Islam in Southeast Asia

5. Singapore

47 Singapore 2000 Population Census indicates that there are about 15 per cent Muslims in the Republic, 14 per cent of which are ethnic Malays. In numbers, this comprises about 450,000 in a population of 4 million people. The remaining 1 per cent comes from ethnic groups such as Arabs and Indians. The Republic’s ethnic composition has been, by and large, consistent for many decades — with the majority Chinese taking up 77 per cent and the other minority community, the Indians, 7 per cent. The male-female ratio of the Muslim population is about even, just like the Chinese. Singapore Muslims consists of quite a number of dialect sub-groups — such as Boyanese, Bugis, Javanese, and Malays with Indian and Arab descent, as well as Chinese converts — but there is a high level of unity since these groups generally regard themselves as belonging to the Muslim community. There has been a steady increase of Chinese converts to Islam, but their numbers remain small. The majority of ethnic Malays are Sunni Muslims. They are also “born Muslims” since they profess the religion of their ancestors who were generally Muslim when they first arrived at Singapore’s shores in the early centuries. In terms of geographical settlement, Malays (Muslims) are spread evenly throughout Singapore. This is the result of the Government policy of Chapter฀5 Singapore ISLAM฀in฀SEA฀p1-94.indd฀฀฀47 2/1/08฀฀฀11:55:12฀AM 48฀ Islam฀in฀Southeast฀Asia imposing ethnic quotas in public residential estates, where about 90 per cent of Singaporeans live. The Republic’s small size and its rapid industrialization growth, has made the entire Singapore island (measuring 699.4 sq. km., including 63 offshore islands) a modern “city-state”, with all ethnic groups residing in mixed neighbourhoods. Gone are the days when ethnic groups were located in residential ethnic enclaves such as Chinatown (for Chinese), Geylang Serai (Malays) and Serangoon (Indians) and were isolated from each other. Hence, Muslims today live side-by-side with other Singaporeans of different ethnic and religious backgrounds in a modern, cosmopolitan environment, an environment that invariably also shapes the role of Islam in the Republic. Although for historical reasons, the language of the Malays — Bahasa Melayu (Malay language) — has been adopted as Singapore’s National Language, the Republic’s internationalist and global orientation has made English the most widely used and most important language in the country, even among many Muslims, particularly the younger generation. HISTORY฀OF฀MALAYS฀AND฀ISLAM Many historians have concluded that, around AD 1300, a Malay settlement came into existence in this island, then known as Temasik. This Malay kingdom flourished given its contacts with the great Javanese empire of Majapahit, and also what is now Thailand, as evidenced by archaelogical findings. Intra-royalty rivalry, however, led to the flight of Temasek’s king, Parameswara, from Singapore and the gradual decline of Temasik as a thriving port-city. By the eighteenth century, the island-city became part of the flourishing Johore-Riau empire. ISLAM฀in฀SEA฀p1-94.indd฀฀฀48 2/1/08฀฀฀11:55:13฀AM Singapore฀ 49 Singapore’s re-birth began with the arrival of British colonialism in 1819. Representing the East India Company, Stamford Raffles negotiated with the Temenggong and Sultan Hussein of Johore to establish a British foothold in the island. From 1819–24, the control of the island was jointly shared by the British Resident, and the Sultan and the Temenggong, and from 1824, it was ruled as a Crown Colony. In 1959, Singapore gained full internal self-government status after an agreement with the British government. Singapore Malays (Muslims) were left much to themselves under British colonialism. In the realm of education, for instance, Raffles’ educational policy was mainly targeted at the higher echelons of the Malay aristocratic class. A historian, G. G. Hough, observed that Raffles’ idea was “to improve the standard of education in the native languages, and to give in addition some instruction in English and in Western science to those who seemed best able to profit by it. … His idea was to educate the country from the top downwards.” One of the consequences of this policy bias in favour of educating the Malay aristocracy is that ordinary ethnic Malays, when compared to the majority Chinese and minority Indians, were to occupy a lower socioeconomic status post-Independence. A similar orientation by successive British...