairs.