The Constitution also recognises the special position of Malays as the indigenous people of the land in Article 152:
But this is the reality
Asia / Southeast Asia
Meet Singapore’s royal descendants living low-key lives as taxi drivers and office workers
- In the 19th century, Sultan Hussein Shah’s treaties with the British led to colonial rule and the founding of the modern country
- The Singaporean government agreed a payout to 79 descendants as part of colonial-era deal to provide for the sultan’s family
Reuters in Singapore
Published: 10:58am, 27 Oct, 2020
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Tengku Shawal, a royal descendant, says a prayer next to the tombstone of his great-great-grandfather, Tengku Alam. Photo: Reuters
In the modern republic of
Singapore
, several seemingly ordinary people working in offices or driving taxis can claim to be of
royal blood
, descendants of a 19th-century monarch who ceded control of the Southeast Asian island to the British.
But few residents in one of the world’s most cosmopolitan cities are even aware of this lineage, a sore point with Tengku, or Prince, Shawal, acclaimed by some members of his family as “head of the house of Singapore”.
“They still exist?” is a response the 51-year-old says he often receives when he tells people he is one of the descendants of Sultan Hussein Shah – whose treaties with the British led to colonial rule and the founding of the modern country.