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Linguistic Negotiations of Identity Among Malay/Muslim Male Youths in Singapore Linguistic Negotiations of Identity Among Malay-Muslim Male Youths in Singapore Author Subhan, Sophiaan Bin Published 2014 Thesis Type Thesis (PhD Doctorate) School School of Languages and Linguistics DOI https://doi.org/10.25904/1912/1476 Copyright Statement The author owns the copyright in this thesis, unless stated otherwise. Downloaded from http://hdl.handle.net/10072/367235 Griffith Research Online https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au Linguistic Negotiations of Identity Among Malay/Muslim Male Youths in Singapore Sophiaan Subhan [email protected] BA Hons BA Dip Ed School of Languages & Linguistics Arts, Education and Law (AEL) Griffith University Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2012 THIS PAGE HAS BEEN LEFT INTENTIONALLY BLANK CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv - v ABSTRACT vi STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY vii INTRODUCTION 1 - 5 Research Questions 5 - 8 Questions not addressed in this research 8 - 9 Theoretical Framework 9 - 10 Thesis Structure 10 - 13 Concluding Remark 13 - 14 CHAPTER ONE LITERATURE REVIEW Introduction 15 - 16 1.1 Theorising Identity 14 - 15 1.1.1 Identity as a Product of the Social 16 - 19 1.1.2 Theorising Language and Identity 20 - 23 1.1.3 Identities in Globalisation 23 - 28 1.2 Language and Power 28 - 32 1.2.1 Discourse and Ideology 32 - 35 1.2.2 Discursive Processes of Legitimacy and Power 36 - 37 1.2.3 Productive Tensions Between Social Structuration 37 - 39 and Social Agency 1.2.4 The Possibility of Agency 39 - 41 1.2.5 Reflexivity in Agency and Social Structure Framework 41 - 42 1.2.6 Youth Identity and Agency 42 - 46 1.2.7 Linguistic Other-ness Among Youths 47 - 49 1.3 Power and Linguistic Difference 50 1.3.1 Guiding Principle One: Ethnolinguistic Categorisation 50 - 52 1.3.2 Guiding Principle Two: Bilingualism 52 - 53 1.3.3 Interaction between National Identity, 53 - 58 Language Ideology and Language Policy i 1.3.4 Structural Marginalisation on Language and Ethnic Identity 59 - 61 1.3.5 Power, Positioning and the 61 - 64 Discourses of Ethnic Minority Identity 1.4 Closing Remarks 64 - 66 CHAPTER TWO THE MALAY/MUSLIMS IN SINGAPORE Introduction 67 2.1 Contextualising the Malay/Muslim Identity 68 - 69 2.1.1 The Ethnicisation of Islam 70 - 72 2.1.2 The Malay/Muslim 72 - 73 2.2 The State’s Investment in Multiculturalism 73 - 77 2.2.1 Multiculturalist Policy: Homogenising Ideology 78 - 85 2.3 The Malay/Muslim Structuration 85 - 89 2.3.1 Construction and Investment on Malay/Muslim-ness 89 - 93 2.3.2 Bahasa Melayu Marginality 93 - 99 2.4 Concluding Remarks 99 - 100 CHAPTER THREE THE METHODOLOGY Introduction 101 3.1 Ethical Considerations 102 - 104 3.2 Research Design Overview 104 - 105 3.2.1 Methodological Considerations 105 - 107 3.2.2 Observations and Semi-structured Recorded Interviews 108 - 110 3.2.3 Interview and Observation Sites 110 - 111 3.2.4 Transcribing Oral Data 111 - 112 3.3 Selection and Involvement of Key Informants 112 - 115 3.3.1 Group and Biographical Descriptions 116 3.3.1(i) The chill threesome 116 - 117 3.3.1(ii) Aziz 117 3.3.1(iii) Ramlee 118 3.3.1(v) Sudin 118 - 119 3.3.1(iv) The makan-makan collective 119 - 120 3.3.1(vi) Samad 120 – 121 3.4 Researcher-researched Relationship in the Field 122 - 124 ii 3.4.1 Language in the Field 124 - 126 3.4.2 Researcher Reflexivity in Ethnography 126 - 127 3.5 Concluding Remarks 128 - 129 CHAPTER FOUR NEGOTIATING AND INVESTING MALAY/MUSLIM-NESS IN THE NATIONAL SPACE Introduction 130 4.1 Conceptualising Structuration 131 - 136 4.2 Constructing the Singaporean Identity 136 - 139 4.3 Constructing the Malay Identity 140 - 144 4.4 Negotiations of Hyphenated Identities 144 - 146 4.4.1 Constructing the Malay-Singapore Identity 147 - 150 4.4.2 Constructing the Singapore-Malay Identity 150 - 155 4.5 Discussion and Summary 155 - 163 CHAPTER FIVE AFFIRMATION OF THE RELIGIOUS IDENTITY Introduction 164 - 165 5.1 Investing in Muslim-ness 165 - 167 5.1.1 Self-Referent Labelling in Muslim-ness 167 - 171 5.2 Internalising the Language of the Arab 172 - 181 5.3 The Ideology: Arabic is the Language for All Muslims 182 - 189 5.4 Stretching the Word 189 - 194 5.5 Discussion and Summary 194 - 198 CHAPTER SIX BAHASA MELAYU: A DIVIDED FRONT? Introduction 199 - 201 6.1 The Malay/Muslim Youth Market 201 - 203 6.1.1 The Matrep Peer Group 204 - 205 6.2 (Dis)Claiming Sameness: We are Malay/Muslims 205 - 207 but we are not Matrep 6.2.1 Claiming Ethnolinguistic Solidarity 207 - 213 6.2.2 Claiming a Sociolinguistic Habitus 213 - 216 6.2.3 Mat-speak in Discursive Spaces 216 - 223 6.3 Accented Other: The Malays in Malaysia 223 - 226 iii 6.3.1 Mobilising Ethnolinguistuc Solidarity 226 - 230 6.3.2 Mobilising Ethnolinguistic Rivalry 231 - 234 6.4 Discussion and Summary 233 - 