The moral economy of gambling and the negotiation of minority ethno class social positions a socio cultural study of lower income malay muslim gamblers in singapore

Chapter 1 Approaching Gambling as a Cultural-Economic and Socially-Embedded Process 1.1 “Where‟d all the money come from?”: An Anecdotal Preface to the Research Topic Since the age of 8, my mother‟s extended family would hold the occasional but much cherished dinner party at restaurants; where we could take up to 5 tables or even a small private room with our rowdy 20-odd party size. On average, these dinners were held at least once a month, and they were of special significance to everyone, not only because we enjoyed each other‟s company, but also mainly due to their rarity and relative „extravagance‟, which provided a welcome break from the day-to-day consumption experiences of a lower-income family. In addition, there were those familial and religious celebratory events, or kenduris, held at least once a month for the purposes of giving thanks for achievements or the resolution of a particular problem1. These were larger scale events that usually required food for a minimum of 30 people and thus involved a significant amount of resources. Until recently however, (probably coinciding with my postgraduate foray into the sociological fields of race and social class) I never questioned how such rather lavish outings were actually being financed. Also particularly puzzling, was the fact that none of my family members had post-secondary school education at that time and thus the highest paid amongst my uncles and aunties were employed in lowwage low-skilled occupations such as security guards, factory workers and office assistants. 1 Achievements include the birth of a child, birthdays of senior family members, a child‟s passing of school examinations. Celebrations for the resolution of problems mainly include recoveries from illnesses; there were instances where my family gave thanks upon the release of one of my uncles from prison and the reconciliation between another uncle and his wife who were nearly divorced. 1 Upon questioning my mother, I found out that although all the working members in the family each contributed a small share, it has actually always been two of my uncles who had taken turns to shoulder the bulk of the expenses. This revelation raised even more questions for me considering that these where the very two uncles who have been frequently complaining of financial problems, and who also regularly borrowed sums of money from other friends and family members including my own parents; whom they have always struggled to repay in full. After being subjected to persistent interrogation, my mother relented and, having sworn me to secrecy, revealed the clandestine, controversial and somewhat ephemeral source of my uncles‟ wealth. “Gambling?! But, I thought they were staunch Muslims?” I exclaimed reactively and somewhat naively in retrospect. An awkward and uncomfortable silence, which was tinged with shame, seemed to fall between my mother and me. She declined to elaborate and told me to consult them directly, but discreetly, should I require a more detailed explanation. At this point, my mind had become rife with questions stemming from the apparent contradictions pervading the entire issue: Why gamble when you are short of money in the first place? Is gambling the cause or the attempted solution to their financial problems, or both? Why be generous with such money if finances were scarce to begin with? How did they reconcile gambling with their identity as Muslims? These puzzles led me to approach my uncles who, after gentle coaxing on my part, gradually introduced me to their world of informal resources, which mainly revolved around gambling, money-lending, debt management, „paid favours‟ and the process of „rolling‟ one‟s money2. 2 „Rolling‟ is a form of informal investment in which a sum of money, ranging from a few hundreds to a few thousands, is given to a „trusted person‟ who would use that money as capital to finance typically illicit 2 More interestingly, however, was a particular piece of advice offered by one of my uncles who emphasized its importance for succeeding in such circles: Malays cannot do well… Hard lah… Because this is a Chinese world! You must know when to be Malay or when to be more like a Chinese (sic).” I was taken aback initially but it dawned upon me that in Singapore, the dynamics of ethno-racial relations pervade almost every facet of social life; from the education system, labour markets and governmental policy-making to everyday informal social interactions. Even social activities such as gambling, whether in their legal or illicit forms, are not exempted from being influenced by existing widely held racial hierarchies. These findings sparked the nascence of my sociological inquiry into the phenomenon of gambling, particularly concerning how it interplays with ethnic identity, the processes of racialization as well as social class realities. The latter constitutes a significant intertwining factor considering that Malay-Muslims are overrepresented amongst the lowest 20 percentile of Singapore‟s income strata (Singapore Statistics, 2005). Additionally, the minority-in-majority settings that frame the experiences of MalayMuslim gamblers in Chinese-dominated Singapore make it even more pertinent to investigate the dynamics of race relations and how they manifest, especially within the domain of informal gambling and resource networks. Upon discovering that the sociological literature on gambling scarcely take ethnic and class dimensions into consideration3, I began my empirical investigation of gambling among lower income Malay-Muslims in the hope of contributing towards filling these gaps in knowledge. activities and ventures, such as money lending. The returns tend to be high in the short term and could even double within a month (casual correspondence with respondent). 3 Most studies examining gambling and race/ethnicity tend to be overly quantitative, essentialistic and culturally deterministic in their approaches. 3 1.2 Introducing The Research Problem One of the fundamental research questions driving this study concerns the experiences of minority groups gambling and interacting through gambling related activities within a majority-dominated setting. However, it will be argued that Singapore‟s general tendency to synonymously associate gambling with the ethnic Chinese majority has subliminally rendered the aspect of ethnicity as an irrelevant and taken for granted „constant‟; thereby occluding any systematic and purposeful inquiry into the experiences of gamblers belonging to ethnic minority groups. This particularly holds true for Malay-Muslims4, whose involvement have been more significant and historical than currently perceived by the public media and official agencies, such as the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG). Interestingly however, despite Islam‟s explicit prohibition of participation in all forms of gambling (Rozenthal, 1975), preliminary research reveals the active engagement of Malay-Muslims in both formal as well as informal gambling and its related activities; particularly the latter, which tends to involve more extensive social networks for their operation. This consequently leads to the second analytical impetus of this study, which attempts an in-depth exploration of the interpersonal networks of social relations that support and are in turn, sustained by the processes of gambling. This study qualitatively examines the gambling experiences of a particular group of Malay-Muslims who inhabit the lower echelons of Singapore society in terms of their average monthly income and education attainments (Singapore Statistics, 2008). By adopting a moral economic approach, it will be illustrated that gambling among lower 4 Malay-Muslims constitute approximately 99% of those categorized as Malays in Singapore, who themselves make up 14% of the total population. 4 income Malay-Muslims (henceforth LIMMs) constitutes a multitude of subjectively configurable socio-cultural elements such as meanings, motivations, preferences, social networks and resources. It is argued that the contextualized and empathetic analysis of these socio-cultural aspects will reveal significant insights into the lived realities and social positions of LIMMs, particularly pertaining to their experiences in confronting various ethno-racial, class and ideological constraints at the socio-structural level, as well as in the course of dynamic everyday interaction. It will be contended that such constraints stem from, and also reinforce, a prevailing ethno-class social hierarchy in which LIMMs occupy its lowest positions. Thus by examining the moral economy of informal and formal gambling practices as our empirical premise, the analytical objectives for this thesis are threefold. Firstly, to illuminate the various forms of ethno-racial mechanisms that operate to minoritize LIMMs within a socio-cultural context dominated by the Chinese majority. Secondly, to explicate the processes in which LIMM gamblers and their families negotiate with such minoritization (Pereira, 2008), and the tensions arising from consumption demands and the resource-strapped realities of lower-income life. Finally, this study seeks to understand and empirically contextualize the discursive relationship between the responsibilization of gambling and the individualization of risk, in terms of how they legitimize particular ethnic- and class-based social barriers; thereby ideologically perpetuating the existing ethno-class hierarchy while simultaneously contributing towards widening the cleavages between its strata. 5 1.3 More Than Just a Game: The Moral Economy of Gambling This section serves to expound upon the thesis‟s foundational conceptualization of gambling, which primarily adopts McMillen‟s (1996) contextual approach towards understanding gambling in relation to specific socio-historical, political, economic and cultural configurations. In her book Gambling Cultures, McMillen calls for the development of more culturally sensitive conceptual tools to analyze gambling in a manner that significantly departs from conventionally universalistic definitions of gambling, which generally fail to appreciate it as anything more than either a financiallymotivated act of risk-taking, social vice, pathological addiction, or a combination of these. Thus, in order to gain a more holistic and detailed understanding of the dynamic nuances of gambling in praxis and how it impacts both lived realities and social structures, it is imperative to conceive of gambling as a phenomenon whose myriad forms of organization and participation are highly contingent upon two integral factors: the social positions of the actors involved, and the socio-political as well as economic environment framing it. For instance, the former is highly influential in affecting the gambler‟s motivations, choice of games to enter and the capacity to mobilize and utilize the various combinations of cultural, social and economic capital in the gambling process. As for the latter factor, it significantly determines the structural functions of gambling and its broader cultural meaning within society‟s ideological landscape, which directly frames the normative structures that pervade both formal and informal gambling practices. In other words, gambling may empirically be considered as comprising a moral economy where beneath the surface motivation of pursuing financial rewards are complex layers of norms, meaning systems and social networks that ultimately dictate economic decisions and the flow of resources. 6 Adopting Binde‟s (2005) social anthropological perspective of gambling as a reciprocal system of exchange, I intend to understand the dynamics of gambling networks in a similar manner; as a socioeconomic system whose guiding principles of organization are based on a system of values that is strongly influenced by broader socio-cultural meanings. The importance of socio-cultural meanings in structuring and driving gambling is evident in Rogers‟ (1991) work on gambling activities among the underclass in mid-nineteenth century colonial Sri Lanka, which demonstrated how their persistence in gambling, despite the risk of facing criminal punishment and also having relatively little to gain from it economically, was actually a commitment towards rejecting what was perceived to be the elite‟s definition of the values of “thrift and work”. Such ideas were central to the elite‟s worldview but were interpreted by the underclass as part of a broader ideological project of instilling a new “moral social order” for Sri Lanka. The fulfillment of this goal however, required “disciplining” the general underclass population who were deemed to be morally and culturally deficient. This was therefore openly rejected by the underclass through the adoption of several „norms‟ of gambling practices that served as a form of “counter-culture” against the elite. These included “meetings in isolated sheds in the middle of the night” as well as “bribery of policemen and headmen.” When police raids occurred, it was expected behaviour to make life difficult for the pursuing officers by meeting them with violence and even upon arrest, it was not uncommon to employ “the rules and language of the judicial system in ways that turned the criminal courts themselves into sites of resistance” (Ibid: 202). Such a culture of gambling and its inherent socio-cultural meaning in Sri Lanka were therefore interpreted by Rogers as performing a galvanizing role for the members of 7 its underclass. Although he failed to mention the ethnic make-up of the underclass, he did observe that gamblers in Sri Lanka had come from all the three major ethnic groups and were of varying caste and religious affiliations. This interestingly leads to another important but rather unexplored dimension of Rogers‟ research, which concerns how the dynamics of such ethnic and social differences play out within the realm of gambling. Since gambling essentially involves wagering over the outcome of specified forms of games, the highly cultural nature of the latter (Huizinga, 1949; Caillois, 1962; Goffman, 1967) in terms of the meanings, language, rules and even styles of play involved, denotes that games tend to also be associated with specific ethnic groups, particularly those who share the cultural contexts in which such games originated from. Thus, it would have been pertinent to trace the ethno-cultural roots of the games popularly wagered upon by the Sri Lankan underclass in order to explain how they came to be widely accepted amongst the heterogeneous ethnic and cultural milieu. Rogers did however address this issue briefly by mentioning that one of the most popular card games being gambled on, called bebi kapanava, was introduced by the Dutch but between the various ethnic groups, the Moors were “more involved than their overall numbers warranted, especially as organizers” (Ibid: 178, emphasis mine). This thesis will be an attempt at building upon Roger‟s analysis to posit that the values and norms present in gambling cultures may themselves be heterogeneous and conflicting, especially when various ethnic and class groups partake in the activity with one group being more dominant than the rest. In such a case, it will be salient to explore the dynamics of power relations involved when a particular ethnic group assumes precedence over others in the organization of gambling. This is because an organizer 8 tends to determine the odds, decide on which game is wagered upon and is usually the one with the most capital. Therefore as a corollary, it would be worth investigating how ethno-cultural and even religious factors may have affected the organization of gambling by the Sri Lankan Moors, who as Muslims, ironically believe in a religion that explicitly proscribes gambling. In the Singapore context, gambling happens to be a “cultural” activity of the ethnic Chinese majority and in both the formal and informal gambling spheres, they tend to assume positions of relative power and control over betting operations. Additionally, I will illustrate that those values and norms of gambling which are widely-regarded across ethnic lines as being “superior” and “effective”, are closely associated with the Chinese. These include, for example, the approach towards choosing bets, the superstitions believed to increase the chances of winning, the select betting locations and even the „type‟ of individuals who excel in gambling. Ultimately, I argue that the mechanisms and structures that perpetuate the dominance of the majority social group‟s values and norms within gambling is intrinsically linked to those that maintain the group‟s superior position within the wider social hierarchy. This is because gambling and the modern capitalist economy share certain fundamental requirements for those seeking to achieve upward mobility in their respective structures; chief among them is the access to social, cultural and economic capital (Bourdieu, 1986). Nevertheless, the capacity to mobilize these forms of capital and resources are unevenly distributed across society and for those in minority ethno-class positions, there exists major racial and class-based social barriers that work to reproduce and accentuate their inferior locations within the social strata. 9 McMillen, (1996: 33) in reflecting on the sociological value of using gambling as an empirical premise, aptly sums up the analytical intentions of this thesis when she writes, “gambling not only reflects the nature of social relations in any society, but also powerfully determines new social and political outcomes.” Thus, in addition to examining how the structures, norms and values of gambling in Singapore constitute a microcosm as well as an extension of the interethnic dynamics and class realities of Singapore society in general, this study will also reveal how gambling itself may serve as a nexus of capital and resources that facilitates the process of negotiating ethno-class social positions within a minority-in-majority setting. As this section has argued, the normative structures present in gambling, coupled with its intrinsic system of resource and capital exchange, makes gambling socially and culturally malleable; therefore highly susceptible to domination by groups in superior ethno-class social positions. Nevertheless, that very quality of malleability also allows for resistance and negotiation on the part of minority groups who face latent and manifest social mechanisms that function to maintain the status quo of their subordination. The locus of analysis for this study will thus examine gambling‟s cultural dimensions; particularly those involving the social factors of ethnicity and class, whose intersections featured frequently and prominently throughout the course of my fieldwork. Through ethnographic data, I will therefore illustrate how gambling experiences and „cultures‟ tend to be influenced primarily by ethno-racial and social class contingencies, especially within a socio-cultural context that pervasively embraces the ideologies of multiracialism and meritocracy. 10 In order to further clarify and theoretically situate the conceptual contribution of this study, the following section will highlight those seminal works which have sought to dissect the social dimensions of gambling experiences in an attempt to explicate its broader social significance through an understanding of the nature of its relationship with social structures and institutions. 1.4 Understanding Gambling and Social Inequalities: Identifying the Capacity for Conceptual Synthesis One of the most fundamental objectives driving the majority of earlier sociological literature on gambling was dedicated towards structural explanations for the existence and persistence of gambling in modern societies (Aasved, 2003: 55). Thus far, the most dominant schools of thought have been the structural-functionalist and „safetyvalve‟ paradigms, which include theories of anomie, alienation and the “leisured upper classes” (Veblen, 1925: 276) within their analytical framework. From the structuralfunctionalist perspective, illuminating gambling‟s social role is integral towards shedding light on the cleavages and contradictions found in society‟s core values and how it has impacted society as a whole as well as its various segments. Renowned scholarship in this vein include Devereux‟s (1949) theory of how gambling served multiple purposes for members of the various strata of modern industrial society in the United States, which was also characterized by the values of capitalism and Protestant Christianity. Devereux explains, in a rather Mertonian manner, that such value systems espouse several highly contradictory moral-ethical tenets that ultimately encourage strain and feelings of status frustration for those unable to ascend society‟s rungs through the more socially established routes. Thus, while gambling‟s „quick and 11 easy‟ route to success may be antithetical to the Puritan ethic of hard work and rationality, its social functionality lies in providing disadvantaged groups with an easily accessible avenue to partake in potentially profitable processes of risk-taking and decision making. Devereux argues that these endeavors, while ideologically advocated in modern capitalist societies, are scarcely experienced by the lower-middle and working classes in their daily course of life due to their general employment in occupations that tend to lack official autonomy and clear chances for upward mobility. On the other hand, gambling as a form of “conspicuous leisure” allows the upper classes to symbolically enhance their social statuses by indulging in games of chance that display their abilities to risk large sums of money with “apparent indifference” (Aasved, 2003: 24). Hence, although gambling‟s almost universal appeal is assumed to cut across the boundaries of social class, numerous scholars have observed marked differences in the way gambling tends to qualitatively differ for gamblers from the various income strata; namely in terms of betting patterns and practices as well as the meanings derived from the experiences. The most apparent differences are in terms of the amounts spent on bets, the choice of games betted on, and even the most frequented locations for gambling. In Newman‟s (1972: 85) comprehensive work on gambling patterns in Britain, he reported a higher proportion of middle and upper class gamblers betting in the casinos and gaming clubs than those from the working classes. Such a proportion is however, reversed when it comes to horseracing (both on- and off-track) and the football pools, which remain the choice locations and games for less affluent punters. More interestingly, Newman also discovered that the frequency and average proportion of income spent on bets tended to get higher as he descended the income hierarchy. 