Beyond Bicentennial Perspectives On Malays

The year 2019 marks Singapore's Bicentennial milestone since the arrival of Sir Stamford Raffles in Singapore in 1819. It was in anticipation of the arrival of the Bicentennial that this book, Beyond Bicentennial: Perspectives on Malays, was initiated. This book is a collection of articles from prominent individuals and academicians that touch not only on the 200 years since the arrival of Raffles, but goes back much earlier, 720 years earlier, when Sang Nila Utama first set foot on the island in 1299.This book hopes to heighten the readers' sense of history and to reflect upon how Singapore has journeyed over the last two centuries, witnessing the perseverance, trials, challenges, and efforts of Singaporeans, and to see how the nation has gone through a transformation from a feudal setting to a cosmopolitan and multi-racial society.Prior to this book, Majulah! 50 Years of Malay/Muslim Community in Singapore was published in 2016 when Singapore celebrated SG50 — an initiative launched to celebrate the nation's 50 years of independence. The book highlighted the progress, the contributions, and the challenges of the community for the past 50 years since Singapore's independence in 1965.Both books can be read hand-in-hand. While Majulah! 50 Years of Malay/Muslim Community in Singapore called on the community to reflect on the past and to look ahead, this book, Beyond Bicentennial: Perspectives on Malays, calls on readers to reflect and re-examine the position and contributions of the Malays to Singapore's history and its development, as Singapore commemorates its Bicentennial.Related Link(s)

A collection of interviews, photographs, essays and personal reflections, Khairat Kita is a project documenting the last few remaining Malay/Muslim Mutual Benefit Organisations (MMBOs) providing aid and charity to their deceased members' families. Known as badan khairat kematian, they are volunteer, community-led initiatives based on a centuries-old tradition of mutual aid. Khairat kematian organisations are social anchors in the community and custodians of intangible cultural heritage in Singapore’s Malay/Muslim community. With around 20 such organisations left, declining membership and ageing committee members, the future looks uncertain for these MMBOs.

This edited book is a comprehensive resource for understanding the history as well as the current status of educational practices in Singapore. It is a one-stop reference guide to education and educational issues/concerns here. There are three sections: Part 1 provides a sectorial overview of how education has been organized in this country such as preschool, special needs, primary and secondary, and adult education divisions. In Part 2, contributors critically delve into issues and policies that are pertinent to understanding education here such as underachievement, leadership, language education, assessment, and meritocracy to question what Part 1 might have taken for granted. Part 3 contains the largest number of contributors because it offers a scholarly examination into specific subject histories. This section stands out because of the comparative rarity of its subject matter (history of Physical Education, Art, Music, Geography Education, etc.) in Singapore.

We, the citizens of Singapore, pledge ourselves as one united people, regardless of race, language or religion… Multiculturalism is arguably the X-factor of Singapore’s admired country brand. But while the island republic’s open­ness to the world is undoubted, its ethnic cohesiveness at home came under scrutiny amidst the stresses of pandemic times. In 2021, the government announced moves to establish new legislation for a Maintenance of Racial Harmony Act. This thought-provoking collection of 23 essays – by writers including Nazry Bahrawi, Viswa Sadasivan, Kenneth Paul Tan, Poh Yong Han and Margaret Thomas – reflects on Singapore’s progress, since independence in 1965, to integrate its component communities into one society and nation. Insights are drawn from diverse perspectives – Malay, Indian, Eurasian, Peranakan, Chinese and others. Lessons from the past are analysed, and the evolving challenges of the present candidly assessed. “One United People” – a quotation from Singapore’s National Pledge – is a timely reminder that racial harmony is never a reachable destination, but an ongoing journey, an aspiration that every citizen and resident can contribute to every day.

This book approaches the subject of contemporary art by exploring the social embeddedness and identities of Singaporean artists. Linking artistic processes and production to both personal worlds and wider issues, the book examines how artists negotiate their relationships between self and society and between artistic freedom and social responsibility. It is based on original research into the discourses and artistic practices of local artists, with a special focus on emerging artists and artists whose work and perspectives engage with questions of identity. Reimagining contemporary Singapore and their place within it, artists are asserting their multiple and heterogeneous self-identities and contesting hegemonic norms and notions, as they negotiate and adapt to the world around them. This book is relevant to students and researchers in the fields of cultural studies, media studies, art, sociology of art, arts education, and race and ethnicity studies.

How do children determine which identity becomes paramount as they grow into adolescence and early adulthood? Which identity results in patterns of behaviour as they develop? To whom or to which group do they feel a sense of belonging? How might children, adolescents and young adults negotiate the gap between their own sense of identity and the values promoted by external influences? The contributors explore the impact of globalization and pluralism on the way most children and adolescents grow into early adulthood. They look at the influences of media and technology that can be felt within the living spaces of their homes, competing with the religious and cultural influences of family and community, and consider the ways many children and adolescents have developed multiple and virtual identities which help them to respond to different circumstances and contexts. They discuss the ways that many children find themselves in a perpetual state of shifting identities without ever being firmly grounded in one, potentially leading to tension and confusion particularly when there is conflict between one identity and another. This can result in increased anxiety and diminished self-esteem. This book explores how parents, educators and social and health workers might have a raised awareness of the issues generated by plural identities and the overpowering human need to belong so that they can address associated issues and nurture a sense of wholeness in children and adolescents as they grow into early adulthood.

This volume explores how the city and the sea converse and converge in creating new forms of everyday urbanity in archipelagic and island Southeast Asia. As such, it rethinks the place of the sea in coastal cities through a mobility-inspired understanding of urbanity itself.

This book is a unique ethnographic study of a racially exclusive Malay Muslim gang, Omega, which has its roots in Singapore’s prisons and controls much of the illicit drug trade in the state. Similar to indigenous peoples elsewhere, Singapore Malays are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system and can respond to structural marginalization and colonization through gang involvement. In demonstrating that gang membership can be an adaptive strategy for minority groups, this book promotes a more inclusive and restorative justice model for people with repeat convictions.