MelayuOnline.com as a Means to Reconstruct Malay Civilization in the Third Wave Era

By: Mahyudin Al Mudra, S.H., M.M.

I.   Introduction

MelayuOnline.com is a website on Global Malay world that publicly published on the first Muharram 1428 Hijriyah (January 20^th, 2007). Its presence is the result of my deep expression of love and growing concern toward Malay culture. Personally, I love Malay since I was born as Malay. While the concern on Malay stems from my observation that Malay culture was marginalized amidst modern Malay society. 

Modern and post-modern cultures bring about changes in all aspects of life with shocking rapidity. Such changes are boosted by stream of exchange information presented by cyber media, television, radio and other mass media in every second (Adeney, 2004). The media have contributed in blurring both cultural identities and physical borders –Arjun Appadurai called it as “deteritorialization”- which in turn creating new world with relatively geographical and value borders. Indonesia, Malaysia, and other countries share blurred borders as being “folded” by modern media. Such borders are coded and put into specific instrument such as computer and television. The process of deteritorialization becomes of paramount importance because it has broad implication to many social and cultural processes (Abdullah, 2006). In this regard, the significant changes that occurred among Malay society is their way of thinking and their way to see this world.

Ibn Khaldun (1989) explained that a strong culture is able to influence other cultures. In this context, the Malay society who live in developing countries tend to duplicate the product of modern culture, even it seems very obvious. Malay society, in some cases, copied western culture. As a consequence, the process of western ideological transformation and thoughts run smoothly. Then, the problem of bias emerges which is reflected through western lifestyle and way of thinking among the Malay society. Such changes indicate strongly the cultural alteration of Malay characters, though, physical appearance still remains Malay.   

Hence, the tasks assigned for Malay intellectuals are twofold: to find the “root causes” by scrutinizing thoroughly the reality, and to stipulate actual steps to fix it. MelayuOnline.com tried and is trying to play its significant role optimally in globalizing the very noble Malay values to contribute in the making of world civilization. Retrieving Malay cultural heritages and taking positive value from modern cultures are the main principles held by MelayuOnline.com. This website is the implementation of deep consciousness about the unavoidable changes amongst the Malay society. Such changes should be dealt with shaping formula that is able to bring them to constructive changes. 

There are some important measures are being taken by MelayuOnline.com. The first is effective utilization of cyber media to shape world opinion through Malay culture. The second is collection, retrieval, preservation and publication of Malay issues in a systematic and comprehensive, and global documentation. The third is redefinition of Malay toward broader and flexible concept which is not limited by race, religious, and ethnic boundaries. The fourth is Malay paradigm reconstruction for being in line with modern thoughts.

II.  The Paradigm of MelayuOnline.com on Malay

Prior to explaining how MelayuOnline.com tries to rebuild Malay civilization through modern technology, this article will elucidate some important concepts of melayuOnline.com on Malay. Brief explanation on how Malay commonly understands the concept of Malay will be presented first. Then, the attempt of MelayuOnline.com to reconstruct the common understanding toward broader and more comprehensive concept will come after.  

a.      Reductive Understanding on Malay

Recently, the term “Malay” is understood through narrow perspective, thus, indicative of partial understanding. Some scholars define Malay from various points of view: linguistic, politic, geographic, ethnic, or religious. Indeed, it is difficult to present comprehensive and satisfying definition of Malay. It is so since the term ‘Malay‘ can be described from different aspects: First, race. The Malay race has brown skin colour. By definition, all people in Nusantara with such colour are categorized as Malay. Second, nation. The development of political changes and history got Malay race spread in all over Nusantara, stretching in various states, areas, and provinces such as Malay in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Singapore, and Philippine. At provincial level, there are Riau Malay, Aceh, Manado, Lombok, Johor, Melaka etc. Third, Malay as an ethnic. The ethnic definition is the narrowest one as it encompasses merely certain ethnic in Sumatra Island such as Caniago, Piliang, Tiga Kampung, Lima Kampung, Cermin, Bodi, etc. Other ethnics except for those ethnics are considered as non-Malay (Lutfi, 2007).