12 However, as mentioned above, gambling among lower-income groups has generally been regarded by scholars as either functioning as a form of “safety-valve” that legitimates the system, its values and its inherent inequalities, or an expression of symbolic resistance to them. Examples of comprehensive ethnographic accounts adopting the former perspective include a study by Maclure et al. (2006) on how playing bingo allows her female respondents to cope with the everyday stresses of being responsible for domestic affairs while simultaneously facing social realities characterized by “the lack of economic and job-related power” (Ibid: 182). This analysis was echoed and elaborated on by Casey (2008) who empirically developed the themes on gender, class and consumption. Earlier studies by Zola (1963) and Herman (1967) also examined the social utility of off- and on-track horseracing for working-class men who require an outlet to vent their frustrations on the mainstream middle-class „system‟ while also seeking alternative arenas to obtain achievement and recognition through the exercise of skill and knowledge during the process of bet selection. Also relevant is Light‟s (1977) research on impoverished black ghettos in the United States where numbers gambling served as an alternative financial institution for the economically marginalized. Allen (2005: 203) though, was more critical of such “functionalist” explanations and her observations at a similar research site argued that the “habitus” of the horse-track betting represents a blatant rejection of capitalism‟s “normative institutionalized structures of investment, wage labour and reward”. In sum, the analyses in all these works argued that important thematic links could be established between gambling experiences, the ethnic, gender and class identities of the gamblers, as well as the larger social context. However, there also exists a general 13 tendency to approach gambling as a mitigating device for the negative effects stemming from dysfunctionalities of wider social structures. This becomes theoretically problematic because such conceptions of gambling treat it merely as a reactionary coping mechanism; thereby failing to appreciate the element of initiative present in gambling participation and how it actually involves the active management of resources as well as social and cultural forms of capital by minority groups in their attempts to negotiate upward mobility for both their gambling „careers‟ and their social positions. In other words, the conceptual dichotomy of treating gambling for the lower classes as either a “safety-valve” or form of “resistance” tends to gloss over the hierarchical dynamics found within the sophisticated norms of gambling and its interpersonal networks. Furthermore, most scholars of gambling have limited their field research to only the sites where gambling occurs and therefore fail to explore the “background” processes that take place in the lead up to, as well as after the act of gambling. These include the knowledge gathering, planning, networking and even their evaluation of their gambling experiences in relation to their lived realities. Thus far, only Casey and Light have extended their empirical focus to incorporate data from the other facets of their respondents‟ lives apart from gambling. For them, the study of gambling illuminates important thematic dimensions about the lived experiences of social minorities; dimensions that are distinct from, yet inextricably intertwined with the more established spheres of the family, work and the community. Thus, while gambling is usually experienced and framed as „leisure activity‟, or as „action‟-filled events that are (Goffman, 1967) distinctly bracketed from other more „ordinary‟ spheres of life, such as work and family, scholars like Casey and Light demonstrate that a more 14 contextually nuanced understanding of gambling is required to holistically explore the meanings, resource flows and social interactions that constitute yet transcend the immediate and bounded experience of gambling. Therefore, due to its capacity for producing meanings and transferring financial resources, gambling experiences establish a dynamic and „symbiotic‟ relationship to other aspects of an individual‟s lived reality; on the one hand, gambling activities are influenced and interpreted through immanent socio-biographical processes such as ethnic identities and social class; on the other, individuals may also draw on gambling networks‟ potential to generate financial capital as a means of coping with, or even transcending the contingencies resulting from their social positions. Gambling networks embody a unique social character due to the relatively informal nature of their connections, which are simultaneously substantial and concrete enough for the interchange of financial resources to take place with the minimum levels of trust required. The question to be raised and answered here pertains to the how the dynamics of such networks play out within a diverse and hierarchical ethnic social milieu that also sees significant gaps between income groups. Thus, taking the lead from such an approach to gambling, this thesis intends to document and analyze the ethno-racial and class processes inherent in the social spheres of gambling in Singapore. In order to do so, the empirical scope of analysis could therefore be extended to include both the immediate networks associated with gambling and the wider circle of social relations where resources are constantly circulated between. In addition, it was discovered that the resource-based exchanges occurring within such networks tended to be structured by ethno-racially associated forms of „rationality‟, 15 which my respondents generally perceive as constituting a cultural marker that is not only used to distinguish between the majority and minority ethnic groups, but also justify their respective positions within the existing socio-ethnic hierarchy. Simply put, along with physical and cultural forms of delineations between the Chinese and Malays, such as skin colour, dress, religion and language, there are also strong stereotypical perceptions about how these respective ethnic groups have different „ways of thinking‟ or decisionmaking processes; especially with regards to managing financial and economic resources. Through selected verbatim excerpts of empirical data, I will demonstrate how such perceptions are held by both majority and minority ethnic group members alike and actively exert an influence on structuring the patterns of social action and interaction amongst my pool of informants. However, while there exists an almost self-fulfilling cyclical process of internalizing and reifying these ethno-racial stereotypes, it was noted that there is also significant leeway for their rejection, and even capitalization on the part of minorities in terms of obtaining resources. Thus, the analyses in this thesis will argue that gambling participation in a majority dominated setting not only serves as an important opportunity for working class minority gamblers to access a nexus of informal capital and resources, but also allows them the capacity to resist, negotiate, but in most cases, also indirectly reinforce the prevalent racial hierarchy as well as ideas of racio-class associated rationalities. 1.5 Studying Gambling in Singapore: The Importance of Ethno-Class Dimensions A previously barren field of study, the stock of academic literature on gambling in Singapore only began to really flourish from 2005 onwards; coinciding with the government‟s official decision to construct the country‟s first casinos (ST 2005 April 13). 16 Since then, the ensuing “casino debate” led to the subsequent medicalization of gambling and the introduction of the “problem gambler” as a category. Through a thorough and critical analysis of the state‟s discourse on gambling, Zhu (2008: 45) succinctly argued that the framing of gambling as a potentially addictive and pathological behaviour facilitates the dissociation of the Singapore state from being responsible for any adverse social consequences that the public may attribute to it due to its decision to build two casinos. This is done mainly by constructing a paradigm that locates the source of socially deviant behaviour (in this case pathological gambling) within the individual. Therefore, the role that the state has delineated for itself lies only to the treatment and minimization of the effects of a clearly individualized problem. Thus, in order to shore up the legitimacy of such an ideological discourse of medicalizing gambling, it was imperative for the government to consult with and obtain the support of a whole slew of “experts” in the field of gambling behaviour. This led to the founding of the state sponsored National Council on Problem Gambling, which was set up in 2005 with the explicit objective of providing “counseling, legal and rehabilitative services” as well as “advice and feedback” to the government (National Council on Problem Gambling, 2005; emphasis mine). Unfortunately however, the majority of approaches in local gambling literature have been from the perspectives of economics, governance, medicine and the psysciences. Works from the former two disciplines generally address the issue of regulating illegal forms of gambling as well as assessing the economic and social impacts of Singapore‟s decision to build a casino as means of increasing tourism-generated revenue (Henderson, 2006; Ng, 2006; Swafford, 2006; Hoong, 2008). As their analytical 17 objectives tend to be macroeconomic in nature, there is barely any theoretical space to explore the more “grounded” and subjective manifestations of gambling. As for the latter two academic fields, their preoccupation with diagnosing and remedying the effects of “problem gambling” has resulted in an excessive focus on highly de-contextualized and individualized factors affecting gambling behaviour (Zangeneh, Grunfeld and Koenig, 2008; Dickerson and O‟Connor, 2006; Ladouceur, Sylvain and Boutin, 2002; Whelan, Meyers and Steenbergh, 2007). In other words, influences from the social environment are either neglected or treated as analytically separate and discrete. For instance, data is often gathered on the age, ethnicity and income level of gamblers, but not on how these biographical characteristics actually impact upon the processes of gambling as experienced by individuals. This is largely due to an overly reductionistic conception of gambling as a simple act of betting over the outcomes of events which have an element of uncertainty. Such an understanding overlooks the fact that gambling in praxis is intrinsically a social process that inherently possesses and requires a multitude of subjective meanings, knowledge, resources and interpersonal relations that extend beyond the domain of gambling and into other areas of a gambler‟s life, especially with respect to consumption. Thus, amidst the dearth of gambling studies in Singapore, there seems to be a further poverty in the scholarly knowledge on how gambling processes are related to social structures as well as the dynamics of their operation at the “everyday” and interactional level. This latter aspect of interactivity in gambling is seldom appreciated because gamblers are often perceived to be competing solely against the “house”, which has also 18 been interpreted as an abstract representation of the “system” (Zola, 1963) or even the larger “risk society” (Tay, 2006). However, an important but largely ignored social dimension of the gambling experience involves the indirect competition with other gamblers. While the various ethnographic observations of gambler interactions within social settings have reported that a general sense of camaraderie and bonding exists between punters, there is also the knowledge that the payouts for winning bets are largely, if not entirely financed by lost bets. This element of competition was alluded to by Casey, Zola, Tan and Soo when they demonstrated that although luck is believed to be an essential determinant of success in gambling, gamblers still channel extensive amounts of resources and effort towards obtaining knowledge, “honing” their betting skills as well as augmenting their chances of winning. However, it is apparent in my data that for gamblers coming from relatively similar socioeconomic backgrounds, such resources, knowledge and skills also assume an ethno-racial complexion. With regards to the relationship between ethnicity and gambling, it is a widely accepted fact in Singapore (and most parts of the world) that the Chinese are virtually “culturally” inclined to gamble. It is not uncommon for academic articles to begin their analyses with a point similar to that made by Arthur, Tong, Chen et al. (2008) in the introductory section of their study on gambling behaviour among Singaporean university students: Gambling has been an integral part of Chinese culture for centuries. Luck and fate play important parts of in the daily lives of the Chinese. […] Games of luck such as mahjong…promote social interaction… and enable the younger Chinese generation to be much early on exposed to gambling behaviour. […] There is thus a possibility that perceptions of gambling as part of the cultural lifestyle, history and tradition have enabled them to incorporate values and beliefs that approve gambling behaviour. […] Singapore is made up of a predominantly Chinese population. As such there is a notion that the incidence of gambling behaviour…is fairly accepted even at a younger age. 19 Even government-sanctioned reports on gambling continually emphasize the overwhelmingly higher participation rates of the Chinese in comparison to the other ethnic groups (Ministry of Community Development Youth and Sport, 2005; 2008; National Council on Problem Gambling, 2007). However, while there seems little evidence to disprove the validity of the assertion that the Chinese are culturally predisposed to gamble, I would like to point out the tendency for most researchers to implicitly assume that the Chinese constitute the only significant ethnic group amongst the total population of gamblers. This is evident in the majority of studies which, despite admitting to the appeal of gambling across ethnic groups, fail to address the impact of ethnic differences in gambling experiences; possibly due to the perception that either gamblers in “predominantly Chinese” Singapore are more or less ethnically homogenous, or that ethnicity had little or no influence on the gambling behaviour of their sample population. Such perceptions have nevertheless been falsified by two in-depth academic exercises from the field of sociology. Tan‟s (1995) dissertation, which adopted the socialpsychological approach to examine the normative contingencies employed by gamblers to rationalize their actions, was the first study to highlight and explore the importance of ethnic identity in colouring the meaning-making “schemes” that gamblers interpret their experiences with. Her sole interview with a Malay-Muslim female respondent revealed how having a religious identity that explicitly opposes gambling does not necessarily prevent an individual from gambling altogether, rather it compels one to reinterpret gambling as a trivial activity with a minor influence on one‟s life. Although this seems to 20 reinforce the insignificance of gambling participation among Malay-Muslims, data from an earlier and more ethnographic work by Soo (1991) suggests otherwise. In one of the most detailed comparative accounts of the beliefs and practices between Chinese, Malay-Muslim and Hindu gamblers to date, Soo reported three extremely enlightening points which are of central relevance to the analytical themes of this thesis; firstly, her revelation that Malays in Sumatra had gambling as one of their chief forms of recreation despite the majority of them being Muslims. Secondly, in her conclusion, she stated that: Perhaps Islam‟s emphasis on „otherworldliness‟ for the Muslim punters is counterbalanced by societal pressures (ie. a highly competitive society which values financial affluence and personal success). In the words of a Muslim punter, “Others (Chinese punters) seem to win easy money from this. It‟s natural that we want to try our luck too. […] money is hard to come by these days. (Soo, 1991: 108) This underscores that the negotiation of one‟s religious identity is framed, filtered and to an extent, even shaped by the contingencies of class realities. Thus, the belief in religion, in this case Islam, does not simply function as an obstacle to the actions of MalayMuslim gamblers, but instead works as an interpretive frame of reference that gives meaning to and structures their actions in ways that are qualitatively different from other ethnic groups. Additionally, the quote from her Muslim informant illuminates a process of “othering” where the Chinese are not only seen as different, but also better gamblers. This leads to the third important point raised by Soo when she briefly commented that the sharing of similar gambling “philosophies” between the various ethnic groups, as well as the “possible diffusion of some Chinese ideas across ethnic boundaries in Singapore”, could be due to the influence of the Chinese majority (Ibid: 109). I argue that while her 21 observation here is astute, she clearly overlooks the integral relationship between power and culture and the political process in which the norms and ideas of the majority become institutionalized as “mainstream”; thereby exerting hegemonic influence over minority groups. In a subsequent chapter, I will demonstrate how the socioeconomic and political dominance of the Chinese has facilitated the preeminence of some of its cultural values, which have been perpetuated as self-evident “truths” across ethnic groups and therefore serve to culturally underpin the prevailing ethno-racial hierarchy in Singapore society. 1.6 Summary In conclusion, this chapter sought to highlight gambling‟s socio-cultural dimensions and networked character, in order to understand the phenomenon as a cultural-economic process that has social variations. Such an approach will be necessary to establish the dynamic relationship between the empirical premise of gambling activities and the social institutions of ethnicity and class. In the context of Singapore, the racialization of gambling as a preoccupation of the Chinese majority has overshadowed attempts to explore the interethnic dynamics present in the gambling participation of members of minority social groups, especially in the informal spheres. Historical evidence5, popular films and anecdotal data would support the notion that Malays have been gambling in larger numbers than publicly perceived, just that they do so in less conspicuous working class social settings. Additionally, it is in such settings where ethnicity is utilized as a resource-gaining strategy involving a dynamic process of capital conversion and activation. Ultimately, this thesis will contend that while racial 5 A report compiled in 1887 entitled, „The Commission Appointed to Enquire into the Question of Public Gambling in The Straits Settlements‟ revealed that Malays were involved, albeit in lower ranks of the hierarchy, in the operation of gambling dens in Singapore and Malaysia. 22 hierarchies are reproduced within the context of informal gambling networks, the access to the nexus of ethnic-based social, cultural and economic capital that gambling affords to minorities constitutes an outlet in which they may negotiate more favourable social positions. Paradoxically however, the pathways to such social transcendence usually require the implicit acceptance of the cultural and rationality structures of the majority ethnic and class group. 23 Chapter 2 Methodological Reflections The purpose of this chapter is fourfold; firstly, to provide a detailed description of the research methods employed during the course of data generation; secondly, as an exercise in reflexivity to discuss how specific aspects of my biography and my relationship to the informants may have affected the quality of their responses; thirdly, to draw some analytical insights from certain contingencies arising during the of conduct of fieldwork and finally, to discuss the limitations resulting from such exigencies as well as the steps that were taken to circumvent or mitigate any negative influences they may have been exerted on the research process as a whole. 2.1 Locating the Sample Population: Issues with Establishing Trust and Rapport This section will discuss the issues involved in gaining access to the various sample groups interviewed for this study. The importance of establishing rapport with each informant cannot be overstated due to the highly sensitive nature of the questions being asked, especially for those that dealt with perceptions of racial groups, degree of involvement in illicit gambling activities and expenditure. In most occasions where the informants only agreed to a single meeting, there was a tendency for them to openly question the relevance of such questions to the research topic as well as express reluctance in answering them, specifically those pertaining to race and their management of finances. These instances were usually defused by my insistence that my questions were simply a genuine attempt at conducting a thorough study and the reiteration that their identities would be completely protected. Admittedly, this line of reasoning did not 24 always alleviate all the apprehensions my informants had, but interestingly, approximately half of them proceeded to share their answers, albeit very cautiously but also more freely, after enquiring if I had asked the question to other informants. I also saw this as an opportunity display some “cultural knowledge” by quoting some of my previous informants‟ use of informal and “legally questionable” strategies in an attempt to prompt and encourage the sharing of more culturally nuanced descriptions of experiences. Below is an example of such interchanges. Interviewer: Just now you said you sometimes you will lose a lot of money and then sometimes win a lot… When you lose so much, what do you do to… apa Abang buat untuk cari duit?