Building a multicultural nation: Learning from multicultural policy and practice in postcolonial Singapore

Abstract

This article explores the reconciliation of multiculturalism and nationalism by focusing on the Bristol School of Multiculturalism (BSM) and drawing insights from Singapore’s postcolonial experience. The paper highlights that existing BSM scholarship has primarily focused on societies in the Global North, which has led to an oversight of “postcolonial multiculturalism” and its practical state implementations. By analysing Singapore’s state-led multiracialism, the article demonstrates how the nation has integrated diversity into its national identity since its independence in 1965. This model, shaped by geopolitical context and assertive state control, offers a unique perspective on multicultural nationalism. The article argues that the binary between purportedly democratic and non-democratic contexts is more porous than often assumed, as the BSM’s emphasis on a sociological approach to recognition aligns with Singapore’s efforts to incorporate minority cultures into its national fabric. However, the article also facilitates a reciprocal dialogue between BSM and the case of Singapore by critically assessing challenges such as excessive state control, which can lead to a “strict equality” of essentialised ethnic categories. It also examines the risk of a superficial multiculturalism that prioritises national triumphalism over an honest reckoning with underlying inequalities. Despite these flaws, Singapore’s experience provides valuable lessons for refining the BSM’s conceptualisation of multicultural nationalism. Conversely, the BSM’s focus on the “struggle for inclusion” and “variable geometry” offers Singapore a normative toolkit to move beyond institutionalised rigidities and towards a more dynamic and multilogical national identity.