Communities & FestivalsWhy do you celebrate certain festivals and follow certain customs? Where did your great-great-grandparents come from? Discover the answers to your queries on the different ethnic groups of Singapore!
The Malays, while being the people indigenous to Singapore, now make up just 14% of the country’s population. This is due to the influx of Chinese immigrants, who flocked to Singapore throughout the past 200 years. Singapore was not uninhabited when Sir Stamford Raffles came in January 1819. There was an estimated 1,000 people living in Singapore. These were made up of about 500 Orang Kallang, 200 Orang Seletar, 150 Orang Gelam, 100 Orang Lauts , 20-30 Malays who were the followers of Temenggong Abdul Rahman and about 20-30 Chinese. The waters of Telok Blangah, the Kallang River and other rivers had been home to the Orang Laut or Sea Nomads for a very long time. Here were also Malay settlements along the Kallang River Basin and the Singapore River.
When Raffles came to Singapore, there were already hundreds of indigenous Malays living here. They were made up of the nobility that were headed by the Temenggong, the palace officials and his followers as well as the Orang Laut. Subsequently, the numbers increased with the arrivals of other Malays from Malaya and the Malay Archipelago.
In a matter of several months, hundreds of Malays from Malacca came to Singapore, encouraged by the British who wanted to develop Singapore as a centre for trade and administration. When Singapore became more developed and there were better economic opportunities – many Malays from Riau, Sumatra, Penang, Malacca and Johor came to Singapore. Many of these Malays lived in the towns and worked there. The census for 1931 showed that the total number of Malay men working here were as many as 11,290. Out of this number, 18% worked as fisherman and as many as 12% lived by farming the land.
In the 1930s and 1950s, many Malay residents from Malaya were working in the British uniformed services. In 1957 alone, there were more than 10,000 Malays working in the uniform services because the British preferred them to the Javanese or Malays from Indonesia. However, during the period 1957-1970, most of them returned to Malaysia when their terms of services ended.
The second largest group that made up the Malay population was the Javanese. Although they came from Java in the Dutch East Indies (modern Indonesia), many Javanese had actually registered themselves as ‘Malay’. In the mid-19th century, they came and worked as ironsmiths, leather makers as well as spice merchants and religious books dealers. There were also a group of Javanese printers and publishers in the Arab Street area.
From the mid-19th century until 1910, up to 7,000 Javanese pilgrims worked in Singapore for several months or years before or after performing the hajj in Mecca to earn money or pay their debts to their pilgrim brokers. Many of them then stayed on in Singapore and became part of the Muslim community in the city. A number of Javanese also came to Singapore with the help of pilgrim brokers to work as food sellers, gardeners and labourers in the rubber plantations. After the Second World War, the total number of Javanese coming to Singapore continued to increase, and as many as 29,679 of them moved to Singapore from 1956-1970 to find a better life.
The Baweanese or Boyanese came from the Bawean Island in the Dutch East Indies. They built the Kampung Boyan (Boyanese Village) by the banks of the Rochor River, between Jalan Besar and Syed Alwi Road since the time of Munshi Abdullah. Many came to Singapore in the late 19th century until the end of Second World War and the majority of them worked as horse cart drivers and later as motorcar drivers. Most of them were young men who came and supported themselves, living in communal houses. They were found in places like Adam Communal House in Ann Siang Hill, Teluk Dalam Communal House in Dixon Road and Dedawang Communal House in Sophie Road. There was also a village within the town area that was inhabited by the Baweanese called Kampung Kapur in the western part of Kampung Boyan. A mosque called the Masjid Bawean Kampung Kapur (Bawean Mosque of Lime Village) located at Weld Road was built in 1932. There was also a communal house that became the gathering point for writers and their friends in the late 1970s.
Due to the fact that they shared the same religion and were closely related racially, both the Baweanese and the Javanese were able to mix freely and even intermarried with the Malays. This caused the differences between them to be less obvious and more Baweanese and Javanese began identifying themselves as Malays.