[What did you do to obtain money?] Zain: Ah…. Ada la, pinjam skit, gadai pun Abang pernah buat…Eh Ni soalan ada tanya Dino tak? [I borrowed small amounts from people, pawned some valuables… did you ask such questions to Dino too?] Interviewer: Ada…soalan soalan ni semua sama. Dino kata dia ajak Zain buat “project” dengan dia eh? Ni project macham “rolling” ah? [Yes, all the questions are the same. Dino said he asked you to join him in some „project‟, was it similar to “rolling”] Zain: Ah ah ye, Dino kan banyak project, dia cakap ada satu project… eh ni jangan bilang orang lain tau?... ada project ni boleh dapat banyak duit… tapi kena keluar sikit duit… [Yes, that Dino has a lot of “projects”. There is this one project, but don‟t tell anyone else alright? This project can make a lot of money, but first you have to have some capital to start with]. Thus although I lacked the opportunity to establish rapport with some informants, I tried to gain their trust through the endorsement by a known previous informant. The substantial amount of trust already present within the relationships between LIMM gamblers, which probably had been generated from their mutual membership in informal and illegal networks, was essential in creating a form of “grafted” rapport that facilitated fostering feelings of familiarity and ease while sharing their experiences. 25 2.1.1 LIMM Gamblers The first and most basic challenge encountered while generating data for this thesis involved obtaining access to informants who were willing to come forward and speak with me at length and in detail about an aspect of their lives that is generally considered “undesirable” or even “taboo” by both the larger ethnoracial community in which they profess to identify with, as well as themselves. Nevertheless, I had been fortunate enough to not only have six Malay-Muslim family members who happened to be regular gamblers, but who were also active members of informal and illicit gambling networks. This was a crucial aspect for this study because all of the LIMM informants were contacted through the process of snowballing from the social networks of those six family members of mine. Fortunately, despite being related, each of the six had rather distinct biographical characteristics from one another and more importantly, except for two of my uncles, the rest were part of mutually exclusive gambling networks. Thus it was empirically fruitful to be able to triangulate elements of the information generated among members of differing social networks and still perceive commonalities, especially with statements and accounts that express ethnoracial perceptions and stereotypes as well as those pertaining to cultural knowledge. Due to the variations of my informants‟ gambling patterns in terms of regularity, I categorized the LIMM gambler according to two main categories: “routine” and “leisure”. Informants who were placed in the former category gambled as frequently as 3 times a week, spent at least a third of their monthly income on bets and ultimately, professed to be serious gamblers. The category of “routine” gamblers was further divided 26 between “luck-based” and “skilled-based” to differentiate between those who choose their bets primarily on “hunches” and those who devote significant amounts of time and effort in studying their bet selections. Leisure gamblers were those who claimed to gamble sporadically when they have the extra money, or when they felt confident that the team they supported would win them some money. They are primarily luck-based and tended to bet on “long-shots” that had very low chances of winning but high payout rates. There was also an additional category for a minority of my informants who were “career” gamblers. These individuals were not only relatively more successful at gambling, but also managed to profit from assuming the role of a bookmaker (bookie) or a runner (a middle-man between the bookie and bettor). 2.1.2 Gamblers from other Ethnic Groups A total of 5 Chinese gamblers were interviewed, 2 of them were snowballed from the pool of LIMM gamblers while the rest were contacted through personal networks. The main issue with the Chinese informants was tendency to express any opinions deemed to be derogatory towards the Malays, which was primarily due to their initial belief that I was Malay. Interestingly, upon finding out that I was actually categorized under the Chinese racial group, they began to shed some of their inhibitions. A couple of them even expressed mocked fear of being reported to the Internal Security Department after stating that they agreed with several negative stereotypes of the Malays. 2.1.3 Family Members A total of three family members were interviewed to find out how the gambling participation of their husband, cousin and brother affected them. These interviews proved 27 the most difficult to secure as most of the LIMM gamblers had strong reservations about sharing their gambling experiences with family members. 2.2 The Process of Data Generation 2.2.1 In-depth interviews The qualitative research method was chosen for this study because of its strengths in establishing highly detailed accounts of experiences as well as generating information from an empathic perspective. The interviews were mostly conducted at coffee shops, void decks and in several cases, the homes of the informants. A recurring precaution that arose in the buildup to each meeting with my informants was the need to have privacy from their family members. In fact there were a couple of instances in the initial stages of fieldwork where interviews were abandoned altogether because an informant‟s family member had either sat in or insisted to participate, which extreme discomfort for the informant. One of my key informants, Bohari, explains the reason behind this need to keep his family members from knowing of his participation in gambling activities: Better not la… if they know nanti susah [it will be difficult]… Diorang dah lama dah suspect… Every time I got money, they ask me “where you get?” Diorang dah tak percaya aku la [they don‟t trust me anymore]… I want to ask their help also hard… Last time I when I win money belanja [took them out and paid for their meals] all no problem, after I kena tangkap [got caught for gambling-related credit card fraud]… semua tengok aku macham haram aje nak mintak tolong pun susah [everyone in the family perceived me as a “sinner” and that made it hard for me to even ask for help now] Granted, Bohari‟s explanation does not speak for the myriad of other possible justifications that my other informants may have. Nevertheless, there exists a common sentiment of uneasiness among them as well as a defensive unwillingness to being judged. This is because, despite the various rationalizations, “techniques of 28 neutralization” (Sykes and Matza‟s, 1957) and “normative contingencies” held by LIMM informants, they all seem to personally admit that their actions are wrong. Although this may be construed as either an attempt at maintaining political correctness or simply just “pleasing the interviewer”, several accounts by LIMM gamblers do allude to the presence of a constant internal struggle to negotiate a compromise between their religious identities and their gambling practices, which to them, mean more than just a frivolous leisure pursuit; a substantial proportion of them perceive their success and failures in the gambling spheres as reflective of their relative chances for improving their social circumstances albeit with certain moral brakes. This is especially so for informants whose gambling patterns belong to the categories of “routine” and “career” as those who are more successful at drawing and “rolling” more financial resources from their gambling networks tend to believe that their experiences with winning bets are a form of “divine intervention”, which aids in alleviating them from the stresses of lower-income realities but at the expense of their status as a “proper Muslim”. On the other hand, for those informants who frequently lose and who also tend to inhabit relatively marginal positions within illicit and informal gambling domains, their “failures” in gambling are believed to be confirmatory indicators of their designated social positions and roles in life, which they also perceive as constituting a form of comeuppance for their indulgence in such “sinful” activities. Furthermore, contrary to popular perceptions, the majority of the LIMM gamblers I encountered professed to be practicing Muslims. During interviews, expressions like “Alhamdulliah” and “Insyallah” were frequently used by my informants. On a few occasions, informants would turn up for interviews scheduled on Friday afternoons 29 wearing a sarong and would mention that they had just come from the mosque. In other words, Islam and its explicit proscription of gambling was definitely a source of identity conflict for my informants who tended to either “compartmentalize” their gambling experiences or had to negotiate some form of compromis. I believe my Muslim identity, which became apparent when I revealed my name, also exerted some influence on the interview proceedings as informants tended to gloss over certain religious meanings in the presumption that I already knew what they were talking about. I thus had to constantly assume a disposition of “cultural ignorance” by asking them to elaborate further about certain religious interpretations in their own terms. 2.3 Limitations of the Data 2.3.1 Language All interviews with the exception of 2 were conducted in a mixture of English and Malay due to the interviewer‟s rather limited command of the Malay language. Informants were told to try to communicate in English as best they can, but were also instructed that they were free to use Malay at any point in the interview should they encounter any problems with expressing themselves in English. In most cases, the verbatim accounts provided throughout the chapters of this study will be translated into English. However, the certain statements made in Malay were preserved with an English translation in parentheses for instances where the informant intended to convey a particular ethno-cultural slang expression or phrase. 2.3.2 Vested Interests in the Interviewer-Informant Relationship 30 There were several cases in which 4 of the informants, whom I had interviewed two or more times, had called me up personally and requested to borrow sums of money ranging from $50 to $300. One informant had even asked if I wanted to invest $2,000 in one of his “rolling” plans. Upon further questioning, I found out that the plan actually involved “lending” that money to an illegal moneylender who then promised a return of more than half of the capital sum within a month. After I had politely declined, the informant appeared to be frustrated and implied that I was ungrateful after he had sacrificed time on 3 separate occasions to be interviewed by me. Furthermore he argued that since I was earning such a high salary, $2,000 would be a relatively insignificant amount. This experience led me to reflect on the perceived socioeconomic position my informants had of me. If they had considered me to be a potential source of loans, it would be sensible on my part to re-evaluate the credibility of their accounts regarding the exigencies stemming from the realities of lower-income livelihood, as they would then have an incentive to exaggerate the negative impacts encountered in an attempt to appeal to my sympathies. I thus took efforts to reiterate my occupation as a full-time student without an income in order to dispel any assumptions about the amount of financial resources I had at my disposal. 2.3.4 The Dearth of Female Perspectives The most obvious limitation about the sample population and analyses of this thesis is the lack of data from female LIMM gamblers. Anecdotal information revealed that LIMM women were active members of Senomans or rotating capital associations in which they regularly drew on for financial support. A noteworthy observation was that 31 despite claiming that gambling among LIMM women was a widespread phenomenon, as most of my LIMM informants attested to having seen them queuing to buy bets at Singapore Pools outlets, it was extremely rare for them to actually encounter a female Malay-Muslim gambler in any of the informal and illicit gambling settings that they usually frequent. Even on those exceptional occasions, the women were normally accompanying their male partners to the turf club or the casino. It was, however, more common for them to see Chinese females. When I asked my informants for their opinion on why female Malay-Muslim gamblers enjoyed such a lack of visibility, they unanimously concluded that the stigma for female gamblers was much greater. That time I saw one Kak Tudung tengah beli 4-D [a female donning the Hijab purchasing a lottery ticket]… Dia keluar aje kita semua pekik “Oh kak, nak main judi bukak tudung la!” [When she came out of the store, my friends and I shouted “Hey Sister, if you want to gamble, why don‟t you just take off your scarf!”] (Wahab) If my wife gamble, I tak suka la [won‟t be happy about it] of course… All these Kakak [Malay women] gamble because they need money… kesian diorang kena buat barang haram macam ni, aku buat sudah dia tak payah [it is pitiful that they have to engage in such sinful activity, I‟d rather I do it myself and not my wife]. (Fakir) Thus an interesting line of analysis to follow up on would be the gendered dimension of Malay-Muslim gamblers. 32 Chapter 3 Gambling and the Resource Contingencies of Lower-Income Malay-Muslims’ Lived Experiences The strategies that the poor have evolved to cope with poverty do not compensate for poverty in themselves, nor do they perpetuate the poverty cycle. But when mainstream values fail the poor… the harsh economic conditions of poverty force people to return to proven strategies for survival. Carol Stack, (1974: 129) 3.1 Debunking the „Paradoxes‟ of Gambling Behavior among Lower-Income Groups This chapter will begin by advancing a conceptual approach to the gambling practices of lower-income groups that goes beyond commonly held assumptions that their participation is motivated mainly by either “false hope” or a certain pathological “irrationality”. Such explanatory labels, particularly the latter, have been growing in fashion as gambling becomes increasingly defined as a middle-class “problem” rather than solely belonging to the lower classes, which according to Conrad and Schneider (1992: 275), raises the probability for society in general to accept that a deviant act may be medically treated. However, it will be contended that such explanations neglect two important contextual factors affecting the decision-making processes in gambling; firstly, the capacity for gambling to function as a nexus for lower-income gamblers to translate social capital into economic capital and secondly, those ethno-class exigencies that impose a great deal of strain on resources and ultimately hinder the long-term efforts taken by lower-income racial minorities such as LIMMs to improve their social positions. In Singapore, the findings of a report on gambling by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) also reflected a similar trend as 80% of those earning an average monthly salary of below $1000 spent up to 10% of their incomes on bets, which was the highest betting amount-to-income proportion amongst all the income brackets surveyed (Hong, 2008). Coupled with the staunch belief that the „house always 33 wins‟, such gambling participation by the lower income groups have generally been deemed as paradoxical behavior and simplistically explained away as an irrational hope of striking it rich (Ibid). A recent statement by Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan further expressed the view that the pursuit of gambling for reasons other than „leisure‟ is an innately pathological „irrationality‟: "...if you think that through gambling you can make a living, make a killing or beat the odds, do not do that. Whether there will be more problems, whether there is a casino or no casino, people still want to gamble, and people will still want to get into trouble.” - (ChannelNewsAsia, 2010; emphasis mine) As for the scientific literature on gambling behavior, cognitive psychologists employ the use of probability theories to factually posit that the law of large numbers always dictates a positive outcome for the organizer and a negative one for the player (Wagenaar, 1988: 3). Thus by persisting to gamble despite facing “systematic and certain losses” individual gamblers reveal their inherent tendencies to self-delude and construct false perceptions, which are constantly exploited and encouraged by the commercial „designers of gambling‟ (Ibid). In sum, gambling is generally conceived of as a bounded economic transaction which consists of mainly the (1) gambler and (2) the person (or organization) accepting the wager, and where finances are mostly transferred uni-directionally from the former to the latter. Such understandings about the flow of resources involved in gambling interactions tend to be hermeneutically sterile and highly de-contextualized, as they are mostly derived from statistical „laws‟ that neglect the networks of capital that flow through and beyond the immediate context of the betting process. In other words, the social networks that support gambling activities are very extensive and are intertwined with almost every other social sphere of a gambler‟s lived reality. 34 In the field of social sciences, little scholarly attention has been given to qualitatively understanding the relationship between gambling and working class social realities. Hitherto, the prominent works that have contributed towards shedding light on this area of research have generally regarded gambling as fulfilling social and psychological „safety valve‟ functions for working class men and women (Zola, 1963; Herman, 1967; Casey, 2008). Most of these studies were also conducted within a specific isolated setting, such as bingo halls, taverns and horseracing tracks, which restricted their analyses from exploring how the resources involved in gambling indirectly extended to their wider social networks as well as other broader aspects of their lives, such as consumption and the management of finances. Gamblers are thus social actors „embedded‟ (Granovetter, 1985) within interpersonal networks where roles and relationships are dynamic and highly dependent on the flow of the resources that are constantly in circulation. This especially holds true for the working-class informal gambling networks encountered in the course of collecting data for this study as they possess more direct and sustained links to their local social environment with operations based mainly on reciprocal trust and face-to-face interaction. Not only did all twenty-three gamblers interviewed borrow money from friends, family, colleagues, illicit moneylenders and other gamblers, but they also reported using at least one-third of their winnings to finance the consumption of members of their social circle; such as the purchase of gifts in the form of household items and food. Although the majority of the winnings are either used to buy additional bets or repay existing debts, it was interesting to note that almost all informants admitted that they would not have otherwise been able to afford most of the products and services 35 purchased with winnings from bets. A quote from Shabir, a thirty-year old taxi driver, explicitly clarifies how and why this is so: Once I only had $12.50 in my pocket in Genting [a casino in Malaysia]… it was my first time there. I used it to play jackpot [slot machines]… just try only… to finish up my money…I end up winning $200! I thought that was my night, so I used that money to play poker where I won $5,000. I tell you, that night was a good night…after that I bought new shoes and sponsored my mother and father to go Jakarta. Every month the money I earn from taxi go straight into my medication, bills and food. Where got enough to go holiday? I go to Genting that time also my friend sponsored… If I only drive taxi, I can just stay at home only la. As this statement had appeared in one of my first interviews, I initially presumed that Shabir may have been employing a form of “contingency of charity” (Tan, 1995: 16), which was a concept based on one of Sykes and Matza‟s (1957) techniques of neutralization called the “appeal to loyalties”. Tan explains that it was highly possible for some gamblers to “assert that his/her action was permissible or even right since it served the interests of another to whom they owe an unbreakable allegiance or affection” (ibid). Granted, although the “interests” served by Shabir‟s gambling seem less altruistic than the “loyalties” Sykes and Matza were referring to as it was mainly his own perceived “right” to consume products and services, such as overseas holidays, they nonetheless would have otherwise been unobtainable for him and his family should they rely solely on their salaries. Nevertheless, Shabir‟s justification raised a meaningful analytical theme whose pursuit in the course of subsequent interviews garnered encouragingly positive results as all informants expressed a perceived difficulty when attempting to obtain legitimate sources of credit. Rocky, a 49 year old father of two teenagers, described the impracticability of accessing capital through mainstream financial institutions: My pay every month [one] thousand two [hundred]… sometimes thousand five… How to borrow from bank? Must fill up form, get guarantor some more… Not easy… I try to 36 fight [gamble] first… then ask friends and family… if not can pawn la or go tai long [illegal moneylenders]… no other choice, other places can forget it la… they only lend you if you got money, but if I got money, why would I want to borrow from them? Upon conducting triangulative fieldwork to further substantiate Rocky‟s statements, I concluded that his claims were valid to a large extent. At the time of writing, none of the 6 local banks offered cash loans to applicants with monthly incomes below $1,600, which was the lower minimum. Applicants with monthly incomes of $2,500 and above also have lesser conditions to fulfill than the former group; these include higher monthly interest rates and minimum payment amounts. Apparently, apart from the handful of avenues listed above, there were extremely few, if not, a total absence of licit “lowerincome friendly” alternatives available in Singapore society. A consultation with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) revealed just a couple of possible choices left for lower-income earners to borrow cash capital; the pawnbroker services provided by the Singapore Post, or legal moneylenders. When these two options were suggested during interviews, the informants either expressed ignorance about their existence or a certain fear of the consequences accompanying the inability to repay the loan. Hashim, a 32 year old odd-job labourer vehemently retorted: My salary every month not enough, if I pawn, I will pawn until I have nothing to sleep on... Sometimes if I win, I got money… or if someone wins and gives me money. Not every time like this… If I don‟t have money to pay them [legal moneylenders], either go court, or lose my house. I rather do “project” [informal jobs] for my friend or wait until I win money [from gambling]… if really no money, borrow from ah long… at least if I don‟t pay ah long I won‟t lose my house or go to jail. If they disturb me too much, I can call the police. But if I borrow from ah long, I will surely repay… sometimes late… always repay…don‟t make ah long too angry with you, police can‟t protect you all the time. Apparently, a general consensus exists among my informants that their immediate social networks, winnings from gambling and informal economic activities as the most feasible 37 alternatives for obtaining cash loans. The next preferred source of supplementary or emergency income resides in illicit spheres, whose conditions for lending and repayment seem to offer my informants a degree of flexibility that the irregular nature of their incomes demands. In fact when the consequences for defaulting on payments between licit and illicit loans are compared, my informants actually perceive the former as being more detrimental. Although they admit the harassment from illegal moneylenders, or “loansharks”, can be very humiliating and tormenting, it still pales in comparison to the severity of being sent to jail, or even losing one‟s home, which they believe is the fate that would befall them if they were to borrow legal loans; should they even qualify for them to begin with. Thus, the barriers that keep lower-income earners from accessing mainstream financial channels for loans appear to be mutually reinforcing, with the “supply” side imposing loan-approval criteria that favour “middle-income” applicants while those that potentially “demand” the services generally perceive them as unfeasible. In reference to the array of my informants‟ preferred practices for making ends meet, such as the mobilization of resources through one‟s networks of friends and family, engaging in gambling activities or utilizing those informal economic opportunities that emerge from their gambling-centered networks, it will be argued that gambling serves to not only connect these various methods but also as the impetus for the circulation of resources between them. This is because at the fundamental level, gambling constitutes a significant factor in generating the “demand” for, as well as the “supply” of resources that function to sustain those reciprocal and non-reciprocal relations of support present within their social networks. The following section will elaborate on the intricacies behind such a system, primarily with regards to the ethnically infused process of actively 38 converting and managing their social, cultural and financial forms of capital in a continual effort to support consumption as well as expand social networks. 3.2 Gambling as a Nexus of Social and Economic Capital Studies by Casey (2008) and Light (1977) have indicated that common perceptions about the impact of gambling on the financial resources of lower-income gamblers have grossly underestimated its capacity to directly and indirectly generate capital, especially for the purposes of supporting or even augmenting consumption. They examined how the financial resources involved in gambling significantly impacted the broader and everyday economic strategies of the working class individuals in their study. Casey‟s (2008) exploration of the meanings that working class women imputed into their winnings and the ways in which they were spent was crucial in illuminating how the finances involved in gambling were closely intertwined and “firmly rooted in their everyday, domestic routines” and budget management. All her interviewees were quoted to have: never admitted to spending their winnings on themselves… bought „things for the house‟, namely furniture and… to pay off debts and bill. In all of these women‟s cases, winning medium amounts of money on the National Lottery is seen as a real means of alleviating some of their daily concerns which are the result of their relative poverty (ibid: 72). Casey (ibid: 73) argues that such data confirms the claims made by Reith (1999) and Bell (1911) who similarly interpreted gambling by women from poor households as an earnest endeavour at making a “difficult financial situation easier”. In addition, amidst the dearth of studies that attempt to understand gambling in such a relatively “economically positive” manner, Light‟s (1977: 896) groundbreaking research on numbers gambling among members of poor black communities provides an 39 in-depth examination of how betting on numbers, with average returns of about fifty percent of total wagers, constitutes a form of “rational economic activity” and an important “means of personal savings” and “investment” for those living in circumstances which are so impoverished that the recurring and excessive strain on finances renders the act of saving small amounts of money virtually impossible. The occasional winning bet therefore serves to convert “change into lump sums” that would have been extremely difficult to accumulate “with the continuing clamor of unmet needs”. However, although Light‟s wider empirical scope implies that his analysis may be more generalizable to the financial situations of lower-income groups at large, this study will critically evaluate his conclusion, which states that the practice of using numbers gambling in coping with the “chronic malfunction of mainstream financial institutions” was “wasteful” and unsatisfactory in comparison to rotating credit associations (RCAs), which were another form of financial improvisation by urban blacks (Light, 1977: 901). Such RCAs are defined as informal financial institutions that utilize: a model in which individuals save for an indivisible durable consumption good… which distribute funds using random allocation and bidding… and allow individuals without access to credit markets to improve their welfare (Besley, Coat and Loury, 1993: 792). While Light convincingly posited that RCAs are ultimately more “efficient” than numbers gambling for ameliorating the financial strains experienced by the poor, I argue that by perceiving the resources channeled to lost bets as a “waste”, he overlooks the existence of a positive secondary upshot for individuals who are able to generate additional income from gambling‟s related and ancillary activities. This is especially 40 possible within informal and illicit gambling spheres where roles are fluid, and not every gambler is always a consumer in the betting process. Tan‟s (2001) ethnographic account of illegal soccer betting networks in Singapore revealed that, over time, there was a tendency among his respondents to take advantage of the growing trust bestowed upon them, as regulars within the betting network, in order to perform roles such as “runners” or middle-men for the bookies they have been betting with. This not only allowed them to earn a commission from each bet they forward to the bookie, but it was also common for them to accept bets of their own should they feel confident of winning and decide it was worth the risk. Such practices were also reflected in every interview I conducted with those informants from the “skill-based and routine” as well as “career” gambling categories; including a couple belonging to the “luck-based and routine” category. In all cases, engaging in gambling activities was never merely about the selection of bets, the payment of losses and the collection of winnings, as my informants reported to regularly draw on the resources and opportunities found within the same network of individuals whom they gambled with. It was also common for them to indirectly benefit from the winnings of another member in their social circle due to the customary practice of generosity display in the event a windfall is experienced. Hence, apart from one‟s own winning bets, there is a multitude of other variable ways in which economic advantages accrue to an individual associated with gambling-centered networks. A prime example of these methods can be gleaned from the experiences of Bang Dino, an unemployed man at 50 years of age: Last time I worked 15 hours a day at a factory and do you know how much my salary was? Less than $50 a day! I had to buy my own meals too. I don‟t like that kind of work… I had 4 children to take care of and my wife worked here and there, on and off, but nothing much… my kampong [village-type neighbourhood] friends all like to gamble so that time they introduced me to boss [a cash-rich individual]… I help him to buy 41 tickets, look for loanshark, contact bookie, contact runner, one week at least $900 I get… if boss wins money… ahh can easily reach $2,500 you know? Granted, Bang Dino constitutes a minority and is the second of only two informants I encountered thus far who professed to have profited to such an extent from involvement in gambling networks. Furthermore, as mentioned above, winnings are rarely hoarded in totality and the motivations behind sharing a substantial proportion of one‟s good fortune mainly revolve around sentiments that are a combination of altruism and reciprocity. Fakir, a 35 year old „runner‟ explains: When I get money, I will also help my friends. Bring them out makan [to eat], they also pandai cari aku untuk jolok duit [smart enough to locate me and „extract‟ money]… they know once my boss win, means I also win, and my type of person… will help you…if you are honest with me. They want $500 or $1,000, I will give… but you must tell me the truth, I know masalah rumahtangga datang dari duit [household problems stem mainly from financial problems]… some of them helped me before…but some of them I know sakit… makan biji [drug addicts who are „sick‟]… those I ignore… Experiences like these are evidence of a twofold counterpoint to Light‟s treatment of gambling as being solely „inefficient‟ in supplementing the earnings of low income groups. Firstly, gambling activities connect individuals from a wider spectrum of income backgrounds than RCAs. This is primarily due to the inability for RCAs to generate net monetary benefits for their members because of their rotational nature. Simply put, in most cases, RCAs function as a form of collective savings where the lump sums that are accessible to members during their „turns‟ ultimately consist of money from their own payments that were made on a regular basis as a condition for membership; nothing more or less6. 6 Such a situation describes the ideal operation of RCAs. Besley (1995: 120) highlights that nonmarket credit institutions chronically face problems involving collusion between peers, lack of information for the monitoring of members, and the difficulty of enforcing defaulters. 42 Also, capital was merely shifted around between lower-income individuals in a relatively „closed‟ circuit of exchange. As the main organizing principle behind such institutions is to alleviate shortages in income through a fair allocation of resources, this also implies that the opportunities available for specific individuals to drastically alter their situations in a positive manner are also scarce. This is in stark contrast to the experiences described above where gambling networks allowed individuals who were adept at mobilizing social capital to bring themselves into relationships of exchange with more affluent actors located outside of their immediate social circles. On the other hand, my informants confirmed that partaking in any form of rotating credit arrangements with individuals who were more „needy‟ than oneself would not be an economically sensible decision as the money used for regular payments would have a better chance “rolling” through gambling and its related activities. This is evident because although about half of my informants reported to have participated in Senoman, which was the Malay term for informal resource and capital pooling arrangements that closely resembled RCAs, all of them have since abandoned their usage once they had garnered enough social, cultural and economic capital to focus their energies and resources on more lucrative but also more risky informal economic opportunities activities. Secondly, Light‟s evaluation of numbers gambling as an uneconomical alternative financial institution is premised on the generalized average rate of return, which is fifty percent of all bets. However, it should be noted that such averages are not fully applicable to other forms of gambling that involve more sophisticated rules and payout structures, which thereby allow gamblers with higher levels of knowledge, experience 43 and resources to improve their chances of winning. For instance, all my informants concur that having enough capital to regularly bet on the favourites of any sporting event would almost always generate a profit. This is because while the payouts for bets made on the favourites are relatively small in comparison to those of the “underdogs”, the chances of winning for the former is substantially greater. Therefore having the capital to wager larger principal amounts on the favourites of multiple games would almost guarantee a net profit. Moreover, another method employed by gamblers to heighten their chances is the “tip”, which consists of a piece of “insider information” claiming to know the outcome of an event being bet on. Due to multitude of such information available at any one time, seasoned bettors tend to hastily highlight the futility of utilizing such a technique for bet selection. Nevertheless, when probed further, it appears that “tips” constitute more than mere hearsay as my informants admit that it is not the information being conveyed per se, but the sources of “tips” that are important. In fact, the ability to obtain trustworthy and credible contacts who are in positions to receive reliable and detailed information about the competition being bet on forms a crucial component amongst the punter‟s repertoire of skills. Conceptually, this process involves the conversion of social capital into economic capital, which features prominently within the experiences of those who gamble at the horse racing track. Additionally, there is an ethnic dimension to be mentioned here as all informants who engaged in off- and on-track gambling concurred that the most accurate “tips” they have received originated directly from their friends who were employed at the race-course in occupations such as stable boys, jockeys and even a veterinary assistant. It 44 seems that evidence of the predominance of Malay workers at the race course in Singapore stretches as far back to (The Sunday Herald 1953 May 30). Bohari, a 47 year old “serious and routine” gambler, elaborates on the ethnically tinged process of selecting the “right tip”: Using tips, I won about $10-$15k over a weekend… But after that tamak la [began to get greedy]. I lose back all the money because I didn‟t use tips and I follow those tips cannot be trusted one, got one time this Chinese boy say what I follow… lost $4 k la. He not sure but I follow him anyway, stupid la I, he rich la, can afford to lose…those really good tip ah, jarang [comes sporadically] from my friend… got two, one stable boy and one who know the owner both Melayu [Malay] la… they told me to listen to them, all fixed one… but I greedy, should have trusted them. Some more when I follow their tip and win, I never give them share… some don‟t mind la but later they stopped giving me tip because they know I tamak. It can be analytically distilled from this account that while ethnic-based social networks appear to be a source of trustworthy information, the element of trust itself is maintained by a relationship of resource exchange and a minimum level of reciprocity. Thus with the aid of trust in supporting the linkages between the “nodes” of gambling networks, information gains currency in the form of “tips” and constitutes one of the main media through which social capital is transformed into economic capital. Furthermore, it is also an established practice for gamblers to financially compensate their sources of information in the event a tip does win them a bet. For this reason, it is both possible and commonplace for individuals partaking in the social exchanges within gambling settings to derive substantial amounts of economic benefit in addition to that obtained from bets. Thus far, this section has argued that, contrary to those perspectives that conceive of gambling‟s role within the lives of lower-income groups as being an inadequate coping mechanism, the numerous and much overlooked resource generating processes operating in ancillary to gambling as well as its capacity to facilitate the conversion between social 45 and economic forms of capital, makes it highly feasible for membership in gambling networks to actually contribute towards the sustenance and even the augmentation of capital. Admittedly, the individuals that have been successful appear to be a select few, with the majority of LIMM gamblers unable to significantly improve their financial situations and are either barely breaking even or facing added gambling-induced strain on their already meager resources. However, and as the next section and following chapter will elucidate, the inability for most LIMMs to maximize the capital generating potential of gambling networks is due primarily to the presence of ethno-class impediments and ethno-racial hierarchies. 3.3 Consumption, Rationality and Religion: The Ethnic Complexion of Class Exigencies and the „Adaptive Toolbox‟ of Lower-Income Malay-Muslims As demonstrated above, gambling and its related activities actually serve important supplementary, if not central, roles in raising income levels of gamblers from the lower-income groups for short to middle-term time periods. Due to the tendency for expenditure to exceed income on a monthly basis, long-term and future oriented investments are of little relative importance within the financial realities of the lowerincome groups. It will be argued and illustrated in this chapter that consumption, particularly aspirations towards its conspicuous form, constitutes the basis and thrust for economic planning strategies of my LIMM informants. Such consumption practices do not always result in a drainage of resources, but are incorporated into an effort and resource intensive process called „rolling‟7, which serves to re-affirm existing social 7 The term was introduced to me by a few of my informants to describe the „art‟ of managing their resource networks through constant rotation and ingratiation so as to be able to always afford products and services over and above what they would normally be able to obtain at their income levels. 