Singapore Malay Identity: A Study of Dominant Perceptions of Islam in Post-Independence Singapore

Abstract

This thesis is a study of the Singapore Malay community. It examines issues of identity pertaining to the Singapore Malay community with a focus on self perception as a group and how they are in turn viewed and understood by the rest of the Singaporean communities particularly that of the ruling elites. An exploration of this sense of understanding of being Malay and also recognised as Malay is important given the context in which the Singapore Malay community is residing in, namely as a minority group in a country that is largely predominantly Chinese but yet having the tenets of multi-ethnicity, multi racialism and multi-religiosity as the fundamentals of the structure and governance of the Singapore society. With this reality, it is significant to examine how the Singapore Malays identify themselves as a community and how they navigate their identity as Malay in the context of this pluralism.