An Analysis of the Chinese Press Reports on Malay and Islamic Issues in Singapore
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CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by ScholarBank@NUS AN ANALYSIS OF THE CHINESE PRESS REPORTS ON MALAY AND ISLAMIC ISSUES IN SINGAPORE CHUNG KWANG TONG (B.A., Oklahoma City University) A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS DEPARTMENT OF MALAY STUDIES NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 2016 DECLARATION I hereby declare that this thesis is my original work and it has been written by me in its entirety. I have duly acknowledged all the sources of information which have been used in the thesis. This thesis has also not been submitted for any degree in any university previously. ___________________________ Chung Kwang Tong 25 October 2016 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis would not have been possible without the insights, direction and support of a number of people. My deepest appreciation and gratitude to; My wife, Jacqueline Yip Man Yan, for her love, invaluable sacrifices, support, encouragement, and faith in me. My supervisor, Associate Professor Syed Farid Alatas, for his patience and guidance on the direction this thesis finally took. Faculty staff and administrative staff of the Department of Malay Studies for their encouragement and support. Mr Tan Thiam Lye, BBM, Chairman of the Taoist Federation (Singapore) for supporting and encouraging me to further my education. San Qing Gong Management Private Limited for the generous sponsorship for my Master programme at NUS and for allowing me take time off from my work to complete my thesis. My colleagues at the Taoist Federation (Singapore) for their kind understanding. My parents, Chung Keng Meng and Tan Tiew Jee, for their love and encouragement. My master, Master Leung Tak Wah, for his encouragement and support. My late grandmother, Koh Wee Lin, who left us in May 2015, for her concerns and encouragement, especially when I stayed up late to work on my thesis. Dr. Fabian Graham and Mr Quek Ri An for the many hours spent proof-reading my thesis. My post-graduate classmates at the Department of Malay Studies Friends at the Singapore Press Holdings who helped me searched for news articles and making sure I did not miss any reports, and all friends who encouraged me during my entire journey. And most importantly, my beloved son Chung Hui Zhe who was born on 16 June 2016 (during the thesis examination) and he gave me the energy to complete the amendments to my thesis! ii ABSTRACT State discourse has identified race and religion as a ‘fault line’ and catalyst for disharmony in Singaporean society, and race and religion has often been blamed for the turbulent times sparked by race riots before independence in 1965. The government has been very understanding of religious and racial sensitivities, and has therefore imposed strict measures to moderate and control the press, especially after the chaotic times in the 1950’s and the 1960’s. Due to the sensitivity of the topics, race and religion have rarely been discussed in the public sphere, and, as the media has been largely state controlled and extremely self-regulating, race and religious issues have rarely made the news headlines. Spanning the decades and analyzing race and religious relations within the context of print media, this thesis will examine the ways in which perceptions of the Chinese towards Malays has been shaped in Singapore post 9-11. This research is significant as it investigates how ethnic relations may be positively or negatively influenced by print media. This thesis may be seen as a contribution to the understanding of the role and impact of mainstream media on race and religious relations in Singapore today. It will help to identify contemporary fault lines which may cause potential misunderstandings between the ethnic communities in Singapore, and will suggest considerations for future policy-making with the aim of promoting positive policy changes. In relation to the field of Malay Studies, this thesis provides a non- Malay perspective on Malay issues and the media in Singapore, with a special focus on how the Malays are portrayed and reported in Chinese newspapers in Singapore. iii CONTENT Declaration i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Content iv List of Figures vii Chapter 1: Introduction 01 1.1 Background 01 1.2 The Mass Media in Singapore 04 1.3 State Discourses on Race and Religion 10 1.4 Ideology of race in Singapore 16 1.5 Background to the Legislations and statutes governing race 23 and religion in Singapore 1.6 Protecting the integrity of religious institutions 27 1.7 The discourse of ethnic minorities in Singapore 33 1.8 The historical development of the print media in Singapore 36 1.8.1 The Maria Hertogh riots 38 1.8 Developments in the mass media in Singapore since