46 capital relations as well as to form new ties with individuals belonging to ethnic and class groups that are different from their own. Kinship ties, informal economic opportunities (both legal and illicit) and unofficial money lending also form important sources of irregular additional income, which are essential to support individual as well as family consumption practices. However, data in this chapter will exemplify how these very same support networks, and the ethnic-based rationalizations employed by LIMMs in the decision making processes of resource management, constantly facilitate the redistribution of capital to the extent that accumulation is extremely difficult, or perceived as being of lesser priority to short and middle-term consumption. The term „ethnic-based rationalizations‟ will be applied to understand the subjective „logic‟ that LIMMs use to interpret and justify previous, current and future resource management actions with reference to their identities as MalayMuslims. Thus, the remainder of this chapter will empirically elaborate on such rationalities and how they influence the resource levels as well as capital strategies of LIMM gamblers and their families. Firstly, it is analytically pertinent to postulate that the subjectivity of “rationality” practiced at the level of the everyday and routine is largely influenced, and to an extent constrained, by the specific meaning system adhered to and the resources available to the individual. The concept of bounded rationality is applicable here as it is premised on the fact that the plans and actions of individuals are effectively constrained by their access to information, the amount of time required to operationalize their decisions, their respective capabilities and the resources available to them (Selten, 2001: 13). In other 47 words, the „logic‟ of decision making is grounded within the circumstances of an individual‟s social position, aspirations and identity. The normative assumptions inherent in these systems of economic rationality however, are rarely universally applicable across populations as they are ultimately influenced by broader the cultural values pertinent to a social group‟s historical context, position in society and level of socioeconomic progress. In short, planning how financial resources are to be „rationally‟ utilized is highly dependent upon the culturally variable process of “symbolization, conceptualization and projection of the future” in relation to the present (Bourdieu, 1961: 105). Thus, for the informants of this study, it appears that perceptions of their ethnicity and social class have a strong bearing on how they choose to manage the resources at their disposal. For LIMM gamblers, the financial capital obtained through gambling and its related activities seem to possess a variation of meanings, which determine their different roles in an overall resource schema. Adopting Zelizer‟s (1989) idea of „special monies‟, it is possible to understand how certain sums of money, like those lost and obtained from gambling, have more than just financial value to the gamblers; specific monies are imbued with different meanings derived from „routine‟ and everyday financial decision making processes. Here, I observed how certain terms belonging to the „mainstream‟ financial sphere may have found their respective equivalents amidst the financial strategies of LIMM gamblers. For example, betting is thought of as „protracted investments‟, winnings as „dividents‟ and losses are considered to be „debt servicing‟ or even as a form of expiation for participating in sinful activity. The latter term is the most influential for LIMM gamblers as in most cases, the money won from gambling is 48 viewed as being „haram‟, or „forbidden‟. According to Bohari, such money tends to have a „panas‟ (hot) quality that makes it difficult for them to retain in their possession as well as use for „morally positive‟ purposes. Bohari explains: The money I won at the Race Course last time, with bookies and through 4-D now all panas la. I can‟t use it to buy useful things like groceries and I can‟t save it also. I don‟t know why but because it‟s sinful, I will lose it all again. Last month, I won four thousand dollars from 4-D and I used two thousand to bet on 4-D again. The other two thousand I went to eat seafood, buy clothes, go Malaysia jalan-jalan (sight-seeing), all the things I cannot do with my salary. But actually, all this not useful to my life…because I do all this but end of the month, I don‟t even have enough to give my wife to buy groceries. Bohari thus uses the meaning of panas monies to justify his expenditure on goods that are defined in opposition to “useful” purchases. As for gamblers like Momok, a 25 year old male nurse with 2 young children, each instance of winning a bet legitimizes more betting and the extravagant consumption of leisure goods and services. When recounting how he usually spends his winnings, he emphatically describes: Some I take out to fight [gamble] again… the rest I don‟t know la. Go enjoy la… pergi minum [consuming alcohol]… beli barang [shopping]… beli perempuan [purchasing sex from prostitutes]… haha… macham macham la… Interestingly, when asked if he would use money from his salary to pay for such expenses, Momok commented that his budget would not allow it as practically all of it will be allocated to the payment for his family‟s food and clothing as well as house and phone bills. During an interview at his residence, I noticed 2 flat-screen television sets in the living room, which he claimed had been financed by winning the second prize at 4-D, a local lottery game. Thus the income derived from gambling functions as an important source of funding for the consumption of leisure products and services. However, although money earned “legitimately” and regularly is primarily for spending on “necessities” while leisure consumption depends mainly on an irregular source of supply 49 such as gambling, this does not mean that expenditure on the latter may be forgone. Various informants have indirectly indicated actually spending more on purchasing additional bets in order to win, so that they may have panas monies in order to consume leisure products. The clearest example of such a practice is evident in Wahab‟s statements: Sometimes when I bet football, I can lose all… all 8 to 10 games! I play MLS [ American Soccer League matches deemed to be more “obscure”] also lose! I tak puas so that week I try horse… must win la… if not no money to go jolly [enjoyment, usually refers to drinking and going to night spots]. I kerja keras [work hard] every week… I will go crazy if I don‟t relax… -Male, 26, Firefighter Therefore rather than utilizing a proportion of their salary, which tends to be wholly devoted to the consumption of non-leisure necessities, for direct leisure-based consumption, LIMM gamblers would rather make adjustments in their budgets for gambling, which is deemed permissible since it is perceived to be a form of “work” and not leisure per se as most of the betting done on sporting events involve at least a minimal amount of research, undergoing periods of stress and anxiety as well as activating their gambling networks. In most cases, this practice actually results in the loss of more income, particularly in the case of “luck-based and routine” gamblers who prefer to choose “long-shot” bets that have higher payouts but lower chances of winning. For such LIMM gamblers, their religious identity actually causes an additional strain on their resources because money that they use for leisure activities, which mostly consist of haram or religiously prohibited acts, has to go through a process of “reverse laundering” where “halal” or legitimately earned money is channeled to gambling in order to obtain panas money. It should be noted here that despite indulging in a multitude of activities that are clearly prohibited in Islam, including the sporting of tattoos, my 50 informants still explicitly profess to be practicing Muslims. The majority of them continue to pray at least once a day and attend Friday prayers almost every week, even praying for divine blessings in their betting endeavours. This is exemplified through Shabir‟s explanation of how he negotiates the paradox of being a Muslim and a gambler: For me I gambling is only wrong if you bet with haram money. Like that time when I was addicted, I stole my mother‟s money to bet. I told her I needed money for my medication but I used it to gamble. That was wrong and I feel very guilty for doing that. But now that I have a proper job driving taxi, I buy bets with money that I earn on my own. If I strike, its rezeki [luck or fortune in livelihood], and you know that all rezeki comes from Him. Adapting Mandaville‟s (2007) argument about how religion constitutes an important “adaptive toolbox” of meaning for individuals to interpret their realities in an age where there is a globalization-induced pluralization of religious authority, I argue that the resource contingencies and exigencies arising from specific class positions also play an important role in influencing how religious identities are structured and religious knowledge is applied. According to all 23 LIMM gamblers and 5 of their family members, they find it almost impossible to identify with and adhere to the advice given by the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS) on how “proper” Muslims should plan their finances. Raihan, a 25 year old fast food delivery rider, expresses his disdain for the inability of local religious authorities to empathize with realities of lower-income living: They always tell us we must save money, plan for the future so that we can give sedekah [give donations to charity], and pergi Haj [go for the pilgrimage]… but my gaji [salary] kais petang makan petang [living from hand to mouth]… Not enough for me and my family… My father also sick now… you tell me, how to do all that? Although Raihan‟s gripes may seem to stem from the misinterpretation of religious doctrine coupled with a frustration with the strains of lower-income livelihood, a closer examination of the archived khutbahs, or sermons, delivered during Friday prayers 51 reveals a middle-class biasness, especially when it comes to the espoused principles of resource management. In the sermon entitled “Story of a Farmer – Lessons from the Sunnah on Financial Planning” (Islamic Religious Council of Singapore, 2010a), Muslims were told of the importance of three lessons: firstly, “the need to plan and manage wealth; secondly, “inculcating the value of contributiveness in Muslims”; and thirdly, “invest for our future”. Underlying all these lessons is a presupposition that the individual possesses wealth in excess of that required for subsistence. Additionally, the sermon is infused with terms commonly used in the spheres of „mainstream‟ financial institutions. For instance, the third lesson states that it is a: hadith which teaches us that investing for our future is part of the Sunnah of the Prophet s.a.w. This includes reinvesting profits into business capital… (ibid.: 5). Furthermore, while there are numerous sermons prescribing contributions towards helping lower-income groups, there is a distinct dearth of empathic advice for such groups themselves as the majority of sermons either deal with abstract spiritual moralities or other middle-class topics such as “Bio Medical Sciences from an Islamic perspective” (Islamic Religious Council of Singapore, 2010b) and the impact of New Media on society (Islamic Religious Council of Singapore, 2010c). Ironically, despite the fact that the majority of my informants report substantial difficulties in making ends meet each month without resorting to tapping on their social support networks, none of them admitted to ever being in a financial situation dire enough to seek welfare of any kind. Most of them even drew offence when I appeared to associate them with the receiving end of charity handouts; clearly reflecting the stigma surrounding the economically marginalized. In fact, the act of sharing their financial problems is not an entirely comfortable exercise for my informants and there was a 52 recurring tendency for them to attempt to compensate such self deprecating discussions with talk about their experiences winning large sums of money or an account of conspicuous consumption. Almost every informant reported at least one instance of having used their winnings for purchasing a mobile phone. In three of the follow-up interviews I conducted with the same informants, they had ubiquitously displayed a more expensive mobile phone model from the previous session, which took place barely 2-3 months before. Conspicuous consumption and the purchase of leisure goods and services can therefore be said to represent an attempt to participate and feel included in the “mainstream” narratives of the Malay-Muslim community and even Singapore society at large. After all, consumption and the ability to consume is a staple aspect of Singaporean life and identity (Chua, 2003). 3.4 The Negative Consequences of Ethnic-Based and Familial Social Capital Research into the impacts of social capital has uncovered several key adverse dimensions of its utilization. Portes (1998) highlights that such negative consequences afflict the individual members belonging to social capital networks, as well as the community and society in general. Listing empirical examples of immigrant ethnic groups in the United States who use their strong social ties to restrict access to economic opportunities and resources (Waldinger, 1995 as cited in Portes, 1998: 15), Portes listed four negative aspects of social capital. Thus, in addition to (1) restricting access to opportunities, social capital relations also have the tendency to impose (2) restrictions on individual freedom, (3) excessive claims on group members and (4) downward leveling 53 norms which attempt to ensure group solidarity but simultaneously make it difficult for individual members to transcend the general social status of the group. This section will demonstrate that for LIMM gamblers, mechanisms (3) and (4) appear to be most relevant to their experiences, which also include another negative aspect of social capital; one that pertains to relationships between members of the same ethnic minority group but who are of differing socioeconomic and cultural capital backgrounds. 3.4.1 Ethnic and Familial Networks as a Source of Strain on Resources When asked about how their winnings are usually utilized apart from their own consumption expenditure, the majority of my informants reported that their money is almost always used either to service an existing debt or as a loan to someone else, usually a friend of the same ethnic group, or a family member. It is common practice for my informants to lend and borrow from the same person and they generally describe such relationships as reciprocal. However, while they seem to take pride in constantly being able to expand their social networks and consequently their capacities for drawing capital and resources, it appears such a drive to augment their source of social capital actually acts as a significant strain on their overall finances and efforts. Furthermore, due to the practice of a more generalized form of reciprocity, in which the exchange of resources occur over a protracted period of time and without the use of calculated and explicitly written contracts, there is a tendency for debts to remain partially paid for extended periods of time during which it is commonplace to make new loans to be made before the settlement of previous debts. 54 The net result of such norms of exchange is the tendency to lose track of amounts transferred between members of a network often causing my LIMM informants to seek alternative sources of financial resources to their social networks; namely gambling and its related illicit activities. Setiap bulan kena pinjam la, gaji kan satu bulan sekali mana cukup, Abang ada tiga anak masih sekolah, gaji seribua dua, bayar rumah, bill semua, beli barang sekolah dah habis, lepas tu makan apa? Abang ada banyak kawan la, semua boleh pinjam duit punya, kadang kadang Abang pun mesti tolong diorang la, kalau tidak nanti apa apa malu nak tanye dioarang kan? [I have to borrow money every month because I only get paid once a month and that is greatly insufficient as I have three children who are still in school, with a salary of $1,200, nothing much is left even for food after paying for the home, paying bills and paying for the children‟s school expenditures. I have many friends all of whom I can borrow money from but occasionally, I have to lend them as well because if I don‟t, it will be shameful for me to borrow from them in the future]. (Din, 36, factory quality inspector) I help my friends do every type of things la…Got one time he ask me to pass a bag to somebody at Jurong Interchange there, I don‟t know la what‟s in the bag… He never tell me also, I just brought the bag there and wait for this man to come… after I pass the bag to him my friend gave me $50. I think illegal thing la … I don‟t like to do… because that time member aku kena tangkap (my close friend got caught by the police), but my friend always help me la… Another thing… is this “rolling” la… that time I menang besar [won a large sum through gambling] so my friend ajak aku buat rolling [asked me to use some of my money for „rolling‟]… I think I give $2K that time, padahal aku tak nak tapi nak tolong members punya pasal kan… lepas tu ada problem sikit la, dapat balik setengah aje…[actually I didn‟t want to but for the sake of helping a friend, I did it anyway and due to a problem, only ended up getting back half my money]. (Hamid, 51, security guard) Nevertheless, while they do believe in the value of such social capital networks, the norms of borrowing dictate that they are unable to realize the full economic potential of such relationships. Upon following up on Din‟s borrowing and lending patterns, it appears that while he “occasionally” renders assistance to his friends (who he states as being all Malay), the sheer number of them and the frequency in which they request for help far outstrips the estimated total amount of resources he derives from them in return. This is mainly due to the fact that while the amounts being borrowed and loaned out by 55 Din and most of my LIMM informants are generally relatively small8, the maintenance of relationships in their social capital networks tend to require a significantly large amount of time and “labour power” as they usually involve payments in kind, which Ellingsen (2000: 2) reiterates as a common form of non-financial economic transaction between actors facing resource constraints. The effort and time devoted to such in-kind payments are generally utilized for activities that are transient, episodic and also often bear the risk of criminal prosecution. This ultimately results in the expenditure of even more finances and resources as mentioned in Hamid‟s account. Thus coupled with actual financial forms of assistance, the cumulative costs of allocating resources and capital towards maintaining and augmenting their social capital networks result in the continuous strain on the already depleted resources of LIMM gamblers, especially in the long term. 3.4.2 Norms of Humility and Empathy as Downward-Leveling Mechanisms Operating in tandem with the strain on resources are mechanisms that function to “keep members of a downtrodden group in place and force the more ambitious to escape from it” (Portes, 1998: 17). In the case of LIMM gamblers, they indicated that the period of the highest frequency for demands on their financial resources normally occurs directly after members of their social and familial networks had been informed of their experiences of any relatively large increases in income or windfall events. Dulu setiap kali Zain dapat gaji lebih, bonus, menang duit… mesti ada orang mintak punye… abang, adik, kakak la sesiapa la. Ada cucu pun mintak… dulu Zain dapat duit CPF… adoh macham lalat ah semua datang…kalau tak kasi, semua cakap Zain Melayu sombong la, lokek la, ada yang kata Zain Melayu makan Melayu la … [In the past, each 8 Amongst my informants, such amounts may range from as low as $20 to as high as $4,000. With the most common amounts being between $100 to $300. 56 time I received a pay rise or bonus, or even won money from gambling, somebody was sure to borrow money from me. It could be my siblings, even my grandchild. When I was old enough and eligible to withdraw money my CPF account (a compulsory government savings plan), they all came like flies to ask for money. If I refuse, they will accuse me of being an “arrogant Malay” who is selfish and is Malay who exploits other Malays while simultaneously having complete disregard for their welfare]. (Zain, 61, taxi driver and retired security guard) … that‟s why when I win any money, I don‟t tell anybody… only one or two la. Sometimes I buy something for my sister or cousin but I say I win lucky draw. Other times I just keep saying I owe people money or people owe me money and haven‟t returned…I myself always take from my family, so if they know I got money sure habis la. [I‟ll be finished]. Got one time I ask my parents to put my totok nenek names to take out CPF money [used the names of his grandparents to be able to access funds that were allocated for caring for elderly family members]… I know la it‟s not a good thing but that time I desperate already… Better to borrow than to lend money la. My family and my members are not like loan shark… so no pressure if you borrow [from them]. But if you are the one who got money, the more they will pressure you to lend them! (Shabir) Thus, the ambitions per se of LIMM gamblers are not checked by their ethnic and kin networks, but rather the bases for the claims made on their increases in income tend to appeal to sentiments of humility, familial obligations as well as ethnic loyalties, which at times border on emotional blackmail. It is therefore unsurprising that the condition and narrative of being in a perpetual state of debt serves to deflect such demands. In other words, the emotional pressure and excessive strain on resources which accompany any significant increase in income seems to outweigh the benefits brought by the latter. This results in the “rational” preference for choosing to assume the position of someone who demands rather than gives. In her study on the adaptive strategies of poor urban Black families in the United States, Stack (1974: 42) alluded to how these networks of resource support are normatively unfavourable for those members who are “better-off” when she wrote such “cooperating networks share many goals constituting a group identity – goals so 57 interrelated that the gains and losses of any of them are felt by all participants (emphasis mine). 3.4.3 Class-Influenced Moralities as a Basis of Self-Exclusion Finally, it will be posited that another negative aspect of social capital faced by my informants stems from relations and interactions between ethnoracial group members of contrasting and oppositional moral positions with regard to acceptable methods of income generation. For instance, while there is a general consensus amongst my MalayMuslim informants (gamblers and non-gamblers alike) concerning the categorization of gambling as deviant and taboo activity, there are also gradational variations in terms of the moral opinions as to whether obtaining money from gambling and its related activities can be justifiable under certain financial circumstances. The data from this study indicates a tendency for individuals from the middle-income ranges and above to find it questionable to obtain income from such “immoral and illicit” means. Conversely the majority of my LIMM informants seem to agree that gambling, though taboo, is still somewhat legitimate and ranks relatively lower than other more condemnable acts, such as acts of violence and the consumption of drugs, alcohol and pork9. In addition, every one of my middle-income and above informants have admitted to have given counseling and advice, which tended to be harsh on occasion, to a friend or family member that they had perceived to be engaging in “deviant” and “destructive” behaviour. As for my LIMM informants, each of them reported having a sense of hesitation and reluctance, at times even disdain, when attempting to seek assistance from 9 Such a hierarchy of sinful activities was also documented by Tan (1995: 26). 