NGITEMBIYA NGON DAPET WAMBO

The Geert Wilders movie, and all the screaming and yelling about it, reminded me of the issue of Muslim penetration as it was experienced in Indonesia and Malaya.

From the first Muslim merchants and missionaries to hit the tip of Atjeh eight centuries ago to the present, Islamicization has been both a constant and an irreversable process in the Malay-Indonesian zone. Atjeh converted earliest (and prides itself on being the gateway to Mecca), the great empires of Sumatra and Djawa have been replaced by Muslim sultanates and susuhanates, and even Kota Ambon today has more mosques than churches, despite the long Christian presence in the Moluccas.
Indonesia rules more Muslims than any other country.


However, several native ethnicities did not become Muslim despite conversionary effort and warfare.
The Menadonese are still solidly Christian, the Moluccers and Bataks are half Muslim, half Christian, and half Heathen (okay, so the math indicates that they're aren't quite stable yet..... religion is not necessarily a matter of certainties), and the Javanese are Hinduist Muslims - Muslim in avowed creed, semi-Hindu in certain practices, Hindu-Buddhist in magic and mysticism, and pre-Islamic in superstition and supernatural belief.


Becoming Muslim is an ongoing process for several groups.
The Atjehnese and the Minangkabau are similar in that descent is reckoned matrilineally, inheritance favours the females, especially as regards farm-property and the actual agricultural means of production (excepting pepper gardens - often developed by Atjehnese transplantees who settled outside of Atjeh proper).
Men are the backbone of Mosque and Madrasa, but must move out of both their mother's home, and often their villages, in order to make a life for themselves; a life which becomes less their own once they get married, as the property is held by the women. All over Indonesia you will find Atjehnese and Minang men engaged in business. Their womenfolk remain in Sumatra, and welcome them back periodically, before tiring of them and sending them away again. The men absorb Islam through mens' societies, and by going off to Islamic study-halls out in the countryside.
These are not patterns we normally associate with Islam, yet both the Atjehnese and the Minang are solidly Muslim. Far more so than the Javanese.


The Madurese are, apparently, also Muslim - but everyone else prefers to consider them devil-worshipping vampires and socially unacceptable. They are Muslims, but no civilized Muslim wants them in their Mosque.
[Warning: poetic exaggeration here. Madurese are much disliked. Let us not dwell on why.]


Some societies have disappeared. Been swamped. Totally over-run. Become Malay.


Anyone who converts to Islam becomes Malay. And eventually loses his culture.


[This counts especially for coastal Borneo, where every single Islamicized society lost a greater part of its distinctiveness and acquired Malay as their language and Malay customs in lieu of their own. This process was in some cases sped up by colonialism.]


I am not fond of Malays. Perhaps I am a racist. I do not like their food. Or their culture. Tak suka orang melayu, tak suka makanan-mereka, dan saya tahu mereka bukan bangsa adib, tidak halus.


On the other hand, I am quite partial to Atjehnese. Spunky people, stubborn and talented.
The Buginese are also admirable.



All of this is a preamble to a short Tamarao text I wish to present to you, the 'Rhetorical Statement Regarding The Places Which Are Habitable By Civilized People'. First in Tamarao, then in English translation.



NGABAENG PA KINATAO

Djaaa na kawm Muslim tamo mata-mi, ngitembiya ngon dapet wambo; pangkod, kreang, tembeng - kutamto marede, makaga nente angin. Dang samahang na Ngarab, Malayo, tan Lanon; Muntawan, Kwantan, tan Mindanawa, buwana-mi sametek gila-dugatso. Sepa tanggat nente dema? Tathapi hara balang hara mesti ne; esa lampo pa lelem, tarang tja. Esa pagad nente dambo, larang-kandong tja.

"The evil of the Muslim horde meets our eyes, the tribal war unity must not falter; long spears, swords, and war shields - all are firm, hard against the sky. With the commonality of Arabs, Malays, and pirates from the North; Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula, and Mindanao, our world is entirely blood-crazed. Who can effect against them? But above all it is essential to do so; one lamp for the dark, lo it is bright. One fence against the forest, lo it is a civilized zone."