The Bugis came from the Celebes Islands in Indonesia and were well known for a long time as maritime traders. In the mid-seventeenth century, they dispersed from Celebes to set up trading centres throughout the region. However, the Dutch control of the Dutch East Indies and their blockades cut off the Bugis from their traditional spice trade routes from Celebes to Java. This forced them to migrate to other areas such as Malaysia, Singapore and Riau to continue trading and by the beginning of the 19th century, the number of Bugis traders in the region increased.
The establishment of a free port in Singapore allowed the Bugis to expand their network in the archipelago. Sailing from Sumatra to north Australia, the Bugis ships brought cargoes of cotton cloth, gold dust, birds-of-paradise feathers, pepper, sea slugs, sandalwood, tortoiseshell, coffee and rice to Singapore. Most of these goods were very much in demand by the Chinese merchants in Singapore.
By the 1830s, the Bugis had established themselves in Singapore and formed the majority of the pioneer communities in the Kampung Gelam area. They gradually formed kampongs and settlements in places like Kampung Bugis (around the Kallang River), Kampung Soopoo, Jalan Pelatok and Jalan Pergam.
The Minangkabaus who came from Western Sumatra, were known for their matrilineal social system and their tradition for travelling. They would leave their homes and travel in search of work, knowledge and experience and would only return home once they had fulfilled their objective. This tradition of travelling was a rite of passage for the young Minangkabau men and was considered a way for them to be in touch with the outside world.
The Minangkabaus have been migrating to Malaysia and Singapore since the early years and the majority of them were engaged in business, especially in selling nasi padang (a rice dish made of meat, vegetables and tempeh). The Minangkabaus also sold religious items, toys and clothes and had shops in Arab Street and Geylang. They also worked as taxi drivers, gardeners and joined uniformed services.
After Singapore became an independent state in 1965, the majority of Minangkabaus either migrated to Malaysia or returned back to Sumatra. Those who stayed in Singapore assimilated into the Malay community. Many married the local Malay women and did not maintain strong ties with the other Minangkabau communities. By 1973, it was estimated that there were 200 Minangkabaus family in Singapore and almost all of them were Singapore citizens.
The Banjar people originated from the southern and eastern coast of Kalimantan in Borneo. Most came from Banjarmasin and were farmers who were experienced in paddy cultivation. They also migrated to spread Islam to the region, to escape poverty and the oppressive Dutch rule of their homeland.
The Banjarese preferred to be self-employed, working as either farmers or businessmen. The Banjar were also well known as jewel cutters and dealers in the region, and contributed actively to the jewellery trade in Singapore. They made up a very small percentage of the Malay population in Singapore by 1990, their total numbers could not be determined, probably because they had effectively assimilated into the Malay community.
The Batak people are the smallest Malay group in Singapore and unlike other Malay groups that are predominantly Muslim, there are many Christians in the Batak community (Seventh-day Adventists, Lutherans, Jehovah’s Witnesses).
The Bataks came to Singapore before the 20th century for economic, educational and social reasons. During the Japanese Occupation, the Bataks were conscripted as foot soldiers or forced labourers by the Japanese and some were sent to Singapore for military training. After the war, many of the Bataks came to Singapore from places like Medan, Palembang and the Riau Islands. Some managed to find work as clerks, storekeepers and some started businesses with non-Bataks partners. Some also joined the British army as soldiers, technicians and electricians. The majority Bataks and their descendants were assimilated into the Malay community and preferred to be known as Malays.
The majority of Malays in Singapore are Sunni Muslims belonging to the Sh?fi‘? sect. A small Christian community also exists among the Malays. There is also a small Buddhist community, mostly consisting of Malays with mixed Chinese ancestry.
The majority of Malays in Singapore generally share a similar culture with those in Peninsula Malaysia. Linguistically, most Malays in Singapore speak the Johore-Riau variant of Malay similar to that spoken in the west Malaysian peninsular rather than that of Indonesia. Some of the older generation who migrated here, or whose parents were immigrants, can speak Javanese. However, most of the Malays here do not speak the language of their ancestors from Indonesia.
English is also widely spoken. Arabic is more common among the Muslim religious teachers, and is the preferred language learnt by the more religious Malay Muslims.
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