Of Different Malays: The problem of boundaries
Most Malaysians, including the government of Malaysia, however, fail to see these as of different cultural lineages. They would lump them as belong to Malay (Melayu) culture.
The term Malay culture is visualized by Indonesian in reference to dances of Lilin, Randai, or Serampang Dua Belas. It does not have any direct connection to Javanese gamelan, reog, or angklung. It is directly associated with traditions and customs of the ethnic group within the boundary of the Malay peninsula. Malaysians seem to see a different boundary of Malay culture. How does this happen?
Knowledge and narratives on local culture in Indonesia are developed in association with ethnic based regional boundaries. They are endorsed by the state and they are part of nation building. Since elementary school, Indonesian kids have learned about national heritage by memorizing names of dances, melodies of folk-songs, and visual representations of traditional costumes. Practices of documenting and selecting material artifacts of local cultures are part of the larger political process of inclusion that stresses nationalism and the national unity of Indonesia. Selective preservation of regional and/or local art forms, in constructing the ‘national culture’, is, therefore, part of the politics of exclusion.
Indonesia surely has its own problems in constructing, deconstructing, and reconstructing local and national cultures — which while deserves an attention, is not the topic of this article.
Recognizing this pitfall, however, ways in which local culture is framed in Indonesia are much less crude than those in Malaysia. It is still assigned and identified with a certain cultural context/geographical (of origin). While being partial and reductionist, multifarious contexts and diverse locales still have some space in the narrative of Indonesian national culture.
Malaysia adopts a different route in approaching its national and local cultures. The modern nation-state of Malaysia frames national culture by clustering cultural artifacts into cultures of Malay, Chinese, Indian and indigenous tribes (orang asli). The term Malay here, differs than that of Indonesia, refers to and is influenced by several concepts.
First, as enacted in the term ‘Malay is Muslim, Muslim is Malay’, it is a form of ethno-religion. It is entangled with the concept of ethnic nationalism that has become today’s Malaysia’s dominant state-religion relations in which the state is fused to a particular ethnic group and religion functions as a signifier of ethnic identity. Any Javanese, Acehnese, or just any Indonesians, migrate to Malaysia will be classified as ‘Malay’ and they are (supposed to be) Muslims. Chinese Indonesians, though, can box themselves to ‘Chinese’ thus do not have to be Muslim.
Second, it is used in association with Malay race (bangsa Melayu) instead of Malay ethnicity (suku Melayu). This concept is originated in Blumenbach’s racial classification system which divide the world’s races into the prime race-Caucasian/white race, the Mongolian/yellow race, the Malayan/brown race, the American/red race, and the Negroid or black race.
His human-skulls-based concept has been rejected by many anthropologists recognizing the enormous complexity of classifying races.
He considered the inhabitants of Southeast Asia, including the Marianas, the Philippines, the Malukus, Sundas, as well as Pacific Islands as Malayan. Blumenbach wrote: “Malay variety. Tawny-coloured; hair black, soft, curly, thick and plentiful; head moderately narrowed; forehead slightly swelling; nose full ..”
The concept Malay race is also a historical heritage of colonialism. European planters and British officials in Malaysia were keen to obtain laborers from the Dutch East Indies as they were regarded as better suited to climate and would assimilate more easily with the local Malays. Indonesian migrants were viewed as originating from the same racial stocks as the Malays, regardless their ethnicities. In the early colonial Malaysia, the Straits Settlements censuses of 1871 and 1881 both listed Malay, Achinese, Andamanese, Boyanese, Bugis and Javanese separately. In 1891 census, however, there were major structural changes in the classification of ethnicities.
The forty-eight different ethnicities were sorted under the major (hierarchical) classifications of ‘European and Americans’, ‘Eurasian’, ‘Chinese’, ‘Malays and other Natives of the archipelago’, ‘Tamils and other Natives of India’ and ‘Other Races.’ The creation of the category of ‘Malay and other Natives of the Archipelago’ and the inclusions of the various ethnicities in it contributed toward formalizing the boundaries of Malayness. The modern nation-state Malaysia cultivates this heavily politicized classification by clustering Malaysians into ‘Malays’, ‘Chinese’, ‘Indians’, and ‘indigenous tribes’.
Tracing the origin of the term ‘Malay’ used in Malaysian context, we thus can understand that the Malaysian version of Malay is more a product of political reconstruction (of colonialism and a modern ethnic-nationalism) and is rooted in the politics of race and identity rather than the geographical boundary of origin.
As people move around globally, cultures flow in all directions. Tracing histories and origins (of culture), thus is always a complicated task. Lumping various artifacts together into one Malay culture whose boundary is heavily politicized is certainly not the most plausible method to complete the task. It fails to recognize the complexity of cultures of the archipelago. Thus removing them from their multifarious contexts and locales; and dis-embed these cultures from the people who shape and are reshaped by them.
copies from old archive:
nemo: Indonesian need to learn how to advertise their own culture & nature, also in the academic community (including ISI) in using (international) media.
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ahmad: Sorry although your article can be perceived as well thought it is just plain academic. Eg. Rasa Sayang Hei song, has Portugese origin and Malacca was colonised first then only the other islands in this archipelago. Yes, there are only 2 Malay races ie. Malays and the Javanese, this can be traced back to the disputes which led to the name of Minangkabau. Regards from Ahmad (5th generation Minangkabau decendant in Malaysia and currently working in Jakarta).
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domba garut: Nations sharing boundaries, especially once was a great one big kingdom under Majapahit/Sriwijaya migt have shared a lot of its rooted cultures..
What matters now, to Indonesia and the people is to preserve the culture very well, and promoting likewise globally and very carefully.. thus making its own younger generations to embrace more on its rooted traditional cultues, rather than indulging so-called pop-cultures..