[Partial annotation: Ngabaeng - expressive statement. Kinatao - the places where people (tao), by extension civilized people (tao neang adib), can be found; all civilized places are one, all civilized people are alike. Djaaa - (pronounced jah-ah-ah) evil (from Arabic Jahat). Kawm - group of people who have something in common (also an Arabic term: sheaf, collection, aggregate). Tamo - to meet, to encounter or be encountered. Mi - second person plural possessive postfix (kami - we inclusively, kita - we excluding the person addressed). Ngitembiya - Ritual first person plural pronoun for the head-raiding war group; the collective of warriors, those who will take heads in battle, the fighting line of the tribe. Ngon - negative: cannot, must not. Wambo - falter, tremble. Pangkod - a long spear with abundant crimson horse-hear tufting below the blade. Kreang - kris; a wavy bladed dagger or battle sword much prized throughout the Indonesian area. Tembeng - painted war-shield upon which weapons are struck rhythmically before battle to work up the fury of the warriors and terrify the enemy. Kaga nente angin - hard against the sky: strong in the face of fate. Lanon - Moro pirates from western Mindanao, much feared as slave-raiders and despoilers. Muntawan - Coastal Sumatra. Kwantan - The Receptacle; the Malay Peninsula. Buwana - world. Gila - eccentric, insane, Gila-dugatso - having the coarse appetites of a carrion eater and the passions of a rabid beast. Lampo - Lamp, light (from Portuguese). Pagad - fencing around a field. Dambo - forest, jungle. Larang-kandong - Fields (larangan) and cattle-holds (kandong - also means bag or womb), and by extension the agricultural base, and hence the heartland of a society.]


Evocative, no? I find it quickens the blood.

It presents a picture of a society that felt itself under siege by Muslims - as, indeed, many societies in the Indonesian world have been. Prior to the Dutch asserting colonial control over lower Borneo, both the Buginese and Makasarese from the south, and the Moros from western Mindanao assaulted tribal territories along the Borneo coast. Several of the kingdoms that later came under Dutch authority began with Muslim invaders planting themselves violently among the natives, whom they converted by force or enslaved. Other petty kingdoms represent ruling houses given a new lease on political life by conversion to Islam and subsequent assistance from other Muslim polities. By the time the Dutch held these areas, the non-Muslims had mostly vanished along the shore, and the Malay rot had set in.



This is similar to what Geert Wilders fears will happen to Europe. It is a somewhat apocalyptic dread.

I am not nearly so despondent, however. The Balinese resisted Islam, the Batak are by no means mostly Islamic, and several ethnic groups in the interior of Borneo and the uplands of Celebes are still ferociously non-Muslim. The Javanese span the range between barely any ken of Islam to Islamic fanatics (it would be hard to argue that the Javanese ruling classes are fully committed to Islam in any case). And it must be said that the aggression of Islamic polities in Indonesia had much more in common with Masonic brotherhood than Jihadi fanaticism. Islam gave one valuable contacts with an entire (mercantile, cultural, and political) network throughout the region, whereas traditional beliefs often isolated societies from even their ethnic relatives.
For some, Islam was indeed a more civilized system.

[What about the people who speak Tamarao? I believe that by-and-large they have been subsumed, but I doubt that Islam did it. Between colonialism, the socially destructive impact of the oil-industry in Eastern Borneo, the Japanese invasion focusing on the oil-industry, revolutionary Indonesian nationalism, and 'transmigrasi' (the Indonesian resettlement policy for alleviating population pressure and stifling ethnic irredentism by moving large numbers of Javans to other islands), they seem to have disappeared from the radar. I have found no evidence of their existence on the internet, nor in any scholarly writings. Perhaps they are called something else now. I really don't know. I knew people who spoke the language in the Netherlands, I have not met any here.]


What does Islam offer Europe? Perhaps the question should be what Europe offers Muslims.
Quite probably more Muslim migrants will Europeanize than Europeans become Islamic. The top of European society may be self-satisfied about its perceived cultural superiority and fearful of being swamped by other cultures - but it is still the top. The oligarchies that control European societies are not easily displaced, and their norms are not easily pushed aside.