58 members of their networks whom they deem to be of higher social positions than themselves. Of course I cannot just let it be when I see my friends throwing their life away right? I try my best to help them, talk to them and try to understand their situations. I have some primary school friends who are younger than me but grew up with my family… Last time they‟re always in and out of boys home, now they are in gangs all…I also have an uncle who gambles so much and got into so much debt that he ended up going to jail for credit card fraud… Sometimes I don‟t understand why they do that to themselves. Some of my friends tell me not to waste my time with such sampah masyarakat [the “trash” of society]. (Syed, 30, secondary school teacher) Bingitla aku kalau nak pinjam duit dari saudara aku… dia banyak soalan la, sekarang aku bilang dia kalau nak kasi, kasi kalau tak nak, sua, tak payah banyak “colok” la. Dia ingat dia belajar tinggi tinggi berbual konek dengan aku… [I get so irritated with my cousin because every time I try to borrow money from him, he keeps asking me questions about what I do with the money. He thinks that just because he is highly educated, he can judge me and give me instructions about how to live my life] (Azlan, 28, Freelancer) When I want to ask for money, I also see who it is la. Some of them I can trust, others mulut besar la [like to inform others that I borrowed money from them]. Ada yang aku boleh tanya sendiri, ada yang aku suruh orang lain tanya…Tengokla, kalau orang tu lurus, kan segan? Dia tak akan faham la. Semua orang kan ingat judi tu haram… [There are those who I don‟t mind asking myself and there are those who I will go through someone else… If the person is too “straight” or morally upright, I will feel too embarrassed to ask as I don‟t think he would be able to empathize with my circumstances; since everyone believes gambling to be sinful]. (Bohari) The significance of these findings is that the apparent overlap between class and moral positions has contributed towards increasing the social distance between ethnic group members of varying socioeconomic statuses. Thus although ethnoracial affinities between Malay-Muslims facilitates the establishment of diverse and extensive social capital networks for minorities, the practice of “moral othering” by members of the same ethnic group serves as a brake for the interethnic transmission of resources. This line of analysis will be extrapolated further to understand how such processes interplay with macrostructural forces. 59 3.5 Conclusion This chapter has sought to shed qualitative light on resource contingencies and exigencies faced by LIMMs and the strategies employed to mitigate, and in some cases even transcend, the constraints imposed by their initial socioeconomic positions. However, the ethnic complexion of their class realities has posed an additional source of impediment as well as status frustration for LIMMs. This is largely due to two factors; firstly, the excessive strains on resources caused by “lopsided” reciprocal relations and the downward leveling norms that LIMMs are subjected to as conditions of being part of an ethnic-based social support network; and secondly, the religious discourse-inspired elevation of middle-class status and the implicit degradation and devaluation of being recipients of charity. In seeking to avoid being associated with the latter group, LIMMs devote the majority of their resources to short-term spending and engaging in conspicuous forms of consumption. The next chapter examines how inter-ethnic perceptions located in the public discourses on gambling in Singapore as well as the interactional dynamics within the realm of informal gambling networks serve to reinforce prevailing ethno-racial hierarchies. However, it will be argued that through social capital strategies, gambling networks also function as a platform for LIMMs as minorities to negotiate conditional upward mobility. 60 Chapter 4 Gambling in Singapore as an Ethnically Hierarchical Endeavor: The Implications for Minorities in Majority-Dominated Social Capital Networks 4.1 The Racialization of Gambling in Singapore There is a general tendency for official reports, media articles and public discourse in Singapore to either highlight or implicitly accept that gambling activity is primarily the pursuit of the ethnic Chinese majority. This synonymous association between gambling and the Chinese is evident even at the governmental level as the sole legalized lottery operator, Singapore Pools, organizes the annual „Toto Hongbao Draws‟ during the Chinese New Year. There are no such „draws‟, however, held in conjunction with the festivities of the other racial groups. It is also no coincidence that the opening of Singapore‟s first casino was scheduled to be at the „auspicious‟ time of 8.18am on the first day of the Chinese New Year in 201010 (Lim and Goh, 2010). That the Chinese ethnic group was primarily targeted for the casino‟s marketing campaign was also clear as road shows were held mainly in Chinatown. Additionally a popular Chinese celebrity was invited to perform at the casino‟s Chinese New Year concert (Boon, 2010) and members of the public have also commented that the variety of games being played at the casino were “very Chinese and similar to what the Macau casinos were offering” (Ong, 2010). More recently, the debates surrounding the building of casinos in Singapore have led to the increased medicalization of gambling (Zhu, 2008). This entailed the government, media and experts collectively attempting to chart the „profile criteria‟ of the problem gambler, which explicitly includes being ethnically Chinese. This has been 10 The number „eight‟ sounds like the word „prosper‟ in Cantonese. 61 supported by media reports stating that those barred from local casinos have been overwhelmingly Chinese (Channel News Asia, 2010). Judging from several newspaper articles, statistical facts and essentialistic understandings of “Chinese culture” tend to reinforce the idea that gambling is culturally, and by extension also racially, homogenous (Sim and Long, 2004; Straits Times, 2005; Jaganathan, 2009). Further reification of this perception can be located in official studies on gambling trends in Singapore conducted by the NCPG, which report that gambling among the other ethnic groups, especially the Malays, remains „statistically insignificant‟ (Ministry of Community Development Youth and Sport, 2008). The implicit upshot of associating gambling almost exclusively with the Chinese is that the organization of the activity (at least at the public and commercial level) assumes a specific ethnic character. In other words, as gambling is essentially a meaningladen and highly symbolic activity involving elements that are cultural in nature including risk-taking, play, specialized knowledge and even superstition, its operation and participation in a majority-dominated setting will consequently also require a minimum level of interaction with the cultural structures associated with that particular ethnic majority. These structures manifest through language, specific cultural knowledge as well as particular ethnic-based values and behavioural traits; all of which can be located in public discourses on gambling, the social settings where gambling takes place, and amongst gambling-centered interpersonal networks. Thus in light of the fact that recent reports indicate a relatively small but growing proportion of gamblers belonging to ethnic minority groups (Ministry of Community Development Youth and Sport, 2008: 6), it is pertinent to explore their experiences operating in such a majority-dominated setting. 62 The excerpts of ethnographic field data presented throughout the course of this chapter will demonstrate the existence of an ethno-racial hierarchy, which appears to be supported and perpetuated by members of both majority and minority ethnic groups, as well as the processes and conditions in which ethnic minorities negotiate their positions through the mobilization of social, cultural and economic forms of capital. Additionally, the relative synonymity between gambling and the Chinese ethnic group is further reflected through its infusion with Chinese symbolic cultural elements, which is evident in the various locally popular gambling games that have Chinese dialect names and the idolization of fictitious Chinese professional gamblers portrayed in popular films11. Interestingly however, despite there being Malay films about and depicting gambling in the 1950s and 60s, the Malay-Muslim informants of this study preferred to make references to the Hong Kong-made films and characters when quizzed about their knowledge of gambling in the media. One interviewed gambler, Shabir, enthusiastically shared his admiration for the lead character of the God of Gambler series of films: If I play, mesti macham (I must emulate) Dǔshén (God of Gambling) lah! Kena ada skill sikit (You‟ve got to have the proper abilities to do well). A few other Malay-Muslim (MM) gamblers even subscribed to numerical symbols of luck and misfortune that were distinctly Chinese. These included belief in the meanings of the numbers 4 and 812. Other MM gamblers however, despite having the knowledge of such superstitions, failed to share them on grounds that they clashed with a 11 Interviewed MM gamblers used Hokkien names when referring to their favourite card games, such as Dai Di (Big 2) and also regularly used terms like „jialat‟ (negative expression) and „tio‟ (to strike) when conversing about their gambling experiences. 12 The number 4 in Mandarin and Hokkien sounds similar to the word „to die‟ and 8 bears a similarity to the term „luck‟ 63 fundamental tenet of their religious belief, which explicitly forbids the worshipping of, or subscription to any „divine authority‟ other than Allah (Farah, 1994: 113). Thus gambling participation, especially when minority groups operate in a majority setting, involves dynamic processes of cultural negotiation, adaptation and rejection. This is specifically the issue when ethnic identity is intrinsically intertwined with religion. 4.2 Locating Ethnic Minority Gamblers Official reports on gambling have always emphasized the relatively insignificant participation rates among Malay-Muslims. Nevertheless, there are rare but telling accounts in the form of local archival data, oral histories as well as popular media which indicate a more significant, pervasive and enduring involvement in gambling activities by Malay-Muslims than publicly perceived. Firstly, there were several Malay films in the 1950s and 60s by popular actor and filmmaker P. Ramlee13 that graphically depicted gambling among Malay-Muslims as a taboo but commonplace activity. Secondly, even British commissioned reports on gambling in the late 19th century documented the minor but active involvement of Malay-Muslims in gambling-related activities and Chinese-run gambling houses (Straits Settlements, 1887). Thirdly, data gleaned from my interviews with 6 LIMM gamblers between the ages of 47 and 55 also revealed that they had known gambling to be a widely practiced activity that has been rampant even among their fathers. As for my informants who regularly gambled at the race course, all of them expressed the perception that ever since horse racing began in Singapore, Malay-Muslims were employed as stable-hands and caretakers and regularly “leaked tips” about the results of races by claiming to have „inside information‟ about the horses under their care. 13 „Bujang Lapok‟ and „Minta Nombor Ekor‟ (translation: wanting the numbers of winning race horses) 64 Finally, a recent episode of a popular investigative documentary entitled Bongkar14, which airs on the official local Malay channel, controversially spotlighted the issue of Malay-Muslim “problem gamblers”. By featuring detailed personal testimonies, the programme constituted a rare instance in which the topic of gambling among MalayMuslims was discussed at the public level, especially from the viewpoint of the gamblers. A religious teacher, who provides counseling to individuals facing “troubles” with gambling, secret society involvement and homosexuality, hints at the reason behind the Malay-Muslim community‟s reluctance for publicly engaging with such “social problems”: We Malays already so many problems, don‟t need to add some more. It is better for the community to focus on the positive achievements and try to raise our standard of education. Anyway, all of this type of problems… very hard for those people to talk about it to the public. Malu kan? [It is shameful to admit to having such problems] As Muslims, we should not be doing such things in the first place but the reality is… they are happening… of course we will try to help them, but these private issues, we don‟t have to announce to the whole society right? Thus, it seems that “shame” not only comprises an important mechanism of social control, but also serves to limit and suppress any discussions about acts that are deemed to be morally transgressive. This also works to exclude those individuals whose identities are to a large extent intertwined with such activities defined as “sinful”; for instance Malay-Muslims who are gay or derive their livelihood from participating in the “underground” economy. Similarly, it was observed that although a significant number of my informants admitted to having problems with excessive gambling or even debts stemming from gambling losses at least once in their lives, informing members of their family or social circle about their situation was either a reluctantly sought last resort, or a 14 Bongkar is a docu-drama series by television production company called Screenbox. Additional details on the series are available at www.screenbox.com.sg. 65 rejected option; mainly due to the discomfort associated with possibly being looked down upon for their participation in such a religiously illicit activity. Hashim, in clarifying why he preferred to keep almost all his family members in the dark about his gambling “life”, raised an interesting point regarding ethnic differences in the reception of gambling-related problems: When I borrow money from my family, I don‟t tell them its because of gambling… You think they will lend me if I tell them I‟m gambling? Better to say my gaji tak cukup [insufficient salary]. So I borrow small amounts... I don‟t tell them I owe bookie $8,000… they will know its gambling… They always help me and trust me. Maybe they will understand if I tell them, but they won‟t trust me anymore. They won‟t accept [that I gamble] la. Not like the Chinese. I got one friend… his whole family knows he got gambling problem and they still help him… but they don‟t tell him to stop la, cannot right? Chinese how to stop gambling? Just control abit la. If MY family knows I spend their money on gambling, kecoh gila… mesti kena ban [they will react in an explosive manner and totally restrict him from gambling]. The internalization of such self- and socially imposed stigma surrounding their gambling actions therefore functions as an impediment to mobilizing resources within their social capital networks. In a similar vein to the point made in the previous chapter, which outlined how certain meanings drawn from Islamic beliefs heavily influenced LIMM‟s financial strategies, the religious aspect of LIMMs identities also serves, in this case, to facilitate the isolation of LIMM gamblers from their families. Contrastingly, not only do my Malay-Muslim informants perceive such barriers to be absent amongst their Chinese counterparts, but they also believe the justification for this has an ethno-cultural basis. This theme will be developed further in the following section, which empirically contextualizes the manifestations of an ethno-racial hierarchy in gambling and its impact on the dynamics of LIMMs‟ social networks. 66 4.3 Contextualizing Multiculturalism and the Ethno-Racial Hierarchy in Singapore The idea of an ethno-racial hierarchy draws on Goldberg‟s (1992: 553) concept of an “ethnorace”, which embodies the tendency for social actors to amalgamate phenotypical characteristics and the “rhetoric of descent” with the cultural attributes of ethnicity-based rhetoric (Lian, 2006: 224). Such an association between biological characteristics and behavioural patterns (ie. clothing style, food and value systems) is also ideologically reinforced by the state through its espousal of a “solidary” logic of multiculturalism, which assumes that ethno-racial categories are static and discrete (Benjamin, 1976: 70). This paradigm however, begins to negatively affect the social status of an ethnoracial minority group when the cultural traits they are associated with are not only considered to be different from that of the majority, but also inferior; contributing to a vicious cycle in which the respective hierarchical positions among the various ethnoracial groups are justified and perpetuated. For instance, the Chinese are believed to be inherently „industrious‟ and „hardstriving‟ (Lee as quoted in Jacobson, 2010), with a general proclivity for economic and commercial endeavours (Lee as quoted in Tamney, 1996: 102). In contrast, the Malays are perceived to be “easily contented” and “lazy” (Lai, 1995: 161) while also being thought of as “generally lazy, unintelligent and unambitious” (Moore, 2000: 343). The Malay-Muslim community themselves admit to having difficulties when it comes to managing their finances, which is reflected through statements by Malay political leaders and the programmes run by ethnic self-help organizations which aim to teach proper financial planning to Malay families (ST 2010 February 20). These ideas are reinforced by, and also further perpetuate, the distinctly racial character of Singapore‟s 67 socioeconomic hierarchy, where the Chinese inhabit the upper rungs while the Malays and Indians are at the bottom and middle respectively (Ibid: 94). Within the context of Singapore society‟s cultural reverence for economic efficiency, these stereotypes along with race and language constitute an important basis for discrimination in both public and private economic sectors (Lai, 1995: 161). This ethnoracial hierarchy pervades almost every facet of Singapore society, from schools and the education system (Stimpfl, 1997) to economic domains and social activities (Lai, 1995); even in the realm of operational law enforcement (Ganapathy, 2006) and among ethnically-based organizations of the criminal underworld (Ganapathy & Lian, 2002). Nevertheless, there exists a dearth when it comes to studies that explore the inter-ethnic dynamics operating in the informal economic domain. Informality may provide a more conducive environment for the exercise of power and ethnoracial superiority due to the lack of recourse to more fixed, explicit and formalized rules (Harding and Jenkins, 1989: 135). However, it will also be argued in the following section that informal contexts also afford minorities the leeway to subvert, negotiate and even capitalize on the existence of an ethnoracial hierarchy. This section will elucidate how ethnoracial prejudices and even selfdiscrimination play an important role in reproducing the ethnoracial hierarchy and the inferior positions of minorities within gambling networks as well as in the other related spheres of the informal economy. 68 4.4 The Perpetuation of an Ethnoracial Hierarchy in Gambling Networks As mentioned above, it is common for local news articles to assume that the preoccupation with gambling by the Chinese stems from a cultural and racial15 predilection for the activity (Straits Times, 2004; 2005). In gambling scholarship, culturalist perspectives (Lam, 2009; Raylu & Oei, 2004) explain that this ethnic tendency towards gambling is due to specific values and aptitudes possessed by the Chinese, such as the reverence for wealth, good fortune and the belief in superstition. These cultural characteristics also inherently functions as cultural markers that distinguish between the collective identities of the various ethnic groups. Such ethnoracial boundaries gain added salience within Singapore‟s highly racialized social milieu (Hill and Lian, 1995; Lian, 2006). In other words, the association of the Chinese with specific cultural attributes and aptitudes implicitly results in the mutual exclusion of other ethnic groups from being identified with those same cultural characteristics. From my fieldwork data, such a process also appears to be supported by members of both the majority and minority ethnic groups. The following sets of quotes from a Malay-Muslim and then a Chinese informant will provide a comparative empirical illustration of how perceptions of the cultural characteristics of the ethnoracial “other” manifest in gambling networks and serve to influence the actions of the gamblers. When asked about the most successful gamblers Bohari had ever come across, he only mentioned individuals with Chinese names. A follow-up question on why he didn‟t name any Malay gamblers rendered the following reply: 15 Singapore Minister Mentor Lee Kwan Yew noted at a public media dialogue that the Chinese were „congenital gamblers‟ (Straits Times, 2004). 