Besides the three aspects, there is another important one, which is Islam. The coming of Islam to Nusantara had enormous influence on local cultures, giving them strong Islamic imprint. Thus, Malay philosophy of life becomes identical to Islamic philosophy: worldly and hereafter (Suwardi, 1991). The Islamic aspect, therefore, becomes another requirement for being Malays. A non-Muslim who convert to Muslim will be considered as Malay.

From ontological perspective, Malay and Islam are two different entities. Malay is a group of people living in certain place, and forming social structure. Islam, on the other hand, is a religion embraced by majority of Malay in order to build rapport with their God. The first entity creates vertical relationship, while the second establishes horizontal bond. In this view, if the term “Malay” is defined in ethnic, race, and religious boundaries, such definition will present complicated position between religion as the system of belief and ethnicity as social structure (Ansor, 2005).

The varied definition of Malay resulted from excessive elements encompassed within Malay. Malay can be described from history, politic, race, religion, or language. The existing definitions on Malay are arranged by considering those elements. Commonly, the term “Malay” is defined as Muslim people, living in Malay region, speaking the Malay language and upholding the Malay customs.

b.  Comprehensive Paradigm on Malay

MelayuOnline.com tries to give fresh meaning on Malay in broader perspective. It gives cultural meaning in the concept of Malay. By doing so, Malay is not a race, ethnic, cultural entity or other narrow meanings. Hence, Malay, according to MelayuOnline.com, means all places, communities, groups of people in all over the world who have ever upheld Malay customs or/and still keep it alive. Historically, the cultural similarities of Malay communities have continued in ages. The similarities neither have happened temporarily, nor being based on genealogy. More than that, those similarities appear in cultural boundaries. Then, Malay in the way MelayuOnline.com understands refers to every Malay native speaker maintaining the Malay customs.

To observe, collate, and study Malay phenomenon, including redefining and reconstructing, is not a simple task. The endeavours require flexible paradigm encompassing various perspectives which coin series of interpretations. This paradigm is called “inclusive paradigm” (Al-Masiri, 1998) whose characteristics are open, and subject to change. The paradigm gives freedom for any kinds of interpretation, including interpretation of Malay phenomenon. The inclusive paradigm includes all complex aspects of Malay, gives complete picture of Malay reality without reducing any single aspects. Malay world has places, histories, cultures, and Malays. The domain of Malay, by using such paradigm, becomes far-ranging and complex. MelayuOnline.com attempts to accommodate all studies on Malay without giving limitations to any kinds of perspectives or of area studies. Different perspectives can be used as tools to analyze area studies of Malay. However, the result of the analysis should be partial and not final.

Using one single perspective is far for reaching a comprehensive analysis on Malay. From history, Malay nations had passed long history. M. Junus Melalatoa (1986) showed historical facts on the origin of Malay in Nusantara. There were three waves of Malay migration. First, after the end of ice age, the first wave of migration which indicated Weddoid race features came. The race settled in Nusantara. The remnants of the first wave ancients still can be found, those are called now as Orang Sakai, Orang Hutan, and Orang Kubu. Second, the coming of Malay-Proto (ancient Malay race) in 2.500-1.500 B.C. They were the people who brought the new stone age culture to Sumatra Island through Malay peninsula. Their descendants are still alive known recently as Orang Talang Mamak and Orang Laut. Third, after 1.500 B.C. the third wave of Malay (Deutro-Malay Race/Young Malay Race) came to the island. Their coming pushed the some of Malay-Proto to the hinterlands.

In each period, developed different cultures, but inseparable of each other. All becomes a single culture bounded in historical and cultural record of Malay. The development of Malay culture and history can be traced through ancient artefact such as kapak persegi (quadrangle axe) and kapak lonjong (pointed axe) which can be found in Sumatra, and modern artefact such as temple, fortress, etc (Suwardi, 1991). In this context, MelayuOnline.com doesn‘t explain who is Malay, and who isn‘t. MelayuOnline.com focuses much on diversity of cultural products of Malay in all over Nusantara from time to time, from generation to generation.

