Malayisation

Malayisation (

Muslim, Malay-speaking polities of Maritime Southeast Asia.^[9] Examples of Malayisation have occurred throughout Asia including in Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Sri Lanka

.

Malayisation started to occur during the territorial and commercial expansion of

sultanates that emerged in Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Riau Islands and Borneo. Malayisation could either be voluntary or forced and is most visible in the case of territories where the Malay language or culture were dominant or where their adoption could result in increased prestige or social status.^[10]

The ultimate manifestation of this cultural influence can be observed in the present

Peranakan, and the development of many Malay trade and creole languages

.

In linguistics, the term Malayisation may refer to the adaptation of oral or written elements of any other language into a form that is more comprehensible to a speaker of

Malay

in form or character.

Early history

A typical Baju melayu assemble, worn together with the songket. Baju Melayu traces its origin to the 15th century Malacca Sultanate,^[11] and today is one of the most important symbol of Malay culture.

There is significant genetic, linguistic, cultural, and social diversity among modern Malay subgroups, mainly attributed to centuries of migration and assimilation of various ethnic groups and tribes within

Old Kedah, Langkasuka, Gangga Negara, Old Kelantan, Negara Sri Dharmaraja, Malayu and Srivijaya.^[12]^[13]

Melaka Sultanate, established around 1400 CE. At the zenith of its power in the 15th century, Melaka exercised its special role not only as a trading centre, but also as the centre of Islamic learning, therefore promoting the development of Malay literary traditions.^[14]

The blossoming of

Classical Malay dialect of Melaka, enabling it to attain linguistic prestige. As a result, growth in trade between Melaka and the rest of the archipelago led to the dialect spreading beyond the traditional Malay speaking world, and eventually it became a lingua franca of maritime Southeast Asia. It was then further evolved into Bahasa Melayu pasar ("Bazaar Malay") or Bahasa Melayu rendah ("Low Malay"),^[15] which is generally understood as a form of pidgin influenced by contact between Malay and Chinese traders. The most important development has been that pidgin Malay creolised, creating several new languages such as the Ambonese Malay, Manado Malay and Betawi languages.^[16]

Malays and the Javanese, hand-coloured copper engraving from Jan Huyghen van Linschoten's, Itinerario, 1596. The legend reads "Inhabitants of Malacca, the best speakers, the most polite and the most amorous of the East Indies. Inhabitants of Java, who are hard-headed and obstinate."^[17]

The period of Melaka was also known as the era of Malay ethnogenesis, signified by strong infusion of Islamic values into Malay identity, and the flourishing of various important aspects of Malay culture. The term 'Melayu' ("Malay") to refer to a distinct group of people had been clearly defined to describe the cultural preferences of the Melakans as against foreigners from the same region, notably the Javanese and Thais.^[18] The cara Melayu ('ways of Malay') were the cara Melaka ('ways of Melaka'); in language, dress, manners, entertainments and so forth, these might be referred to as 'Malay', and this Melaka-based culture or civilisation was acknowledged right across the archipelago.^[19] The aboriginal communities from Orang Asli and Orang Laut who constituted a majority original population of Melaka were also Malayised and incorporated into the hierarchical structure of Melaka. So successfully did Melakan rulers equate the kingdom with "Melayu" that one Malay text describes how, after a defeat, the people of Melaka fled into the jungle where they became Jakun, that is Orang Hulu ('upriver people'). It shows that, without the mantle of Melaka's prestige, the local inhabitants were undifferentiated from the other non-Malay elements in neighbouring areas.^[20]

The Melakans were described by European travellers as "white", well-proportioned, and proud. The men normally wear cotton garments (sarongs) which cover them only from the waist down, but a few of the more distinguished wear short, silk coats, under which they carry krises. Their women, who are olive-coloured, comely, and brunette, usually wear fine silk garments and short shirts. Nobody but the Sultan may wear yellow colours without special permission under pain of death. The faces of the natives are broad with wide noses and round eyes. Both sexes are well-mannered and devotees of all forms of refined amusement, especially music, ballads, and poetry. The rich pass life pleasantly in their country homes at Bertam which are surrounded by bountiful orchards. Most of them maintain separate establishments in the city from which they conduct their business. They take offence easily and will not permit anyone to put his hand on their head or shoulders. Often malicious and untruthful, they take pride in their ability to wield the kris adroitly against their personal enemies. In larger engagements they fight in bands with bows and arrows, spears and krises. In their beliefs, they are devout Muslims. Their language "is reported to be the most courteous and seemelie speech of all the Orient." It is readily learned by foreigners, and is the lingua franca for the entire region.^[21]