69 Orang Cina [the Chinese] they are more… how do you say… gung ho. They are willing to bet big and so they will win big. They are not scared to lose… but some of them, sampai tidur bawah blok [end up sleeping at the void decks after losing everything including their homes]. Orang Melayu [Malays] don‟t bet like that… we bet small and try to win big. Kalau menang bagus la, kalau kalah pun ok [it‟s a bonus if we win, but we won‟t risk and end up losing everything]. On the other hand, Peng, a 31 year old food stall assistant, declares that: I know Malays who gamble… but they always go race course, queue up 4-D and bet football… but they are not serious enough. They like to play for fun only la, just try luck only. If you want to play properly, must sit down and think properly also… cannot just see heng suay [choosing ones bets primarily on the basis of luck]. Will I bet with a Malay bookie? Got Malay bookie one meh? If got also I don‟t mind… maybe got chance to win more (laughs)... Thus the above comments exemplify prevailing notions about the respective abilities of Chinese and Malay gamblers. Bohari‟s views about the different betting patterns between Malays and Chinese parallels popular racial stereotypes of being “easily contented” for the Malays and “materialistic” and “competitive” for the Chinese (Lai, 1995: 59). He unquestioningly accepts both the presumption that the Chinese are inherently better gamblers than Malays, as well as the accompanying cultural-based reasonings. Furthermore, he expressed a sense of pride in the justification that overall, even though Malay gamblers may not win as much money as the Chinese, they are more „sensible‟ gamblers that know their limits and unlike the Chinese, will rarely allow gambling to land them in extremely dire straits. Peng‟s statements about Malay gamblers similarly reflect the idea that they were inferior, particularly due to a perceived incapacity and lack of commitment with regards to developing one‟s skill and knowledge of the betting process. Due to this perception, Peng was of the opinion that Malays generally inhabit the positions of lesser importance within the hierarchy of illicit gambling networks. His comment about the incompetence of Malay bookies were also held by Malay gamblers who preferred to place their bets 70 with Chinese bookies and only dealt with Malay bookies under specific conditions. Redzuan, 25, a full-time runner explains: When I don‟t have enough money, I play with Malay bookies… So when I lose, sometimes can postpone abit la the payment. But when I got money and I confident of winning, I will go back to my Chinese bookie. For Chinese, if you lose, you pay, but if you win, they will pay you lincah [promptly]. For Malay, if you win big, they will lari [escape without paying]. Chinese also got bookies who lari but not many la. These stereotypical assumptions seem to be commonly held notions amongst my informants, and function to greatly inhibit the chances for Malay bookies to augment their clientele base and to increase their overall revenue levels. In one particular interview with Shabir, he described at length the reason why he adamantly believed that, in his own words, “Malays will never be good gamblers”: Do you know why Malays always bet for fun? It‟s because it takes a lot of thinking… and calculation… to be able to make money from gambling. You have to bet in a logical manner, not just using luck or feeling [instinct]. See ah, for example, if you bet on 5 to 6 different football matches, you have to calculate and see that you can make a profit from all the matches. You need to know when to take risks and when to hedge. Malays don‟t do this because they don‟t have the skill… need to be good at calculation… Malays always never practice Maths so how to be good? They also don‟t have the exposure la…they also bet to make some money from their predictions or to support their favourite team…The Chinese gamble to make money so they will down 10k to win 1k on the favourite team… but you need capital to do this… Malay don‟t have capital what… Accounts like this demonstrate that the perception about Malay gamblers‟ “casual” approach to betting and their inferiority to their Chinese counterparts are based on presumptions which extend beyond the realm of gambling and are grounded in more general observations about the social position of Malays. It is interesting to note that Shabir‟s comments about Malays‟ incapacity in making good calculations echoes one of the concerns publicly expressed by Malay-Muslim organizations and leaders regarding the relatively poor performance of Malay-Muslim students in the field of Mathematics (Straits Times, 2010). 71 Furthermore, in drawing some similarities between gambling and financial markets through his usage of terms like “hedge”, Shabir realistically concluded that in order to make profits in gambling, one would require substantial amounts of capital, which he believes to be a luxury enjoyed by the Chinese rather than Malay. Thus rather than believing gambling to be a quick and easy route to financial wealth for the lucky, Shabir acknowledges and submits to the realization of the racially tinged “conditions” for succeeding in gambling in Singapore. Also sharing a similar perception is Rahman, a 29 year old sales assistant, who lamented about the enforcement of illegal gambling in Singapore: When my friend got married last month, we all rewang… main daun [gambled with cards while helping out with the wedding preparations] on the eve of the wedding day. We wanted to play overnight but the police came. I don‟t know who called them but at the Songkah [Chinese funerals], diorang sewa tempat untuk main judi boleh [people rented tables from the family of the deceased to gamble without being disturbed by the police]. Inikan negeri diorang kan? [This country belongs to the Chinese after all right?] The viewpoint that gambling is a Chinese-dominated domain is therefore also extrapolated as a reflection upon the wider context of Singapore‟s ethnoracial landscape. In both cases, LIMM gamblers are fully aware of their subordinate positions within the ethnoracial hierarchy, the justifications for it as well as the conditions that entail. In the course of their everyday experiences and through interactions with members of the majority ethnic group, LIMM gamblers are regularly reminded of their status as ethnoracial minorities. Such a process of minoritization (Pereira, 2008) is continuous and does not occur without resistance as well as negotiation on the part of LIMM gamblers. The next section will focus and elaborate on the experiences of LIMMs who have been relatively more successful in negotiating a more favourable position within the structure of gambling networks and the related informal economic activities. 72 4.5 Negotiated Strategies of LIMM Gamblers in Majority-Dominated Settings In 2001, Mathews‟ wrote a comprehensive dissertation that systematically examined the experiences of minority clergymen operating in majority-dominated churches. In his study, it was revealed that minority ministers negotiated their ascension up the organizational hierarchy by employing various personal resources and strategies such as human capital variables, impression management and ingratiation behaviour. These strategies were also undertaken by LIMM gamblers themselves and between them and Chinese gamblers albeit in different forms and in organizational settings that were less „formal‟. Interestingly, the various conditions present in such different social settings dictate the manner in which racial hierarchies and majority-minority ethnic relations play out. Corollarily, the ways in which minorities negotiate with dominant racial structures of the majority ultimately depends on the resources available to the former and whether or not these resources have currency within a particular social context. For instance, while social and cultural capital are widely recognized as being important for achieving upward mobility, the level of formalization and the structure of power relations will determine the conditions in which such forms of capital may be realized. Thus, more „mainstream‟ domains such as schools will tend to have more „formal‟ and conventional expectations of what counts as „skill‟ and „knowledge‟ thereby also having more narrow pathways for structural ascension. This is in comparison for example, to the more informal spheres of gambling, where its fluidity in structures and propensity to occur „underground‟ significantly allows more leeway for members of minority groups to activate and incorporate financial and informational resources from their wider social 73 networks in attempts to negotiate with or overcome the cultural domination of the majority. This is achieved through a process of the displaying „betting acumen‟, fluency with the language and cultures of the majority while simultaneously downplaying and dissociating oneself from the negative conceptions of his/her ethnic group. Therefore, in order to mobilize resources and negotiate more advantageous positions within their informal gambling and economic networks, the relatively lower social statuses of LIMM gamblers dictated that they had to rely less on „conventional resources of status attainment and human capital‟, such as education and labour force experience, and more on ethnic and kin-based strategies, knowledge of and access to informal economic opportunities, ingratiation, as well as displays of conspicuous consumption. One such strategy, which may be labeled as a form of cultural capital, is language proficiency. Among all my LIMM informants, all those who had extensive gambling networks and knowledge on gambling were also relatively fluent in either spoken Mandarin or Hokkien, a Chinese dialect. During the interviews with several LIMM gamblers, I was able to witness how such linguistic abilities were utilized in maintaining strong and extensive social capital networks among Chinese gamblers and bookies. On one such occasion, Bang Dino broke from his hitherto jovial disposition and spoke rather seriously with a Chinese male in fluent Hokkien in the midst of our interview and later explained that the individual he had been speaking to was a really successful bookie. Interestingly, our interview had also been interrupted by casual exchanges with more Chinese and Malay individuals with whom he conversed in Mandarin as well as Malay. 74 Two noteworthy observations were noted here; firstly, he appeared to have spoken Hokkien or Mandarin to Chinese individuals, which he regarded as “respectable”. Secondly, Malay was the language of choice for bantering with people from both ethnic groups. He also expressed disdain with the majority of the Malay individuals on that occasion because: Diorang semua ambik biji la, semua sakit… [they are all drug addicts who are sick] Especially Rom [a close friend], one day I will force him to give up and join me buat project [partake in mostly informal economic endeavours]. Another informant, Hamid, who was a stable boy at the Singapore Turf Club mentioned that his ability to speak Hokkien gave him an advantage over other Malay stable boys when it came to benefiting from disseminating „tips‟. He explains: I knew all those uncle uncle [older Chinese men] la… They respect me because I can speak Hokkien. They know other stable boys but they speak Melayu pasar [a cruder and more informal form of spoken Malay]. They prefer to get their tips from me because they trust me… when they win also they give me ang pow [ tokens of appreciation in the form of cash]. Language is therefore an essential adaptive strategy for LIMM gamblers as it allows them as members of an ethnoracial minority group to differentiate and distance themselves from the negative perceptions associated with their ethnorace. However, some LIMM informants even take advantage of such negative racial stereotypes to create a niche for themselves in the illicit gambling market. Redzuan, for instance, readily exploits the prevalent racially stereotypical term called “janji Melayu”, which refers to the belief that Malays have a lackadaisical approach towards adhering to obligations and is often used by Malays among themselves. This is evident in an account of his experiences as a runner and an occasional bookie: I don‟t have enough capital to be a bookie la. But sometimes I take some of the bets. When people play with me, I make sure I pay on time. Sometimes, I even borrow from my girlfriend. People know me… they trust me because they know I never run. They also 75 know I will pay them on time and I have enough money to pay them. Orang Melayu semua suka aku apa. Diorang tahu aku tak buat janji Melayu [Malay punters prefer to bet with me because they know I don‟t make “Malay promises”]. Now, there are a lot of Malays who want to be bookies, but they don‟t have capital. They take bets macham ye ye [without considering if they can afford the payouts]… kalah je, lari [they run away after losing]. Buang muka aje [shameful]… Redzuan therefore stands to gain from the perpetuation of such deviant stereotypical perceptions as he is able to differentiate himself and his services by projecting a more contradictory image that is more trustworthy. In doing so, he effectively extends his social capital networks among both the Malay and Chinese gamblers. In dealing with Malays, Redzuan attempts to draw on ethnic camaraderie but resists the accompanying negative interethnic stereotypes. Thus the dynamics of interethnic interactions presents a different challenge to Malay-Muslim bookies. Bang Dino, for instance, strategically alters his utilization of ethnicity by either playing up or suppressing his identity as a Malay-Muslim depending on the intended goal of his interaction: Kalau Melayu [When I deal with Malays], ok kebanyakan members dari perkampungan dulu kan [most of them are my friends who used to live near me]…tapi kena kasi diorang tahu Bang Dino ni bukan macham Melayu biasa [I must ensure that they know I am not the „usual‟ Malay]. Kalau kalah mesti bayar [if you lose you have to pay up] Therefore ethnic identity and to a certain extent, even residential proximity, constitute essential bases for the mobilization of social capital in Bang Dino‟s objective of amassing clients for his bookmaking business. Nonetheless, when it came to the more important and potentially problematic matters of debt servicing, he pre-empts the expected tendency for his Malay clients to resort to ethnic-based reasons as a method of either stalling payment or requesting for leniency with repayment conditions. Bang Dino‟s solution to this was to downplay his own “Malayness” in order to set himself 76 apart from the stereotypical perceptions of Malays as “tolerant” and “unquestioningly loyal to their own kind” (Lai, 1995: 59). Such a dynamic employment of ethnicity has been conceptually broached by Willis and Murphy Shigematsu (2008: 9) whose work on ethnic identities in Japan asserts the “internally plural” nature of the “praxis of culture” and the concept of ethnicity as a contextually salient resource that is mobilized and enacted fluidly according to contingencies and circumstances. Empirically, a similar process had also been observed by Gosling (1983: 156 as cited by Granovetter, 1995: 148) who argues that the active preservation of selected ethnic traits allow ethnic minorities in a majority setting to establish and take advantage of “ethnic difference”, which permits one “the antisocial behavior required in commerce”, particularly when it involves the collection of payments from members of one‟s social network. This is evident in his description of how a Chinese shopkeeper in a Malaysian village had initially appeared to be considerably acculturated to Malay culture, and was scrupulously sensitive to Malays in every way, including the normal wearing of sarong, quiet and polite Malay speech, and a humble and affable manner. However, at harvest time when he would go to the field to collect crops on which he had advanced credit, he would put on his Chinese costume of shorts and undershirt, and speak in a much more abrupt fashion, acting, as one Malay farmer puts in, “just like a Chinese.” This behavior was to insure that he would be treated like a fellow Malay who might be expected to be more generous on price and credit terms (Ibid: 4, emphasis mine). However, unlike these capital-endowed Chinese entrepreneurs, the dearth of resources available to LIMMs is not the only obstacle to their operations in illicit gambling circles, they also encounter highly racialized and ethnically essentialist explanations for their lack of capital in the form of culturally deterministic stereotypes which are held by members of the majority as well as their own ethnic group. A casual conversation with Nasir, a 26 year old airport employee, reveals the following opinion: 77 The bookies are Chinese la. Malays cannot be better because they don‟t have money to be bookies. If got Malay bookie, mesti member aku [I would have surely known about him] and I will play with them la, but only if he can pay me on time. When I play, I play big…Wait I win and he got no money to pay how? That time already happen with Chinese bookie… so Malay bookie… mesti problem punye [Malay bookies will surely have problems paying]… Ah Melayu semua runner aje la. Kadang Kadang makan bet nak jadi bookie. [All Malays are runners only... sometimes they see the opportunity to take the bet on their own and not pass it up to the bookie, but that does not make them a bookie] To Nasir and the majority of my informants, the idea of a Malay bookie appeared almost counter intuitive mainly because of the virtual synonymity between the Chinese and the possession of capital. This actually contributes towards a self-fulfilling prophecy because the perception that Malays have insufficient capital to be bookies acts to deter gamblers from betting with Malay bookies; thereby making it difficult for them to generate capital in the long run. Chinese bookies, on the other hand, seem to encounter relatively lower barriers when entering the illicit gambling scene as a bookie. A brief interview with a self-proclaimed “small-time” Chinese bookie, Ah Huat, revealed that he too started out as a runner, before taking bets on his own to gradually expand and become more independent in his operations. He describes the “turning point” when he began to become a full-time bookie: Last season the EPL [English Football League] got a lot of upset, so I won a lot for those games I makan16 [took the bets personally]. Then after that World Cup… wooo South Africa! This world cup perfect for bookies la. At the start all the big teams, like Spain, France all lose… then Brazil lost… Even those teams when a lot of people thought the underdog will win, they lose… I never won so much before… After the group games, I started to take all the bets because I thought, if I don‟t whack now… no other chance liao… It was easy, my punters all trust me, they know Ah Huat la… I also offer my regulars good odds la… Thus for Ah Huat, it is evident that although he did not begin with a large sum of capital, the trust and constant supply of punters, he was able to convert his social capital into 16 Makan is a Malay word that originally means “to eat”. It was interesting to note the interchanging of Malay and Chinese terms used by gamblers from across ethnic groups. 78 economic capital. However, two of my informants who knew Ah Huat personally and also had placed bets with him regularly before, were quick to point out that he was not as “trustworthy” as he claimed to be. Bohari recalls: That Ah Huat ah, so many times I win he never pay. That time I chase him for 1 week. I know he got no money…don‟t know why people bet with him. Orang tengok Cina aje, ingat ada banyak duit. [people tend to assume that Chinese have a lot of money] It is therefore surmisable that being Chinese within gambling networks facilitates an ethnoracial-based form of the Matthew effect, which is an idea Merton (1968: 56) uses to describe the psychosocial processes that affect the allocation rewards to scientists for their contributions. However, instead of a system that awards recognition and credit to individuals or organizations that have already established themselves in a particular field, trust in illicit gambling spheres seems to be more readily awarded to individuals belonging to an ethnorace with an already “established” reputation in terms of gambling acumen and capital possession. However, for Malay members of illicit gambling networks such as Bang Dino, his experiences of taking bets and gambling with the Chinese consist of continuous efforts in gaining and maintaining their trust through methods that go beyond the adherence to acceptable “standards of conduct” when carrying out gambling transactions. This includes maintaining a “respectable” reputation amongst his gambling peers, who may potentially be the ones to buy bets from him. Speaking from his experiences as a bookie during his time as a factory worker, Bang Dino elaborated on the importance of projecting an image that combined elements of cunningness, amicability and generosity: Not everyone with money boleh jadi bookie [can be a bookie]… when I was working at the factory last time and now also when people meet me here [at the coffee shop], they know who you are because they see you everyday… some are your friends… some tinggal sama kampong [live in the same residential area], if they think you bodoh 79 [stupid], they won‟t bet with you because they think you cannot jaga your bets [manage your bets]… action pun tak boleh [you cannot be too arrogant either]… if you win their money, you must also give them some face la, belanja makan, minum [buy them a meal or drinks]. Judi ni… kena jaga hati orang nanti boleh kena bantai hah! [when gambling like this, it is important to take care not to upset them by making them think you are their to take all their money]… kitakan Melayu, lawan dengan orang Cina kena maintain la…judi kan adat diorang [since we‟re Malays, we have to watch how we conduct ourselves with the Chinese.. after all, gambling is part of their culture]. Tapi sekarang orang muda suka pakai [But a lot of young gamblers and bookies now use] SMS handphone … or use internet, tak payah tengok muka pun, Lagi senang la judi macham ni [you don‟t even need to see each other‟s face, it makes it so much easier to be a bookie this way]. Thus for the more senior generation of LIMM bookies and runners like Bang Dino, securing trust amongst their social capital networks requires a more social and face-toface dimension. Doing so presents specific ethnoracial barriers for minority bookies who face an uphill task of resisting negative stereotypes and convincing members of the ethnic majority of their competency not only as a gambler, but also their capacity for managing the responsibilities that accompany the role of a bookie; the most difficult of which is in ensuring their clients have enough confidence in their ability to pay out winners promptly. Such dynamics of interaction are similar to the use of “impression management through displaying competence” and “ingratiation”, which