238 CONCLUSION Introduction 239 - 240 7.1 Research Questions Revisited 241 - 243 7.1.1 Constructing and Contesting the National Identity 243 - 244 7.1.2 Construction and Negotiation of the Religious Identity 244 - 246 7.1.3 Negotiating the ‘Other’ and Self 246 - 249 within the Malay/Muslim Market 7.2 Implications 250 - 251 7.3 Recommendations for further research 251 - 254 BIBLIOGRAPHY 255 - 273 APPENDICES (including Tables) 275 - 278 Appendix One Part 1 - Transcription Conventions Part 2 - Sample of extract using some transcription conventions Appendix Two Ten Desirable Qualities of Ideal Muslims - extracted from MUIS 2006 Table 2(a): Resident Malay Population Aged 15 Years and Over by Religion from 1980-2010 (%) Table 2(b): Resident Population Aged 15 Years and Over by Religion and Ethnic Group (%) Table 2(c) Key indicators of the resident population aged 5 and over by language most frequently spoken at home (%) Table 2(d): Student performance based on at least 5 ‘O’ level passes in the GCE ‘O’ level examinations (2001-2010) by ethnic group (%) Table 6(a): Student performance based on at least 5 ‘O’ level passes in the GCE ‘O’ level examinations (2001-2010) by ethnic group (%) Table 6(b): Primary One Cohort Admitted to Post-Secondary Institutions by ethnic group (%) iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My heartfelt gratitude goes to my supervisors, Dr Susana Eisenchlas and A/Prof Michael Haugh, for giving me the space and confidence to explore issues of language, power and identity inherent in my ethnic community and within the society I grew up with. I appreciate their patience and guidance through this journey and their advice and support, both academic and otherwise. My gratitude further goes to the young men I met in the field, who have contributed enormously to my understanding of language, power and identity in contemporary Singapore. I cannot claim to have forged a complete and comprehensive understanding of their issues of identity, but I hope that I have represented them fairly and accurately. Individual debts extend to far too many people for me to be able to name every one of them, but I would be remiss if I did not cite at least the names of Chris Pye, Adriana Diaz, Claire Kennedy, Cristina Poyatos-Matas, Andy Kirkpatrick and Peter Hamilton. Finally, I have dedicated this dissertation to my parents and partner because it was they who lead me to reflect about language and identity in my everyday encounters. Sophiaan Subhan Griffith University v ABSTRACT Linguistic Negotiations of Identity Among Malay/Muslim Male Youths in Singapore This dissertation examines the lived experiences of four young Malay/Muslim males in Singapore. Through a critical sociolinguistic approach, the dissertation draws on individual and group observations, interactions and interviews to elicit perspectives on postnationalistic constructions of identity and language in a localised setting. The analysis shows how the negotiation of identities is tied closely to the Malay/Muslim male youths’ experiences growing up, against a backdrop of inherited social structuration and ethnolinguistic marginality, within the rigid management of ethnicity by the State and, its intrusions into the affairs of Islam. The dissertation argues that the relationship between language and ethnicity is not entirely about agency (i.e. what a person chooses to be). Instead, it is about markets within which agency and habitus work themselves out in the contexts of specific histories and politics. The negotiation of the Malay/Muslim identity in dominant discourses is further implicated by the ideological construction of homogeneity and linguistic difference, and has essentialised the Malay/Muslim habitus. In many cases, this has resulted in the normalisation of marginality, exclusion and symbolic domination by those in the market. The examples of constrained agency, of structural marginalisation and of investments in the Malay/Muslim identity that support this research shed some critical light on the complicated political economy of language and identity in the Malay/Muslim market. vi STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY This work has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself. (Signed)______________________________ SOPHIAAN SUBHAN vii INTRODUCTION Linguistic Negotiations of Identity Among Malay/Muslim Male Youths in Singapore This dissertation demonstrates that the negotiation of identity among Malay/Muslims is largely about markets (Bourdieu 1977) and about the multiple positionings of social actors (e.g. Bamberg 2003; Davies and Harré 1990). These markets are the residual effects of the Singapore government’s structuralist and deterministic multiculturalist policy which equates language with identity as whole, bounded systems and communities along the lines of a homogenising ideology.
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