Later Malay sultanates

Pattani and Aceh.^[22]^[23]

After Melaka was conquered by the Portuguese in 1511, and the ruling family had established a successor polity in Johor, it would appear that the 'ways of Malay' continued to be fostered and began to have an influence in surrounding sultanates. Startling even to the Portuguese conquerors was the extent to which most of Sumatra's east coast had been influenced by its neighbour across the straits; almost all urban elites spoke Melakan Malay, and they also acknowledged not only correct speech but also good manners and appropriate behaviour, as Malay custom.^[24] The role of Melaka as a model also becomes evident, when comparing its law codes with those of other succeeding Malay sultanates.^[25]

Malay language was one aspect of the prestige of the sultanates and considered as a language of the learned in Southeast Asia in 17th and 18th century comments. An 18th-century European account even suggests that one is not considered a very broadly educated man in the east unless he understands Malay.^[26] Such observations on the influence of the Malay language and kingship concepts relate to the inter-monarchical context. At the local level, individual Malay sultanates all over the archipelago that usually based on rivers and often close to the coast, exercised sufficient attractiveness, or suasion, to foster a process of assimilation. They were operating on a range of frontiers – in Sumatra, Borneo and the peninsula – where non-Muslim peoples, in many cases the tribal communities, were gradually being brought into Malay realm: learning to speak the Malay language, adopting Islam, changing their customs and style of dress and assuming roles of one type or another within the expanding sultanates.^[26]

In an early example from eastern Sumatra, the 15th century Sultanate of Aru, believed to be the precursor of Malay

Asahan, to the south, and on the Barus frontier in the northwest of Sumatra where entry to the new sphere entailed not only a change in manners an clothing styles, but also the adoption of the Islamic religion and the Malay language.^[28]

On the peninsula, the effects of the continued contacts between the non-Malays with Malay-dominated centre is suggested in a 19th-century account of

king Ramathipadi I converted to Islam, took the name Muhammad Ibrahim, married a Malay Muslim of a princely Cham family,^{[citation needed]} had his courtiers wear krisses and used Malay language in correspondence. During the same century in Champa, a once powerful Indianized polity but by that time retreating before the advancing Vietnamese, the rulers held the title Paduka Seri Sultan which is so common in the Malay polities. These rulers were in close contact with the peninsula, in particular Kelantan. French missionaries reported the presence of scribes and religious scholars from Kelantan right into the 19th century. It was believed that Kelantanese who eventually helped to give the Cham struggle against the Vietnamese, the character of a religious crusade.^[26]

In

southern Borneo, the Malay-speaking Sultanate of Banjar had been pushing inland since the 17th century, bringing Dayaks into its Muslim culture. In the west, the development of such sultanates of Sambas, Sukadana and Landak tells a similar tale of recruitment among Dayak people.^[30]

Malay culture also influenced many

Sultan Bolkiah of Brunei. Borneans were described to have taught Islam to people of Balayan, Manila, Mindoro

and Bonbon. Borneans and Luzonians were also described as 'almost one people', and their clothing styles and ceremonies and customs were certainly similar.

Malayisation also occurred in the form of acculturation, in addition to complete assimilation into Malay identity. In this way, it shaped the ethnocultural development of

Peranakan, Jawi Peranakan, Kristang, Chitty and so forth. Such acculturation process was also reflected by assimilation of immigrants from other part of Maritime Southeast Asia, commonly known as anak dagang ('traders'), into the established Malay communities, aided by similarity in lifestyle and common religion (Islam). Among these immigrant communities, some cultural elements of Malay origin were later combined in various forms and degrees with their own elements, which partly retained. Notable groups including the Javanese, Minangkabau and Bugis Malays.^[31]

Contemporary events

Malaysia

The Malay Peninsula, now an important part of Malaysia, has been the stronghold of Malay sultanates for centuries. As the entire peninsula was consolidated under Melaka's rule in the 15th century, it became the core of the

Malay rulers remained at the highest hierarchical order of the society.^[32]^[33]

