‘Others’ is Not a Race

Melissa De Silva

This extract of ‘Others is Not a Race’ was first published by Math Paper Press in 2017.

Introduction: Some Very Quick Facts

A Eurasian is someone with both Asian and European ancestry. Many Singaporean Eurasians trace their heritage to European colonisation in Asia, first of the Portuguese back in the 1500s (in Malacca, Sri Lanka, Goa and Timor), then the Dutch (Malacca, Sri Lanka and Indonesia) and finally the British.

Each successive wave of colonial powers resulted in Eurasian children, from unions of the Europeans with Asian women. Bonded by the common religion of Christianity, (generally Catholicism) and the shared language of English, the Portuguese-Eurasians, Dutch-Eurasians and British-Eurasians in the Malayan region found it natural to intermarry.

Other Europeans like the Germans, French, Spanish and Italians arrived in Singapore during the colonial era as traders, part of shipping contingents or to set up businesses. Those who coupled with Asian women had children who were Eurasian too.

Over time, these diverse Eurasians drew together to form their own distinctive community. Their common experience of having both European and Asian ancestry, their unique position of straddling two cultures while ostensibly belonging to neither, was an important factor prompting them to come together as a cohesive group, one that was neither Asian nor European. In 1883 for instance, a group of Eurasians formed the Singapore Recreation Club, exclusively for Eurasians. This was the Eurasian community’s response to the existence of European-only clubs such as the Singapore Cricket Club, formed in 1852, which at the time, barred entry to Asians and Eurasians.

According to the 2010 census, Eurasians comprised 0.4 per cent of the Singaporean population, or 15,581 people in total classified themselves as Eurasians. Unlike the Indians, Malays and Chinese, which have their own category under Singapore’s multicultural policy (known as CMIO, which stands for ‘Chinese, Malays, Indians and Others’), Eurasians are classified under the category ‘Others.’ This category used to refer predominantly to the Eurasians. In recent times however, the ‘Others’ category has expanded to include new citizens who do not fit into the categories of Indian, Malay or Chinese, such as Filipinos, Caucasians, Africans and Japanese. As such, Eurasians now find themselves in the same group as citizens who are not perceived as Singaporean from birth. This situation has bred further issues of identity for the Eurasian community, especially how they are perceived by other Singaporeans

LETTER TO ANONYMOUS POLICY MAKER (RE: ‘OTHERS’ IS NOT A RACE) 

‘Others’, it said on the form. She considered that for a moment. What did ‘Others’ mean? ‘Others’ from whose point of view? As if some were conferred insider status and some not, ‘the others’?

Using the pen chained to the counter with pink raffia string, she crossed out ‘Others’ and scratched in ‘Eurasian.’ After filling in the rest of the form, she tossed it into the tray on the counter and stalked out. Past the rows and rows of plastic chairs immobilised to the floor, past the electronic board summoning one string of numbers after the other in panicky staccato.

That evening, she sat down to beef hor fun in a takeaway paper box lined with a plastic sheet. She was only half paying attention to the TV as she chopsticked the slithery noodles into her mouth. The newscaster’s voice announced the release of the PSLE results earlier that morning. Cut to the education minister outside a community centre, people in white and red uniform tees milling in the background. “Overall, we are quite pleased with the performance this year. The Chinese have done well, showing improvements in all subjects, except mother tongue. We are investigating the situation further. The Malays also showed good improvement, especially in Maths. We believe this is the result of the support systems we have put in place. The Indians scored very well in English. We are looking into a possible buddy system to pair Indian students with their counterparts from other races. As for the Others…”

There it was again.

The Others.

Who determined which people were ‘others’ and which people weren’t? Just because there were fewer of them, did that mean they counted for less? Come on, they had been there since the beginning. Except for the original Temasek-dwellers. But since the first unions between the Portuguese and the Asians in Malaya in the 1500s.

There were many Eurasians in colonial times and after independence who had contributed to the development of the country too. Yet it was as if they’d been obscured from the official narrative. After decades of working together, building and living side-by-side, did it come down to this? Six meaningless letters on a form? 

Others.

What does it mean, she wondered, when policy makers wilfully choose to see some within society as ‘other’? As people on the outside, as if they were invisible? Many Singaporeans were ignorant that they were even fellow citizens. She recalled reading an article online, ‘7 Things We Can All Learn from Joseph Schooling’s Olympic Win.’ Something like that. And number 7 was: ‘Eurasians are born and bred Singaporeans too.’

Wow.

Seriously?

Like it was some kind of revelation.

