Postgraduate Students of Putra Malaysia University (UPM) Visited the Center of Malay Research and Development (BKPBM) Yogyakarta

Yogyakarta, MelayuOnline.com - Postgraduate students and lecturers of Development Communication Major of Putra Malaysia University visited BKPBM on Thursday, April 1, 2010. Professor Saleh Haji Hasan, the lecturer of Development Communication of UPM was in charge of the team, accompanied by the postgraduate students of Communication of Gadjah Mada University.

Arriving at Balai Pinang Lima, BKPBM headquarter, the guests were taken to a tour and observed some of the collection of cultural objects in Balai. The next agenda a cordial gathering at BKPBM hall, filled with a discussion session on Malay, malayness, BKPBM and its first portal, MelayuOnline.com. Some of the guests bought books and souvenirs produced by BKPBM. The series of visit agenda ended with taking a group photograph.

After the cordial gathering, Professor Saleh stated that the visit generally aimed as a comparative study. Through this visit, in accordance with their majors, the students were taken to observe the communication pattern of Yogyakarta people. BKPBM, through its MelayuOnline.com and other websites, is considered as having conducted the communication activity, particularly Malay intercommunity communication all over the world.

The visit is an annual activity of UPM. Two years ago, UPM held a visit in the Philiphines. Last year, they went to Medan and this year, their destination is Yogyakarta.

Dr. Aris Arif Mundayat, the consultant of BKPBM, expressed the gratitude for the visit on behalf the Head of BKPBM. It was hoped that the visit could be a momentum to bring Malay ethnic groups closer and prevent any possibility of bias due to the negative information about Indonesia – Malaysia relationship recently.

In the discussion session, one of the guests asked, in addition to the online media, what other effort BKPBM has done to uphold Malay culture and preserve Malay ethnic groups. Dr. Aris answered that BKPBM encouraged the scholars from all over Malay to give their contribution in writings, articles, stories, or quatrains, to be published in BKPBM websites (MelayuOnline.com, WisataMelayu.com, RajaAliHaji.com and CeritaRakyatNusantara.com)

One of the guests delivered a noteworthy question: Why was a Malay research center established in Java which is notably not included as Malay ethnic group? Dr. Aris clearly answered that Java is in fact Malay. The ethnic and racial classification was caused by the colonial system which is still attached in the mind of Malay people. Decolonization caused Malay people to think that Malays are Malaysia, Riau-Malay, Sumatra-Malay or Kalimantan-Malay. This mindset should be wiped off of Malay people so that there will be no Malay identity enforcement or Malay ethnic conflict. People to people approach must always be promoted to minimize the negative relationship among Malay ethnic groups. “BKPBM, through MelayuOnline.com and the its other websites is right on track,” affirmed Dr. Aris.

The visit was ended with exchanging souvenirs of both parties. The souvenir of BKPBM was given by Dr. Aris Arif Mundayat to Professor Saleh Haji Hasan, and vice versa. Lastly, the UPM team and the host took a group photograph before the team returned to Malaysia. (Yusuf Efendi/05/01-04-10)

Translation by Apri Widiastuti (trns/33/04-10)

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