Malayness has been conceived as fundamental basis for state's ideology and it became the main driving force for

Bumiputra communities.^[35] The historical identification of the Malays with Islam was entrenched in the Article 160 of the Constitution of Malaysia. The article defines specifically a "Malay" as a person who professes the religion of Islam, habitually speaks the Malay language and conforms to Malay custom. The Malaysian government also has taken the step of defining Malaysian Culture through the 1971 National Culture Policy, which defined what was considered official culture, basing it around Malay culture and integrating Islamic influences. The government has historically made little distinction between "Malay culture" and "Malaysian culture".^[36]

Although it has been a subject of criticism [37] even by the Malays themselves, the notion of becoming a Muslim means Masuk Melayu (entering Malayness) remains popular. This could have been caused by the centuries-old unclear distinction between "Islamisation" and "Malayisation", for there is a high tendency of the new revertees having eventually Malayised by the dominant Malay-Muslim culture.^[35]^[38]

JAKOA) itself, have accordingly spent much effort in converting the Orang Asli to Islam. The motivation for this is sometimes authentically religious, but it is more usually seen primarily as the means of Malayisation. Governmental policy towards Orang Asli has long proposed their integration into the broader Malaysian community should be brought about by assimilating them specifically into the Malay community, which by local custom and national law is Sunni Muslim by religion. JHEOA officers have been heard to comment that the Orang Asli "problem" - usually defined as that of poverty - would disappear if they became Muslims, and hence Malays. In September 1996, for example, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Land and Co-operative Development, Nik Mohamed Zain Nik Yusof, gave the following justification for the Federal government's newly announced review of legislation relating to Orang Asli land rights: "If these amendments are made, Orang Asli can be more easily integrated into Malay society. It will help them to embrace Islam and follow Malay customs too".^[39]

The impact of this institutionalised assimilation efforts has been tremendous to the demographics in certain area of the peninsula. One instance was in the Sedili valley, where modern anthropologists discovered in the 1970s that villages formerly reported by travellers to be Jakun, are now Malay communities.^[40]

In the multi-ethnic state of

Mustapha Harun leadership (1967–1976) saw the processes of Malayisation and Islamisation, which from the federal government's view appeared to be a check on Kadazandusun nationalism and was therefore perceived as an integration and unifying process with the other native Muslim society, namely the Bajaus, Bruneis, Sungei and Ida'an. The then-mostly pagan Kadazandusun traditionally formed minority of a third of the state population and inhabited the western shores of Sabah. The successor Berjaya government under Harris Salleh continued the same policies. The state government promoted Malay language in government-aided schools, sponsored the Quran-reading competitions and organised various dawah activities. All these the Berjaya government considered to be in line with the spirit of Article 12(2) of the Constitution of Malaysia that provide legitimacy for the state to promote and assist in the funding of Islamic institutions and instruction, the core of which was to be derived from Malay-Muslim elements.^[41]

Brunei

The traditional Malay notion of fealty to a ruler, charged to protect Islam in his territory, is still central in both Malaysia and Brunei. In Brunei, this has been institutionalised under the state ideology of Melayu Islam Beraja ("Malay Islamic Monarchy"). As a still functioning Malay sultanate, Brunei places Islamic institutions at the centre of the state's interest. It retains an elaborated Malay social hierarchy central to the community. As a result, there are two kind of Malayness in Brunei: the general Malay cultural pattern to which most of the population have by now assimilated, and the higher ranking social position labelled as "Berunai" which distinguishes some of those cultural-Malays from others.^[35] The other main community, the Kedayans, still rank lower, despite being Muslims and living in a manner virtually identical to that of the Orang Berunai. Thus, unlike what happens elsewhere, assimilation to Malay cultural pattern in Brunei does not necessarily eradicate difference.^[35]

Singapore

Indian Muslims and Peninsula Malays immigrants, as well as the adoption of Chinese babies. In other words, Singapore's Malayness was a creolised culture, closer in character to the Pesisir (coastal) Malay culture that had developed elsewhere in the archipelago than to the kind of Malayness that characterised the Malay world proper of the peninsula and Sumatra. In Singapore itself, assimilation to Malayness was and is purely cultural, with no guiding hand to facilitate the process.^[43]

Indonesia

Deli Sultanate. Although today the sultanate still crowned their sultan, he holds no actual political power, absorbed into North Sumatran

provincial government.