Thus, studying the Malay is suggested to consider its entire historical chain that had ever happened in ages long time ago. Comprehensive Malay studies should look Malay in all periods with its diversity, not only after the coming of Islam to Nusantara for example.  Such study is intended to avoid producing partial and bias analysis.

The same methodology is also applicable in MelayuOnline.com to observe Malay culture. Malay culture has material elements such as arts, ceremonies, tools, dresses, culinary, etc, and immaterial elements such as language, belief, and way of life. The aforementioned elements are studied thoroughly and comprehensively without taking intro consideration the political, geographical and historical boundaries.  Each cultural element is studied, its Malay features are identified so that can be contrasted to the features of other cultures. In Malay art performance in Nusantara, for example, there are types of dance and music. In this regard, specific feature of Malay lays in its musical instruments while Malay dance is different from other dances in its movements.  

Through the inclusive paradigm, MelayuOnline.com is able to perform close and solid analysis on Malay comprehensively and in an integrative way. By doing so, Malay heritage becomes elegant, complex, and rich. It could be seen from, first, Malay history that passed four historical phases; pre-history, Hindu-Buddha, Islam, and modern. Each phase has different cultural products with different features. Second, Malay culture. Since Malays live in stretched places (Nusantara and outside), and interact with other nations, some cultural variations emerge in each place.   

III.  Implementing the Concepts to the Structure of MelayuOnline.com

a.  The Structure of MelayuOnline.com

MelayuOnline.com is oriented to be Global Malay portal in the world. To ensure such goal is within reach, the inclusive paradigm is implemented into systematic, comprehensive and academic structure and menus. The classification is meant to provide accurate information for those who want to have either advance profound understanding or to grasp the issue at a glance. All aspects of Malay such as history, literature, language etc, are classified in such way to give impression that Malay culture is rich in meaning, and to provide complete picture of Malay cultural heritages. From the menus, one may read the past glory of Malay culture and history.

MelayuOnline.com has 24 menus, three of which are the main menus: history, culture and literature. First, Malay history. The subject studied in the menu of Malay history includes broad dimension of Malay history that are events, and occurrences happened in the past. Its inheritance could be traced through archaeological remains, artefacts, oral history or manuscripts. Here, the menu of Malay history is divided into three sub menus: manuscripts, Malay kingdoms, and historical sites such as temples mosques, palaces, fortress, and graveyard.

Malay culture, the second main menu, is defined as system consisting of values, belief, and attitude found within certain community. Thus, the universal elements of culture such as philosophy of life, arts, religious system, literature, culinary, ceremony, social organization, artefacts, dress, language, architecture, traditional medicine, Malay customary law are the main subjects studied in the portal. All of which are analyzed academically, written, and put in the menu of Malay culture.

The third is Malay literature. It is any kinds of literature developing in Malay region. It is divided into two categories: oral and written. Different from oral literature that is hard to trace, the second category can be tracked down alongside the coming of Hinduism-Buddhism in the region. The case became apparent following the coming of Islam to Malay society. It explains the multitude of Malay written literature heritages bequeathed by Islamic period. Pantun, bidal, tambo, and koba, are some of the example of oral Malay literature. Gurindam, hikayat, puisi, syair, sajak, etc are grouped within written Malay literature. MelayuOnline.com elucidates both kinds of literatures.

Other menus are the elucidation of the three. Since the magnificent field of Malay and the increasing data, some menus are separated to the other and put in different portal such as www.wisatamelayu.com or www.malaytourism.com, and www.rajaalihaji.com. Those are going to be published on January 20^th, 2008.

Geo-cultural classification is chosen among other types of classification for making the readers easy to identify and search for the all information on Malay culture existing within Nusantara. For example, manuscripts, Malay kingdoms, and historical sites are included within the menu of Malay history. Then, Malay kingdom menu is broken down into several sub menus such as Malay Kingdom in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei Darussalam, Thailand, Philippine, Madagascar, and South Africa. The detailed classification of the submenus is also presented.

b.      Strategic Use of Cyber Media

We are living now in the third wave era in which human creation and thought globalized through the internet undoubtedly play significant role in shaping and making of modern human attitude and behaviour. Nothing is compared to the power of internet so that the winner is those who present quick information not those with physical strengths (Muhtarom, 2005). The strategic use of internet is realized by MelayuOnline.com, thus, is being used as a tool to globalize the Malay values and to Malayaize the world.

