This section contains excerpts from a study for a National Heritage Board (NHB ) Heritage Research Grant (HRG)
“A socio-spatial history of Town Malays in Colonial Singapore: Associations, Activities, and Contexts, 1890s to 1950”
Principal Investigator: Dr Imran bin Tajudeen
Co-Investigator: Dr Suriani Suratman
Collaborators: Ahmad Osman and Dr Hadi Osni
Concluded on: 8 Nov 2023
Key revisions of existing assumptions
Several key revisions to existing narratives have been possible through this study. First, the study has found that the oldest Malay club is not Jawalol Masakin (registered 10 Jun 1901) as stated in the latest comprehensive study of Malay-Muslim organisations. In fact, Jawalol Masakin is the 21st Malay association (excluding Muslim clubs in the listing) to be registered or exempted from registration in colonial Singapore.
Second, the timeline for Khairat (Welfare) organisations has been pushed back considerably from the 1950s focus of a recent study (Khairat Kita, 2023). The oldest association bearing the term khairat specifically, namely Simpolan Khairat, registered on 26 Feb 1902 and registered at 102, Telok Saga on Pulau Brani. Even older is an association using the plural Arabic term for the poor, ‘masakin’, denoting its welfare provision orientation: Akhwanal Masakeen (registered on 22 Aug 1898 at 243, Sungei Road.
Third, the oldest registered Baweanese Pondok (lodging) is now known to date to 1898 – Pundok Pulo (Buloh) Luar (9th), registered on 22 Aug 1898 at 47 Weld Road; in 1929 it bore the address 8, Palembang Road.
Fourth, altogether nine associations bearing the term ‘Peranakan’ were founded in Singapore between 1898 and 1932. These were all Clubs of Malay-speaking persons whose membership comprised Malays, regional indigenes (such as Javanese and Bugis), Arabs and North and South Indians. They were mainly Muslims, though there is at least one instance where non-Muslim Chinese Peranakans were also known to be members of one of the associations. This older understanding and wider usage of the term Peranakan long preceded the year 1964 when the Straits Chinese British Association (1900) renamed itself Singapore Chinese Peranakan Association, before subsequently renaming itself again to The Peranakan Association in March 1966.
Fifth, the study found that Malay clubs and associations were to be found across many different neighbourhoods of Singapore Town. The clubs were not confined to or even concentrated exclusively in Kampong Gelam or Geylang Serai. This reflects the importance of revising the narrative of the historical presence of Malays or of Malay urban and social history in Singapore Town.
Sixth, while the study sought to map out urban civic lives and neighbourhoods of the Malays in Singapore, several significant links between peri-urban and known old villages of Singapore Malays and Orang Laut groups emerged as important sites for addresses of Malay clubs and associations connected with sports and welfare purposes. Football, as well as major urban celebrations, involved the communities of these settlements through these clubs’ representation and participation.
Seventh, while there were, on several occasions, polemical debates about the delineation of Malay identity and while some clubs explicitly used the term ‘Malay’ or ‘Melayu’, the majority of the clubs in the survey comprised a diverse set of members, as can be adjudged from the composition of their executive committees when these were known. In fact as mentioned, nine clubs explicitly used the term Peranakan to denote local-born, which was also the term to signify the localisation of incoming ‘foreign’ groups into the Malay cultural and linguistic fold.
Two highlights from the above significant findings are presented here:
1. The three oldest Malay clubs, and
2. Malay clubs bearing the term ‘Peranakan’
3. Clubs with the term Malay/’Melayu’ and ‘Jawa’/Java/Javanese