Historically, Indonesia was home to a number of Malay sultanates that were involved in the process of Malayisation throughout the archipelago. Three main elements of Malayisation; Malay monarchy or fealty to Malay ruling sultan, the preeminence of Malay identity (which include superiority of ethnic Malay and Malay language), and supremacy of Islam as the official religion, has no official recognition in modern Indonesian statehood. This is mostly because the pluralism and diversity policy enshrined in the Pancasila national ideology avoids domination of certain group over another.

Contrary to Brunei and Malaysia, a major component of Malayness — fealty to a ruling sultan — was removed from the modern Indonesian

nationalist that seek to dismantle traditional royal institution. In March 1946, a major uprising broke out against several Malay-Muslim Sultanates and rich Malay classes in East Sumatra, removing the traditional feudal social structure in the region.^[44] Today, several regional kingdoms or sultanate survive, despite holding no actual political power and without real authority, being replaced by provincial governatorial administration. The exception is the Javanese Yogyakarta Sultanate that won special region status, mostly owed to the sultanate's bid and support for the Indonesian Republic during the Indonesian National Revolution

. These sultanates and kingdoms are only recognised as the custody of local culture, arts and traditions, although they might still enjoy prestige and held in high esteem especially among the local community.

Officially, Malayness has no special position in Indonesian state ideology, except as one of the constituent regional cultures — which tend to be represented on a province-by-province basis. Loyalty for a certain ethnic group was overshadowed with the new inter-ethnic loyalty, advocating the importance of the national unity and national identity of Bangsa Indonesia ("Indonesian nation") instead. Despite having widespread influence in the archipelago,

Papuan

.

Despite being the source of the

Batak

languages. Compared to local Malay dialects in Sumatra, Indonesian developed further which absorbed terminology and vocabulary from other native Indonesian languages, as well as variations of local dialects across Indonesia.

Despite being the overwhelmingly majority religion,

Malay Indonesians to Islam.^[45] The strength of nationalist sentiments, rapidly progressing democracy, the destruction of the sultanates, and rampant Javanisation, ushered in a prolonged period of Malay political acquiescence, significantly reducing the momentum of Malayisation in Indonesia.^[46]

Cambodia

The strong influence of Malaysia in religious education has involved a degree of Malayisation among the

Kampot, are a separate community from the Chams, who have illustrious historic roots in Vietnam. The Khmer-speaking Chvea are distinct from the Cham, and preferred to be called as 'Khmer Islam', so as not to draw attention to their foreignness. Nevertheless, they use Malay language religious materials, write in the Jawi script, and many also speak Malay. Both Chvea and Cham have in recent years been drawn into pan-Malay conferences and networks promoted primarily by Malaysia.^[47]

Sri Lanka

There is a sizeable

Sri Lankan Creole Malay varieties spoken by the community, are currently endangered as they are no longer spoken by the younger generation.^[48] However, in recent years, there are efforts in sharpening the sense of Malay identity by promoting the usage of 'standard Malay' language. This move was ideologically favoured by the urban segment of the community as it enables them to feel linked to the larger Malay groups in Southeast Asia. The community's effort to teach standard Malay to its members is largely aided by the Malaysian government through its high commission in Colombo. The high commission conducted courses in standard Malay, exclusively for members of the Malay community, and those who fared best were trained as language teachers in Malaysia. They were then expected to teach 'standard' Malay to their respective communities in Sri Lanka. These initiatives were welcomed and appreciated by the community. The language programmes and trips to Malaysia were made possible through the offices of the Gabungan Persatuan Penulis Nasional (GAPENA - the Federation of National Writers' Association of Malaysia). The Malays of Sri Lanka are constantly wooed by the Malaysian government, which chose to conduct the second GAPENA conference in Colombo in 1985, arranges periodic visits by representatives of the Malaysian government to the Malay Club in Colombo where grants are given for various community projects, and finances occasional trips to Malaysia for members of the community to attend conferences and seminars at the expense of the Malaysian state.^[49] The Indonesian government, however, does not seem to have similar aggressive efforts through its embassy in Colombo.^[48] As a result, although the Sri Lankan Malays are predominantly of Indonesian origins (especially Javanese), an attempt by a Sri Lanka 'Indonesian' Organization to reconstitute them as 'Indonesians', was declined.^[47]