BECOMING MALAY, BECOMING LESS

Rereading some of my own writings from a while back leads me to a text I am sure that my Malay readers will find both fascinating, and in many ways annoying. So of course I shall republish it, as I wish them to see it.
That's just the way I am.

[Note: This post has nothing to do with Malacca (Melaka), Kuala Lumpur, UMNO, or PAS, nor with Mahathir Mohamad. But I am opportunistically including all these terms for the benefit of certain blog-aggregators. It's a cynical gambit. Oh well.]



ANYONE WHO CONVERTS BECOMES MALAY AND LOSES HIS CULTURE


From the first Muslims 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Atjeh converted earliest (and prides itself on being the gateway to Mecca), the great empires of Sumatra and Djawa have been replaced by Muslim sultanates and susuhanates, and even Kota Ambon today has more mosques than churches, despite the long Christian presence in the Moluccas.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.

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 part of the Umma, but no civilized Muslim wants them in their Mosque.

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

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

This counts especially for coastal Borneo, where every single Islamicizing 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.


Personal opinion about Malays

I am not fond of Malays. I find them bland in their culture, yet bitter in their bigotry.
Perhaps I am a racist. I do not like their food or their society. Tak suka orang melayu, karana mereka bukan bangsa adib, dan 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.

Translation: "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), and 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 brigands 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 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.
Now, alas, there is little to remind the visitor of aught else.