On Orientalist Terms: Malays in Singapore and Textbook Prescriptions

Abstract

This article examines the influence of Orientalism on Singaporean historiography, specifically on textbook representations of the indigenous Malay population and the implications for the wider historical imagination. Central to analysing such Orientalist influence is a critical reflection on changes in the way the minority Malays have been portrayed from pre-separation to National Education textbook narratives. The article finds that Orientalist portrayals of the Malays that started during colonial times have been sustained through an increasingly Sinocentric national narrative. Common to both colonial and postcolonial history is the reliance on Orientalism as the dominant mode of discourse.