Singapore is a modern Asian mini-state success story. This book is a brief and lucid account of the instrumentalities by which the government manages its multiracial and multireligious population — Chinese (mixed, but mostly Buddhist), Indian (mixed, but mostly Hindu) and Malay (exclusively Muslim). Its focus is the minority Malayo-Muslim community, the indices of its piety, the evolving politics and policies of its management, and the levels of its engagement with the other communities.
In discussing its minority status, the authors give a summation of the social theory of ‘enclavement’. In the light of their account of the ways in which the Malay community maintains itself, relates itself to and keeps itself apart from the other racial communities in the state within the framework of a managerial government, one could be forgiven for thinking that it was Clayton's enclave — the enclave you have when you don't have an enclave.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Malay (using the word in its widest sense) community of Singapore was integrated into the wider Malay world, making the island a hub centre for significant intellectual activity and publishing, and the diffusion of Reformist Islam, and a regional point of assembly and departure for the pilgrimage to Mecca. Notwithstanding that they had a minor role in the commercial life of the city, in their own community they had an active social, cultural and intellectual life.
In many ways, the Malays in contemporary Singapore have kept up with the growing prosperity of the other communities in the country, and are physically integrated into housing and educational facilities along with other races in government housing and the state educational system. These, by law, must reflect the proportions of the racial mix of the nation as a whole. The modalities and instrumentalities by which the government works to establish inter-community harmony and educational development, secular and religious, in its management of the economy, residence, education and religion are complex, and the book gives a lucid critique of their effectiveness.
It is the religion of Islam that defines the Malays as a community, and maintains their identity and uniqueness. The Chinese, though predominantly Buddhist, may without losing their ethnic identity embrace any religion or none; Indians though Hindus, may include adherents of other religions. A Malay, virtually by definition, cannot cease to be a Muslim. Their community has inbuilt rules, notably relating to diet, dress and marriage, that serve as instruments of social distancing which set limits, psychological as well as practical, to full integration with other communities. Provided certain defensive strategies are adopted, however, a measure of integration in the work place and in social life is possible and even welcomed. These instruments the authors refer to as halal consciousness, the madrasah dilemma and the hijab and marriage, discussed in Chapters 4, 5 and 6.
Men, though allowed by shari'a law to marry women ‘of the book’, prefer to marry within their own community of race and faith. For Malay women, marrying out, since forbidden by the shari'a, is not an option. Many would be reluctant to marry even a convert to Islam. The wearing of the hijab is viewed as a religious obligation, and to wear it is seen as a central aspect of piety (p. 96).
The meticulous concern that food and drink be halal is one of the most striking markers of identity and exclusiveness, and is to be observed in food malls, restaurants and school canteens. A view expressed by a male interviewee shows the high level of caution against contamination, ‘I have to constantly remind my children to be extra careful about food and drink when they go to [a national] school. They shouldn't share utensils, and must take care at the canteen’ (p. 76).
The analysis of piety goes no further than these outward markers. And according to these markers, the statistics quoted show levels of piety of a high order. Even so, it is noted (p. 38) that the Malays have higher rates of drug and substance abuse, higher rates of divorce than other communities, and a higher proportion of children born to unmarried mothers than the Chinese. This apparent contradiction needs further examination.
The general account is good as far as it goes, although there are some slips. ‘Beef – which is prohibited by Buddhism’ (p. 60), should read Hinduism, surely (?), and the odd expression ‘upgrading Islam’ (p. 108) jars somewhat. Yet something is missing. Somehow the impression is given of the Malays as an enclave that is not an enclave, as a homogenous, ‘managed’, not particularly interesting Muslim community, apparently following the Shafi'i madhhab. There is no sense of the colour, vitality or the internal tensions that are part of any living community. There is no reference to the celebration of the two great festivals of the Muslim year, or to maulud or Isra' mi'raj, no reference to the levels of observance of the daily ritual prayer, or participation in the hajj; no reference to issues of contention such as moon-sighting for the beginning and end of Ramadan or the observance of the fast; no reference to contentious issues such as female circumcision which, in a benign, virtually symbolic form, is practised widely in the region. There is no reference to the presence or role of Sufi tariqas, or of ‘Reformism’, ‘Modernism’ and ‘Neo-Modernism’ in the living and thinking of Islam, or Malay language publishing. It is a far cry from the role of the Malay and Malay peranakan communities of 1900. There must be a broader picture in which these activities – embedded in the very heart of piety – have their place.
