The politics of racialization and malay identity

Abstract

This article addresses how racialization can be applied to examine the state construction of Malay identity in Singapore. The conventional understanding of racialization is that it is a process that attributes differences to biological constitution, usually phenotypical characteristics. We take the broader interpretation that people racialize or naturalize differences and relations between races/ethnic groups even by referring to culture, religion, language, nation, or other issues. By examining the public and political discourses particular to some of these issues, we demonstrate how the state has racialized and influenced the development of Malay identity in various stages in the political history of Singapore: colonial, national, and global.