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Indigenous population

The earliest records of settlement on the island date back to the 2nd century, where the island was identified as a trading port which was part of a chain of similar trading centres that linked Southeast Asia with the Tamil Indians and the Mediterranean.[8] The earliest settlers of the island were known as the Orang Lauts, and the island was an outpost of the Srivijaya Empire until it was invaded by the Tamil Emperor Rajendra Chola I of the Chola Empire in the 11th century.[9] According to the 19th century Chinese record Investigation of Southern Pacific () (Nanyang Li Ce), it described the presence of Chinese tombs in Singapore. Words and inscriptions recording the period of Later Liang and Emperor Gong of Song were found on these tombs and this may suggest that from 907 to 1274, some Chinese had settled, lived, died and were buried in Singapore.[10][11]
A small Malay kingdom, known as the Kingdom of Singapura, was founded in 1299 by a fleeing Srivijayan prince, Sang Nila Utama, who was crowned as the Raja of the new state. After the fall of the kingdom in 1398, the island fell under the suzerainty of various regional empires and Malayan sultanates until its destruction by Portuguese raiders in 1613.[5]

Prior to the arrival of Raffles, there were hundreds of indigenous Malays living on the island under the Johor Sultanate. Most of the indigenous Malays came from the Malay Archipelago.[12] There were an estimated 150 people living on the island, who were predominantly Orang Laut with small population of 120 Malays who were the followers of Temenggong Abdul Rahman, and about 2030 Chinese.[13]

Singaporeans with Chinese ancestry make up 74.3%, Malays make up 13.4%, Indians make up 9%, and residents of other descent make up 3.2% of the 3,965,800 of the resident population (including persons holding Permanent Residency).[22] To avoid physical racial segregation and formation of ethnic enclaves common in other multi-racial societies, the Singapore government implemented the "Ethnic Integration Policy" (EIP) in 1989 where each block of units are sold to families from ethnicities roughly comparable to the national average.[23]

Today, the Chinese-Malay-Indian-Others (CMIO) model is the dominant organising framework of race in Singapore.[24] The country also celebrates Racial Harmony Day to commemorate the 1964 race riots in Singapore and to remember the consequences of racial disharmony the country experienced during the 1964 racial riots[25], which were a series of riots that resulted in a total of 36 deaths and 560 others suffered severe injuries.[26]

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