Tag: singapore
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If This Makes You Uncomfortable, You Should Ask Yourself Why
This piece is not written about you. It is written to you. This is addressed to everyone across Southeast Asia, particularly to those who benefit from dominant historical narratives and feel unsettled when indigenous communities seek to reclaim histories that were marginalised, softened, or rewritten. To you, who insist you are not racist, who genuinely…
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The Disappearance of Kampong Spirit and the Cost of Development in Singapore
Singapore frequently calls for a revival of the kampong spirit. Political speeches, national campaigns, and school values programmes describe it as neighbourliness, mutual care, and shared responsibility. The term is treated as a moral ideal that modern society must rediscover. What is rarely acknowledged is a more uncomfortable truth. Kampong spirit did not disappear on…
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Bumiputera Privileges: Why They Are Justified and Should Not be Challenged
In Southeast Asia, the question of indigenous rights and privileges often arises in public discourse, particularly in multi-ethnic nations such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, and Singapore. Indigenous or native communities, including the Malays in Malaysia and Singapore, the Brunei Malays, and various native groups in Indonesia, have historically been granted special rights, protections, and access…
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Rooted and Unapologetic: Embracing Indigenous Pride in Southeast Asia
Indigenous identity in Southeast Asia has been historically devalued, leading many native people to suppress who they are. Pride must endure even when it is questioned, mocked, or dismissed by more economically affluent migrant communities. According to UNESCO, indigenous peoples across the Asia-Pacific region have faced sustained cultural marginalisation that pressures them to abandon language,…
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Southeast Asia’s Hidden Hierarchy: Indigenous Disadvantage, Chinese Dominance
Walk through the skyscraper-filled skylines of Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Jakarta, Bangkok, or Ho Chi Minh City, and a pattern emerges that is almost too obvious to mention. The banks, conglomerates, ports, plantations, and industrial empires are disproportionately controlled by ethnic Chinese families, often long-settled, naturalised citizens who dominate sectors that shape national economies. Meanwhile, the…
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The Racism Behind “Jungle Asian”
The slur “jungle Asian” is often brushed off as crude humour, a throwaway insult not worth engaging with. But language like this does not emerge accidentally. It exposes a hierarchy that has quietly taken hold within Asian communities themselves, one that elevates East Asians while positioning Southeast Asians as something less developed, less refined, less…
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Singapore Before 1819: Malay and Javanese Kingdoms, The Forbidden Hill and more
Before it was called Singapore, this island bore many names. Temasek, Pulau Ujong, and Singapura were among some of the names that were used to refer to the island. These names, found in early records and oral traditions, reflect a long and layered history that predates British colonisation by many centuries. Yet, many today are…
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Echoes of The Indigenous Narrative: Our Story Begins Here
For centuries, the voices of Southeast Asia’s first peoples have echoed through its forests, islands, and seas, yet their stories remain unheard. The Indigenous Narrative was created to change that. Southeast Asia is a region overflowing with diversity, heritage, and culture. From its mist-covered highlands to its vast archipelagos, this land has always been home…
The Indigenous Narrative 