Often said; If you are not taking care of your own things, someone else will..
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colson: I think I just read a cool approach to an apparently explosive, ah well, let’s say touchy, issue.
Now I guess a society which is in search for it’s identity, probably will look for a historical, cultural etc “canon”: a number of defining happenings, events or objects which officially can be declared to be the specific shared national heritage. Actually some of these happenings, events etc may well be just accidentally become part of the “canon”. Some others will disappear in due time and possibly be replaced by others (I’ve been closely watching such a process in my home country by the way).
Probably is just normal that two young neighbouring nations like Indonesia and Malaysia, which have a lot in common, are still pretty uncertain about their distinguishing national identity. They need some positive national characteristics to be proud of. No wonder in this case they partly reap from the same cultural and historical crops ( sources). In other words: in the process of finding one’s own national identity every now and then the one will collide with the other.
I would say: no big deal.
In due time new modern typically national events, products, art, science will define the image of the country. Present and future achievements will make the new “brand” for Indonesia.
No need to worry about Malaysia.
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So, what do you think of the Undip’s VC move to ban new students from Malaysia?
katadia: Well-thought and well-written! Salam kenal
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mulia: halo ba Mer, long time no contact.
i drop by just to say hi..hehe. but i red ur article and i think more comments will make no different at this stage, so i shut my mouth
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bobteoh: Dear Prof Lim
I find your piece ‘Of different Malays: The problem of boundaries’ very engaging. It has also been published in JP. and is of special interest to our readers.
Can I have your permission to re-publish your article on http://www.mysinchew.com, the English language portal of Sin Chew, of which I am the chief editor. Daily, Malaysia?
Thank you
Regards
Bob Teoh
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henry lie: yeah, but the javanese people refused to be classified as malays.
remember the history dated back, when majapahit king took dara petak (?) from the malay kingdom..? she was disliked. Not to forget that Indonesian history is really centralised and focused on Central Java. Other kingdom such Padjajaran, Sriwijaya, were somehow shadowed if not considered enemities.
And complication comes because part of sumatera and malaysia was the then one “Malay Kingdom”
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mer:
nemo: yes, of course i agree with you.
ahmad: thanks for dropping by. sure it’s academic, because indeed it’s written based on credible academic historical analysis/literature. just fyi, it’s only 2 years apart for Malacca and Maluku (Ambon) to be colonized by Portuguese. Malacca 1511, and Ambon 1513. Rasa Sayange indeed is influenced by Portuguese, but it was written and composed by an Ambonese guy.
domba garut: i agree with you about what matters now, 1000%.
domba garut + colson:
about boundaries: sure nations share boundaries… but there are different boundaries — politico-geographical boundaries and cultural-geographical boundaries. the latter is defined by tireless in-depth longitudinal research for hundreds year and tested. my point was “the Malay race” boundary is simply scientifically flawed, from cultural-anthropological point of view, it has no basis, after all, there is no such thing as Malay race as Blumenbach invented — it’s the result of politics of race and discrimination. i address my critic mostly to the scholarly community…
colson: i agree, present and future achievements that matter more… and yes, i don’t worry about anything related to this incident
katadia: many thanks and salam kenal, too
oh, personally I think Undip’s act is very unintellectual and has no basis, I don’t think it’s useful.
bob teoh:
It’s important to have such alternative (to mainstream) spheres in countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia…
Dear Mr. Teoh,
Many thanks for your generous comment. I’m very pleased to know that my article could be useful for your readers and sure, please go ahead republish it.
I just checked the website, I like what I see
mulia: thanks… it’s nice to hear from you again
ichi: ya, boleh… silakan dilink.
henry: my essay indeed tried to point out that ‘lumping’ everybody who’s not chinese/indians as malays doesn’t help — no classification is better than such such classification.
my point was the boundaries of two malays are different.. and the terms have different meaning… and they are of different dimensions, therefore it’s conflicting.
more copy:
henry lie:
yes, yes you are right. sorry i should not use the word ‘but’ as opening, but the word ‘and’ or ‘notwithstanding’ ; pardon my english.
the other problem i spot, do you know that here (in singapore and malaysia), people don’t call kalimantan, they still call it borneo….even though it refers to the part belongs to indo.
another funny complication is if the malaysian would accuse indonesia, of stealing their original language (Malay) and changed it to BAHASA INDONESIA
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alex: Hi Mer! I wish that more people will learn much from this article, rather than being mindlessly furious and acting foolishly. Your incisive analytical approach directly reveals the main source of these conflicts.
And I found counter-accusations undoubtedly tiring. To recriminate against bad humor accusations by doing the same tasteless act will never solve anything. It is unproductive, childish and only worsen matters.
I agree with you that the government should be quick and focused in protecting and preserving their national treasures by being supportive and appreciative.
PS: Keur nyepet nu ti atas urang… hihihi… pardon my Sundanese ya, Mer…
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retty: What I like about this post is the commentators’ comments…They are enriching the article itself!
As Indonesian (influenced mostly by Javanese), we can still say “Luckily…” These disputes over cultural heritage brought up the feelings of ownership between the Indonesian youngsters, and we’re going to have the recognition as the root of batik as the world heritage.
Hopefully there will be more youngsters interested in history, and also write out about it. As Bahasa Indonesia came out from the Malay dialect of Riau Islands, it would be interesting to find out that we are all related as a family in this global world. A study about the Afrikaans language can also show how the people from the Archipelago influenced the world.
I think the real issue right now is recognizing the root and develop it in our most creative way…It would help the world gains its colorful attractions!
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mer:
alex: thanks for such ‘wise’ comment:) p.s. dipardonan lah :p
retty: iya, untung deh
saya juga menikmati komentar2 di kolom itu. sekali lempar batu banyak riaknya 
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