Why the ignorance? It was obvious. It was the Chinese, Malays and Indians who were mentioned (in that order) at every official speech involving national policy matters. And ‘Others’, they were mentioned too, last. And most Singaporeans had no idea who or what these ‘Others’ were. And who could blame them, with such a foggy term? And so, the perception that Singapore is only made up of Chinese, Malays and Indians is reinforced over and over again, with each policy speech, each flourish of government data, effectively conditioning a nation.

Naming, she reflected, confers a sense of identity. To leave someone unnamed – the unwanted infant, the runt of the litter – marks it for a life of inconsequence.

The newscaster droned on. From the neighbour’s flat, the opening theme of the news in Mandarin wafted through the grilled windows. So they’d be hearing about the PSLE breakdown too, and the ‘Others’, just in another language.

It couldn’t be a simple matter of people not knowing what a Eurasian was.

European + Asian = Eurasian.

Surely that wasn’t too taxing on the brain? No, it seemed a wilful act of unacknowledgement. Whatever protests made to the contrary, justifying it as mere semantics for bureaucratic convenience. Naming, or leaving something unnamed, carries the weight of a lifetime of validation, or the withholding of such.

Fuck this shit, she thought. She zapped off the TV. Tossed the empty box down the chute. Went to her bedroom, pulled out her laptop and flopped down on her stomach in bed.

She began to type:

TO: the anonymous policy maker

RE: ‘Others’ is not a race

Eurasian.
E-U-R-A-S-I-A-N.

Just because there are fewer of us, do you think we do not count?

Who are you to strip us of our identity?
Who are you to white out our name?
We are as Singaporean as you.

We came on the ships bearing Anglo-Indians employed by the
East India Company.
Yes, those were Eurasians.
We were here when they carved out the roads in the wild days
of the land,
washing gravel over red soil.
Norris, D’Almeida, Galistan.
The days of the British found us clerks and bailiffs, engineers
and storekeepers, forest rangers and foremen.
And we were here too when the Japanese came flooding,
squat-looking insects, absurd high socks on bicycles.
We had radios confiscated, were forced to bow, feel the knife
fear in our gut
whenever we passed a khaki soldier in the street,
Did we not die coaxing tapioca from unyielding lands?
And we were here too when he cried
on TV,
And wondered what the days to come would hold.

So, please do not give us any bullshit
about how it is ‘a practical impossibility’
to capture any Singaporean’s individual diversity.
Thank you, that is no news.
Yes this one comes from Fujian with Hokkien and Mongolian
ancestry.

And this one has great-greats from Java, and Bugis with some
Arab.
And this one is part Tamil, but also had an ancient who was
Malayalee.
Well and good and so they may be.
Yet they are graced with larger umbrellas that speak mostly the
truth
of who and what they are.
They are named.
Acknowledged.
They belong.
Not so of us, in your eyes.
Not enough to justify our own tickable box.
Boxes you believe so critical.

Others.
O-T-H-E-R-S

Are you so myopic, so lacking in human insight and EQ,
that you do not see how insulting, how demeaning is this label
you’ve shrugged up?
Are you not able to – or perhaps you are simply unwilling – to
stretch your imagination to find a better solution, a human
solution,
that does not deny an entire people their cultural identity?
No doubt your work is easier,
Of that I have no doubt
But do you not see the grave injustice?
A people who gave this country a president, a cultural
medallion winner,
an Olympic gold?
And even if we had not done these things,
It matters not.
We deserve to have our identity spoken forth
The word ‘Eurasian’ ribboning into the public sphere
In newsprint, public announcements,
To be heard and breathed, assimilated by all.
Can you not see how shoving an entire people into a box with
the sticker ‘Others’
divorces them from everyone else,
draws a steel line in the sand?

Are Eurasians Singaporeans?
Singaporeans ask this
Singaporeans.
Ask.
This.
How is it that 198 years after Raffles landed, 52 years after we
became a nation, such ignorance still breeds?
This is the price of your administrative convenience.
The fruit of your tidy solution: ‘Others.’

We are Singaporeans
And we are Eurasian too.
We belong and we deserve rightfully to be named.
So dear anonymous policy maker, hear me loud and clear:
‘Others’ is not a race.

Melissa De Silva is the author of the cross-genre memoir ‘Others’ is Not a Race, which won the Singapore Literature Prize 2018 (Creative Nonfiction). Her writing explores issues of identity and culture through memory and forgetting. Her fiction has been published in Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, Best New Singaporean Short Stories Vol. 3, and LONTAR: The Journal of Southeast Asian Speculative Fiction. She is currently working on a speculative climate fiction novel.