Mathews‟ (2001: 133) revealed as a couple of strategic mechanisms employed by minority church ministers to ascend and maintain positions within a Chinese-dominated ministry. According to Mathews (2001: 136), it was imperative for cross-cultural ministers from minority ethnic groups to possess knowledge of the language and customs of the Chinese majority. As it is common for certain ethnic practices to intertwine with religious beliefs, familiarity with Chinese cultural norms not only allowed them to strengthen rapport with church 80 members, but also aid in the performance of their ministerial duties as well as inspire confidence in their abilities amongst their peers who were majority ministers. The cross-cultural minority minister‟s repertoire of impression management strategies also includes the awareness of the “interaction codes” of conduct such as “forms of politeness, manners of speaking and address and the norms of physical closeness” (ibid.). There is also the practice of somewhat ostentatiously displaying books on Chinese customs and culture in their offices. Nevertheless, within the domain of informal and illicit gambling networks, the “dramaturgical space” (Goffman, 1969) in which LIMM gamblers and bookie engage in the “performance” of their competencies are qualitatively different from the organizationally formalized contexts of churches that afford more fixed locations for such “displays”. Thus, the locus of performativity appears to be largely embodied physically as illustrated by Shabir‟s and Redzuan‟s accounts of their experiences: When I go Genting [a casino in Malaysia], I throw some sweets on the floor… because people believe that in the casinos got little spirits who will disturb your luck and make you lose… so you must give them something to be busy with so they tak kacau [won‟t disturb] you. And also never eat the free food in the casino… because at first you will eat shiok shiok, after that you will pay back when you lose! When you are winning, you should pile up your chips so that your luck will also pile up…if you split them, your luck also will split. I keep my last fingernail long because if it can touch the third line of the middle finger, you will e very lucky with money. My Chinese friends see me do this kind of thing, they know I serious la. Not play-play one [I‟m not a casual or amateur gambler]. (Shabir) At casino or at jackpot, tak boleh pinjam duit, mesti kalah punya [I don‟t borrow or lend money you are sure to lose after that]. You must go out and do it, but not inside the place. Last time I went China to buy this Tian Lu [a lucky charm in the shape of a pendant with the head of a lion and the body of a dragon] tiga ratus ketul ah [it cost $300]. Ada mulut tapi tak de lobang jubuh…haha duit boleh masuk tapi tak boleh keluar [it has a mouth but no anus, which symbolizes that wealth may enter but not exit]. Kawan Cina nampak aku pakai ni diorang pun heran [when my Chinese friends saw me use it, they were surprised]. Wah aku menang banyak ah… tapi dah hilang aje, kalah pun banyak [ I started to win a lot when I had that charm but I started losing heavily once I lost it]. (Redzuan) 81 Narratives, physical appearances as well as the knowledge and practice of certain superstitions are therefore integral strategies for LIMM gamblers and bookies to assimilate and operate in gambling environments that are culturally dominated by the Chinese. 4.6 Conclusion This chapter has sought to empirically illustrate the ethnic dimensions of gambling and its racialization within the context of Singapore society. It was argued that the construction of meanings and the dynamics of interaction within gambling networks, particularly those of the illicit and informal nature, are influenced and structured by dominant perceptions and stereotypes based on the prevailing ethnoracial hierarchy in which Malay-Muslims as the ethnic minority have to engage with cultural structures associated with the ethnic Chinese majority. Additionally, it was demonstrated that the processes of internalizing such an ethnoracial hierarchy by individuals from both the majority and minority groups forms the basis of its perpetuation. However, the social mechanisms that serve to reproduce these ethnoracial structures of domination do not always necessarily result in adverse social circumstances for ethnic minorities. As the case of LIMM gamblers has proved, minorities have the capacity to negotiate strategies that take situational advantage of ethnoracial differences and similarities in order to augment and mobilize resources within their social capital networks, which includes a significant number of members of the majority. Thus far, the conceptual contributions of the chapters in this study have advanced a theoretical portrait of the class- and ethnoracially-based social barriers experienced by 82 LIMM gamblers on a routine basis and at the level of the everyday. The subsequent concluding chapter will explore the social consequences of the ideological tendency towards the discursive amalgamation of “responsibilitization”, “racialized multiculturalism” and “middle-class consumption standards” for LIMMs as ethnoclass minorities within the context of Singapore society. 83 Chapter 5 Minorities within the Minority: The Ideological Reproduction of Ethno-Class Barriers within Social Capital Networks The thrust of this final chapter will be to underline the ideological underpinnings of the ethno-class barriers faced by LIMM gamblers, who form one of the prime examples of a social group that encounters inter- as well as intra-ethnic mechanisms of minoritization (Pereira). As Chapters 3 and 4 have demonstrated, the ethnic complexion of class contingencies and exigencies, as well as ethnoracial hierarchies constitute formidable barriers to the upward mobility of LIMM gamblers in terms of both their socioeconomic positions and their positions within the structures of gambling-centered networks. However, while the adoption of specific resource and impression management strategies have given some LIMMs the ability to negotiate some form of upward mobility, it is argued that such strategies are generally based on exploiting ethnic differences. While this allows for a selected few who have enough social and “cultural” capital to align themselves with the majority ethnic group members, the implicit upshot of such strategies is that their salience and operational value requires the acceptance and facilitates the perpetuation of ethnoracial hierarchies, which ultimately means that the paths for transcending their subordinate hierarchical positions will remain narrow for the majority of minority group members. In addition to this, another important dimension of the accounts given by the LIMM gamblers pertains to their subscription to ideological discourses of “responsibilitization”, “racialized multiculturalism” and “middle-class consumption standards”. The subsequent sections will provide empirical evidence of such beliefs as 84 well as discuss their respective consequences to the lived experiences and social realities of my LIMM informants and ethno-class minorities in general. 5.1 Medicalization, Responsibilitization and Meritocracy: Discourses That Individualize Ethno-Class Minorities Despite the variations in successes of LIMMs in their gambling endeavours, every LIMM informant either explicitly mentioned or alluded to the medical discourses on gambling. Excerpts like the following were staple comments in all interviews conducted with LIMM gamblers. Gambling is something you are born with… Some of my friends started to gamble but then stopped later because they tak shiok [didn‟t enjoy gambling] but there are some like me, try one time only, hooked! I tell you it‟s so easy to be addict for people like me. I don‟t know la, somehow this plus my Chinese friends… habis ah [I was finished]! (Shabir) You play Singapore Pools ok, not so bad, but once you start with bookie only… that‟s where problem start… because with bookie you don‟t need to have money to bet… can use credit… who don‟t want to try and win. That time I play with bookie and lawan at race course also… every day I think of betting… I went 7-eleven beli buku kuda belajar siul! Aku mana ada belajar punya [bought a guidebook on horse racing to study even though I rarely studied for anything else] everyday can bet except Tuesday la… I think so much sampai rasa macham obssessed gitu [I was thinking about betting so much that I felt obsessed over it] (Rahman) In fact, terms like “addiction”, “obsession” and even “sickness” were peppered throughout the interview data as informants were quick to attribute instances of “overgambling” to their own incapacities in retaining control. In any case, the locus of blame for them was their individual selves. Even the majority of the motivations given for their participation in gambling activities stated a need to be responsible for their own improvement in social circumstances. 85 Semua Abang dah langgar… Nak cari makan punya pasal la. Main judi buat project pun kena rajin la… kalau rajin mesti boleh dapat duit punya… kalau nak hari hari duduk kat rumah, minum kopi… ah hidup miskin la, diam diam sudah… [I have gambled and done all sorts of things to try and earn money… whether gambling or doing informal and illicit activities, you must be hardworking, if you try hard enough, you will find money, if you sit around doing nothing all day, don‟t complain that you are poor] (Bang Dino) Masa kecik tak belajar… sekarang susah la duit selalu tak cukup…Bukan macam awak… bagus la dapat belajar tinggi tinggi, jangan macham Zain ni… [when I was younger I didn‟t study that‟s why my life is so tough now as I can hardly make ends meet. Not like you, it‟s good that you can study until such a high level, don‟t end up like me]. (Zain) Thus, such accounts indicate a close affinity between responsibilitization and the belief in the meritocratic ideal, especially in its embodiment in Singapore, which is the public education system. However, although they have failed to attain success through the latter, it appears that they have not given up on believing that effort should be equated with reward. Faced with such a shortage for legitimate opportunities to improve their socioeconomic circumstances, gambling and other related informal economic activities therefore constitute an extremely attractive and viable arena for attempts at taking responsibility and “working” towards realizing their aspirations for upward social mobility. This is also especially because the majority of their full-time jobs lack any concrete possibilities for career development and accumulating large amounts of capital through savings is almost a futile exercise within the realities of lower-income living (Light, 1977). Additionally, despite admitting to facing financial shortages on such a regular basis, none of my LIMM informants have ever sought assistance from any form of welfare programs. In fact seeking public assistance or charity seemed akin to being incapable of taking charge of one‟s life, which was to them, of utmost importance for 86 maintaining any semblance of dignity. The stigma associated with resorting to charitable avenues of financial help is apparent through Bashir‟s words: Badan aku sihat, kalau pakai akal sikit boleh dapat kerja. Bashir tak takut, Singapura ada banyak kerja, kena pandai cari aje la…kalau betul punye desperate, kerja haram pun jadi la… kalau Bashir cacat, lain cerita la [my body‟s healthy, if I use some ingenuity, I‟ll be sure to be able to find a job, I‟m not afraid, Singapore has lots of opportunity for employment. You just have to be smart. If I‟m really desperate, I‟ll even do “sinful” jobs… but if I‟m handicapped, only then, maybe I‟ll consider welfare]. Therefore it is evident from these empirical illustrations that gambling participation works in tandem with discourses of individualization by providing the marginalized with an avenue for the potential betterment of their social circumstances. In doing so, lowerincome groups continue to attribute their inferior social positions to causes stemming from their personal deficiencies rather than to assume “an inclination for challenging the economic structure” (Nibert, 2006: 327). Thus, coupled with the tendency for LIMM gamblers to refrain from seeking help from the more upwardly mobile members of their social networks due to a sense of “moral otherness” (as mentioned in chapter 3), the ideological discourses of responsibilitization and medicalization serves to legitimate existing social arrangements as well as its prevailing inequalities (Ibid: 323). 5.2 Racialized Multiculturalism, Ethnic Parochialism and The Lack of Bridging Social Capital As this study has thus far attempted to establish, the espousal of the CMIO17 categorization of racial groups in Singapore has facilitated the creation and maintenance of cultural, physical and social boundaries that function to distinguish the various racial groups from each other. However, it is argued that these very boundaries also operate to 17 The four main official racial categories include Chinese, Malay, Indian and Others. 87 preserve the respective majority and minority positions within the established ethnoracial hierarchy. Since the 1960s the Malay-Muslim community in Singapore has regularly been regarded as “lagging behind” the other races in terms of education, employment and housing (Suriani, 2005). Over the years, progressively widening rifts remain especially in the areas of education, income and employment; in addition to being reported as having “lower financial prudence” due to the tendency to rank “high… in terms of car ownership cable TV subscription and ownership of entertainment systems, despite having relatively lower average household incomes” (Community Leaders‟ Forum, 2010: 9). Malays also appear to have the lowest percentages of individuals employed in professional, technical, executive and managerial occupations (Singstat, 2005). In response, Malay elites, state agencies and philanthropic organizations have, throughout the decades, constantly implemented measures in attempts to help Malay-Muslims bridge the social gaps with the other ethnic groups. However, it will be argued that the current paradigm of ethnic-based “self-help” is excessively introspective and parochial. Such an approach ultimately inhibits the formation of bridging social capital (Putnam, 2000: 175), which refers to the capacity to derive resources from social ties that connect heterogeneous groups in society, and is therefore essential for the lower-strata of the Malay-Muslim community to achieve any substantial social progress. Granovetter (1973) wrote of the strength of “weak ties” and demonstrated how having social networks that to extend beyond the individual‟s closest social circles would generate opportunities that would not have otherwise been readily available due to the ability to access social contacts with dissimilar backgrounds and resources from one‟s own. 88 During my presence in 10 of the meetings organized by Malay-Muslim organizations (MMOs) to brainstorm solutions to current and future challenges to the Malay-Muslim community, I noticed that individuals from the ethnic Chinese majority were either absent totally or present in extremely small numbers. In any case, their involvement in proceedings was usually marginal as ideas were mostly sought from Malay-Muslim individuals. Additionally, while the majority of the proposed solutions arising from such meetings, forums and seminars claim to involve “public engagement”, they nevertheless tend to only engage with the Malay-Muslim public. An example of this would be the choice of employing predominantly Malay media channels for the “public engagement exercise” of the Community Leader‟s Forum 2010 (Community Leaders‟ Forum, 2010: 35). Thus, we may apply Wuthnow‟s (2002: 670) concept of identity- and statusbridging social capital to analyze how such ethnic parochialism is compounded by a classed-based “moral othering” (Chapter 3) and ultimately restricts the chances of the lower-income Malay-Muslim groups in attaining upward social mobility. According to Wuthnow, it is insufficient for social capital to merely connect groups of “culturally defined differences such as race, ethnicity and religion”, it should also span “vertical arrangements of power, influence, wealth and prestige”. Attention should thus be paid to examining the consequences stemming from a deficiency of such forms of bridging social capital, especially in light of the increase in the size of the Malay-Muslim middle-class as well as the social distance between them and the Malay-Muslim working class (Mastura, 2010: 131). This is because social capital forms an integral medium for the accumulation and transmission of economic and cultural capital, which have been stipulated as 89 essential factors for improving the circumstances of the Malay “underclass” (Community Leaders‟ Forum, 2010). 5.3 Final Conclusion In sum, the objective of this academic exercise is fourfold; firstly, to advance an understanding of gambling that explored its cultural-normative dimensions in an attempt to significantly depart from current trends towards medicalizing the phenomenon. Secondly, this research intended to make a scholarly contribution towards understanding the dynamics of ethno-class minorities operating within largely informal and majoritydominated settings. Gambling in Singapore, particularly among lower-income groups, therefore served to be an intellectually germane empirical premise due to the predominance of face-to-face relations between members of informal and illicit gambling networks. Thirdly, this study aimed to empirically contextualize the cultural structures, ethnoracial and class barriers present in the social capital networks of LIMM gamblers while simultaneously demonstrating the various strategies undertaken by minorities to continuously negotiate their social positions. 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The Commission Appointed to Enquire into the Question of Public Gambling in The Straits Settlements‟ revealed that Malays were involved, albeit in lower ranks of the hierarchy, in the operation of gambling dens in Singapore and Malaysia 22 hierarchies are reproduced within the context of informal gambling networks, the access to the nexus of ethnic-based social, cultural and economic capital that gambling. .. conception of gambling as a simple act of betting over the outcomes of events which have an element of uncertainty Such an understanding overlooks the fact that gambling in praxis is intrinsically a social process that inherently possesses and requires a multitude of subjective meanings, knowledge, resources and interpersonal relations that extend beyond the domain of gambling and into other areas of a gambler‟s... sophisticated norms of gambling and its interpersonal networks Furthermore, most scholars of gambling have limited their field research to only the sites where gambling occurs and therefore fail to explore the “background” processes that take place in the lead up to, as well as after the act of gambling These include the knowledge gathering, planning, networking and even their evaluation of their gambling. .. negotiate, but in most cases, also indirectly reinforce the prevalent racial hierarchy as well as ideas of racio -class associated rationalities 1.5 Studying Gambling in Singapore: The Importance of Ethno- Class Dimensions A previously barren field of study, the stock of academic literature on gambling in Singapore only began to really flourish from 2005 onwards; coinciding with the government‟s official... winning bets are a form of “divine intervention”, which aids in alleviating them from the stresses of lower- income realities but at the expense of their status as a “proper Muslim On the other hand, for those informants who frequently lose and who also tend to inhabit relatively marginal positions within illicit and informal gambling domains, their “failures” in gambling are believed to be confirmatory... widely accepted fact in Singapore (and most parts of the world) that the Chinese are virtually “culturally” inclined to gamble It is not uncommon for academic articles to begin their analyses with a point similar to that made by Arthur, Tong, Chen et al (2008) in the introductory section of their study on gambling behaviour among Singaporean university students: Gambling has been an integral part of Chinese... active management of resources as well as social and cultural forms of capital by minority groups in their attempts to negotiate upward mobility for both their gambling „careers‟ and their social positions In other words, the conceptual dichotomy of treating gambling for the lower classes as either a “safety-valve” or form of “resistance” tends to gloss over the hierarchical dynamics found within the. .. construct the country‟s first casinos (ST 2005 April 13) 16 Since then, the ensuing “casino debate” led to the subsequent medicalization of gambling and the introduction of the “problem gambler” as a category Through a thorough and critical analysis of the state‟s discourse on gambling, Zhu (2008: 45) succinctly argued that the framing of gambling as a potentially addictive and pathological behaviour facilitates... also significant leeway for their rejection, and even capitalization on the part of minorities in terms of obtaining resources Thus, the analyses in this thesis will argue that gambling participation in a majority dominated setting not only serves as an important opportunity for working class minority gamblers to access a nexus of informal capital and resources, but also allows them the capacity to resist, ... in Singapore and Malaysia 22 hierarchies are reproduced within the context of informal gambling networks, the access to the nexus of ethnic-based social, cultural and economic capital that gambling. .. that take place in the lead up to, as well as after the act of gambling These include the knowledge gathering, planning, networking and even their evaluation of their gambling experiences in. .. proscribes gambling In the Singapore context, gambling happens to be a cultural activity of the ethnic Chinese majority and in both the formal and informal gambling spheres, they tend to assume positions