Through modern technology, the internet has already shaped the lifestyle, attitude, behaviour and even social relation of modern people. Prior to the third wave era, human social relation was relatively mould by their environs. The case is somewhat different in that social relation established upon artificial ways. Such ways rely heavily on the role of technology, especially computer and information technology to define the realities. As a consequence, human activities are able to be carried out through the cyber media (Piliang: 7, 2005). The transformation of ideology and thoughts happen one after another from part of the world to the others.  

Human relation, at all levels, has been under cyber media‘s influence. Individual‘s perception on his being, his inclusion to surrounding community, or his membership on cyber media community is the matter on which the cyber media has influence. Thus, personal identity gradually gets blurred. Even though one lives physically in his environment, his behaviour and attitude are shaped by something outside the community: the cyber media. At individual level, the cyber media offers virtual social relation. Since such relation is not the creation of physical contact in certain territory, it establishes “social deteritolization”. By definition, social deteritolization is an interaction that never happened in real world but occurred within territorial hallucination.

At community level, the cyber media creates open society. In conventional community where each person shares the feeling of togetherness, the community member can directly interact with other in a limited time and space. While cyber media interaction amongst its member has no border either of time or of space. Thus, the cyber community cannot be controlled by anyone, except by each individual. Information, values, and ideas can affect the other without any control.

In this borderless world, MelayuOnline.com actively publishes Malay values and makes them recognized amongst present modern society. Malay potentials, in quantity and quality, are systematically processed and digested for contributing in the making of world civilization based on the noble Malay values. By doing so, MelayuOnline.com has responded to the intellectual challenges of this third wave era.

IV.   The Role of MelayuOnline.com in Reshaping Malay Civilization

MelayuOnline.com is an academic oriented portal, meaning that Malay serves as infinite field of study (subject) and manhaj (method) whose values might be implemented by the Malays. MelayuOnline.com put it in knowledge corpus. The Malay‘s aspects have been studied in three perspectives: ontology, epistemology, and axiology. Putting Malay in observation means studying Malay philosophical life from which emerge the desire to act, to do, to behave, and to produce cultural works both in written and oral (Suwardi, 1991)

Malay cultural heritage has been scattered in widespread places and different periodic times. MelayuOnline.com tries to gather such heritages and make comprehensive documentation on it. Malay civilization is one of great civilizations that ever existed in this world and ever reached its glory for ages. Malay civilization put much focus on humanistic development, integration and equilibrium between human interest and its environment (Thamrin, 2003)

The ideology of Malay civilization is somewhat different from that of modern Western. The last tends to be capitalist or socialist materialist, while the first stresses on both physic and spiritual. In Western context, “development” is defined as advanced stages and progress of physic achieved by ignoring ethic, human and moral values. Malay, in contrast, see it as the process of ethic, physic, moral development to the better stages which give advantage to the human being. Such progress is being the objective of melayuOnline.com. The same target is set up by Melaycivilization.com. Thus, both of portals share mutual and complementary tasks.

V.   Closing

This is the future dream of MelayuOnline.com. Malay and its aspects are observed and documented in a portal with systematic and comprehensive structure. The dream is part of Malays‘ future hopes. Mutual cooperation among Malays in realizing the dream is extremely needed.  MelayuOnline.com, with its shortcoming, has been step forward in building the glory of Malay, enlightening and unifying Malays in all part of the world. And for sure, this deliberate attempt is going to be better off if Malay society lend a hand. The cooperation in various sectors, such as sharing the data on Malay, and financial support is required to boost such cultural endeavours. In the future, we hope such cooperation could be realized and what we‘ve done would come in useful for knowledge development.

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