independence 42 Chapter 2: Literature Review 51 2.1 Contemporary literature on the perception of the Malays 51 2.2 Perceptions of the Malays from the Malay point of view 56 2.3 Literature on the representations of Islam in the Media 59 2.4 Power and influence of the media 63 iv 2.5 Different theories that can be used to study media perceptions 68 2.5.1 Discourse Analysis 70 2.5.2 Critical Discourse Analysis 72 2.5.3 Studying the choice of words in print media using CDA 74 2.4 Conclusion 78 Chapter 3: Findings 80 3.1 Examining the English and Chinese mainstream newspapers 80 3.2 Analysis of the articles reporting the September 11 attacks 85 3.2.1 The Straits Times’ position in reporting Islamic issues 90 3.2.2 Demonizing Islam through ‘terrorist’ acts 97 3.2.3 How the Chinese print media presented the September 11 attacks 99 3.2.3.1 Zaobao reorting the September 11 attacks 99 3.3 Analysis of the articles reporting the arrest and detention of JI members 109 3.3.1 Analyzing the Lianhe Zaobao news reports 117 3.4 Analysis of the articles reporting the Tudung Incident in 2002 120 3.4.1 Exceptional interest by Shin Min Daily News 126 3.5 Summary of findings 132 Chapter 4: Discussions and Analysis 136 4.1 The image of the violent Muslims 136 4.2 Demonizing Islam and Muslims 139 4.3 Foreign Press and negative stereotyping through broadcast media 142 4.4 Manifestations of “new racism” in the local newspapers 147 4.4.1 Generalization 148 4.4.2 Quotation Patterns 149 v 4.4.3 How is Islamism related to the ‘new racism’ 150 Chapter 5: Conculsion 153 5.1 Discussing the hypothesis – proven or unproven? 153 5.2. Research questions and the implications of their answers 155 5.3 Methodology and analysis: the benefits of employing CDA in my research 157 5.4 Discussions: Relating results to ongoing policies 160 5.5 Conclusion 166 References 169 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: The front side of the Singapore NRIC 19 Figure 2: A comment by Lee Hsien Loong on social media site Facebook 32 Figure 3: Daily Average Newspapers Circulation in 2015 (Source: SPH) 45 Figure 4: Daily Average Newspapers Circulation in 2014 (Source: SPH) 46 Figure 5: Daily Average Newspapers Circulation in 2013 (Source: SPH) 46 Figure 6: Dominant Home Language of Chinese P1 Students: 1980 to 2004 47 Figure 7: Brügger’s theroy of the understanding a society 69 Figure 8: Census of population 2010 data of resident population aged 85 15 years and over by religion, ethinc group and sex Figure 9: Article of a young Muslim who is ‘ready to die fighting’ 96 Figure 10: Negative stereotypes of Malays are still evident, even in 97 online search engines Figure 11: Front page of Lianhe Zaobao on Sep 12, 2001 – 100 Terrorists hysterically attacked America Figure 12: Lianhe Zaobao article on September 13, 2001 101 Figure 13: Sensitive statements and comments in new articles are clearly cited 102 Figure 14: In bold – Islamic Party wants Mahathir to declare that Malaysia 108 is an Islamic country in Parliament Figure 15: The term “huijiao” which means “Islam” on the headlines 116 Figure 16: Morning news aired on CNN, on Jun 19, 2015. 134 Figure 17: Images of ISIS members in veils (niqāb) beheading hostages 138 and shouting “Allahu Akbar” Figure 18: Foreign press blamed for providing wrong information 143 Figure 19: Stereotyping on cartoons 144 Figure 20: A disclaimer by Warner Brothers to warn viewers of ethnic and 146 racial prejudices in their cartoons Figure 21: “Islamic law has flexibility, non-Muslims will not suffer”. 161 Figure 22: “Some Muslims deviated from the teachings, which caused fear 161 and insecurity to non-Muslims”. Figure 23: “Violence in Islamic countries has no relationship with practicing 161 Islam: Mahathir urged non-Muslims not to be afraid”. vii Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Background Singapore is a multi-cultural, multi-linguistic, multi-ethnic and multi-religious (Ackermann, 1997) immigrant society. In the 1891 Population Census of the Straits Settlements, the population was categorised into ‘Europeans’, ‘Eurasians’, ‘Chinese’, ‘Malays and other natives of the Archipelago’, ‘Other nationalities’, and ‘Tamils and other natives of India’. This is the root of the Chinese, Malays, Indians, and Others categorisation of race, also known in short as the ‘C-M-I-O’ categorisation, a system maintained by the Singapore government after independence in 1965 to guide public policy, most notably in housing1. The nation recognises four official languages – English, Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil to foster interaction among the citizens. To reduce the complexities of multiple dialects spoken among each individual community, each “race” has been ascribed a “mother tongue” for communication among themselves. Mandarin has been prescribed as the “mother tongue” for the Chinese, Malay for Malays, and Tamil for Indians.