Growing Up Malay in Singapore

Abstract

AbstractThis article discusses the specific articulations of Malay identity for Malay secondary school students in one housing estate in Singapore. It focuses on the tensions and cultural processes in national identity formation as they affect Malay students. This discussion is facilitated through the juxtaposition of the concepts of Malay and non-Malay identity in Singapore. The article also deals with the issue of lower levels of achievement by Malay students. Schools in Singapore provide a myriad combination of choices for many students that result in interpretations and reinterpretations of identity based on situations that vary in place, participation and purpose. Being Malay in Singapore is a complex process that requires a negotiation of identity in the context of competing and sometimes conflicting models which change according to the situation. The choices presented to Malay school students reflect the same choices available in broader society; however, the school provides a common venue for those identity forms to interact. Being a Malay in Singapore is a compromise. The instances of this compromise are articulated on a continuum that runs from the hegemony of an overarching Malay ethnicity to the dissolution of this Malayness into a hybrid cultural identity. Lower performance may be an adaptive response for Malays in Singapore. The real issue may be that for many Malays, co-operation in the system of schooling means an acknowledgment of social inferiority.