'(Not)-Chinese, (not)-Malay, (not)-Indian: Racialization and Deracialization of Traditional Asian Medicine in Singapore.'

Singapore has long emphasized its diverse Asian traditions as providing a moral and cultural ballast anchoring Asian values and practices. This has encouraged the flourishing of traditional Asian medicines in Singapore alongside the more revered and state-sanctioned conventional western medical tradition. The three most popular traditional Asian medical systems are those practiced by the three major ethnic groups in Singapore, namely the Chinese, Malay, and Indian medical traditions. However, we see inequalities in support for and practice of these traditions. We see huge state and private investments in promotion of TCM or traditional Chinese medicine in Singapore where the ethnic Chinese are the majority (76%). The long established ayurvedic medical tradition and the relative affluence of the Indian population in Singapore (7.5%) has ensured the survival of this tradition despite hardly receiving state support. The indigenous Malay population (15%) occupies the lowest socio-economic rung of society compared to the Chinese and Indian groups. Paralleling this socio-economic ranking, TMM or traditional Malay medicine is valued very lowly by the state. This paper examines how “scientific standards”, regulations, certification and auditing become tools of stratification used by the hegemonic state to create acceptance and rejection. In such a system, western medicine ranks at the top, while TCM is slowly accepted as a complement to the western tradition. TMM, the representative system of the Malay society which ranks the lowest on the socio-economic hierarchy in Singapore, is relegated to the lowest standards of trust and efficacy by standards and practices of science, serving to maintain a stratified society where the Chinese are forever at the top and the indigenous Malays at the bottom.