Quora Answer: What Do Singaporeans Think about Forced Multiculturalism in Singapore?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “What do Singaporeans think about forced multiculturalism in Singapore?”

Multiculturalism in Singapore is neither forced, nor explicit policy.  It is a consequence of Singapore being a trading hub from its earliest conception, so we have always taken for granted that there are a multitude of ethnicities and religions.  Since multiculturalism is part of the national identity, it is not something Singaporeans ponder about.

What is explicit policy is the racial dynamics between the four main racial groups: Malays, Chinese, Indians and Eurasians.  This, in itself, is also an artificial construct, since most people fall under more than one, and more than these four groups.

The Malays are essentially those of the archipelago, and are predominantly Muslims.  They also include groups that are culturally assimilated into the Malay community due to a shared religion, so Arabs and those from what is now Pakistan, are sometimes considered “Malay”.  Paradoxically, non-Muslim Melanesian groups such as the Filipinos, and Bataks are not.  The non-Muslim Malays were called Native Christians if they were Christians.  This is a legacy of the British Administration.  The local pidgin that evolved into the Malay language is the national language of Singapore.

The Chinese would be those who originated from China, even if this goes back centuries.  This includes the Straits Chinese, who use Malay as a language, and have assimilated much of Malay culture.  The official Chinese language of choice is Mandarin, by policy.  This is despite the fact that the vast majority of the Chinese are from Southern China, and their dialects are Hokkien, Teowchew, Cantonese and Hakka, for example.

The Indians are all peoples originating from the Indian subcontinent, whether India itself, Sri Lanka, or Bangladesh.  The Indian Muslim community, which is of South Indian extraction, is a major sub-group.

The Eurasian community is a hodgepodge that conveniently includes all Pan Asians and the descendants of Europeans.  Members of the Armenian, and Jewish communities have been lumped together by others.  The Portuguese Eurasians, the Kristang, are the largest members of this group.  That is my community.

As shown above, even within the so-called racial groups there is a great diversity.  Multiculturalism is inherent, and not enforced.  We can no more cease to be cosmopolitan than we can cease to be Singaporeans by nature.