ABSTRACT
Attention to the postcolonial nation-states of Singapore and Malaysia in the international media frequently focuses on two apparently mutually contradictory areas. In economic terms, the two countries are frequently praised as success stories of modernization; in cultural terms, they are often seen as falling away from the principles of liberal democracy that are taken as representative of modernity. In the last few years, for instance, media coverage of Malaysia’s planned coast-to-coast oil pipeline and Singapore’s integrated resort developments has alternated with accounts of the failure of a Muslim convert to Christianity to have her case heard by a Malaysian civil court and Singapore’s use of sedition laws against bloggers who posted racist remarks online. Yet what if these economic and cultural elements, rather than being profoundly and puzzlingly opposed to each other, were in fact closely related; if the conditions for existence of the developmental state in each country were profoundly shaped by a racial governmentality?
