Singapore

Historical Background

The CMIO classification has its roots in colonial history dating from the establishment of the island as a British trading settlement in 1819. The British ruled over a plural society composed of Indigenous Peoples from the Malay archipelago and increasing numbers of immigrants—especially traders and laborers—from China, India, and West Asia. Colonial rule was partly premised on essentialist notions about native and immigrant communities, [Page 1229]each of which were ascribed specific stereotypical racial and social attributes.

British divide-and-rule policy, for example, was manifested in the 1822 city plan devised by Lieutenant Phillip Jackson, sectionalizing Chinese in Kreta Ayer, Malaya, Arabs in Kampong Glam; and Indians in Chulia Kampong. British rule also saw the development of separate educational streams based on four main languages, namely, English, Chinese, Malay, and Tamil, with English-medium education serving the needs of colonial administration.

During the era of decolonization after World War II, the People's Action Party (PAP), founded in 1954, sought to unite the population by pledging equality of treatment for the four educational streams. The PAP's ideology of multiracialism was developed in the wake of interethnic tensions during the 1950s and 1960s, including during the brief merger with Malaysia (1963–1965).

Chinese

In understanding ethnicity in Singapore, it is necessary to probe beneath the CMIO paradigm. To begin with, people of Chinese ancestry have formed the majority of Singapore's population since the 1840s, and every census since 1921 has registered “Chinese” as constituting about three-quarters of the population. Since independence, the government has emphasized that the Chinese in Singapore are culturally rather than politically Chinese, that is, they do not owe political allegiance to China, especially with Malaysia and Indonesia as neighboring countries and, domestically, with Malays and Indians as ethnic minorities.

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