MelayuOnline, the Unifier of Malay All Over the World

Yogyakarta, MelayuOnline – The last session of Diaspora Workshop held by the Center for Malay Culture Studies and Development (BKPBM) featured two speakers, namely Dr. Hj. Mohd. Sharifudin Yusop from Putra Malaysia University (UPM) and Mahyudin Al Mudra SH. MM., founder/holder of BKPBM and general manager/chief redactor of www.MelayuOnline.com, while Dr. Aris Arif Mundayat, director of Center for South East Asian Social Studies, Gadjah Mada University (PSSAT-UGM), acted as moderator. The workshop, held in Balai Melayu/BKPBM Jalan Gambiran No. 85A, Yogyakarta, involved experts of Malayness from three sister nations, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei Darussalam. For two days consecutively, speakers floored their working papers and talked about Malay diaspora.

The first speaker was Dr. Hj. Mohd. Sharifudin Yusop with his paper entitled “Tak Hilangkah Suku Melayu dari Dunia? Menjejak Kesan Bangsa dan Bahasa Melayu Cape Town (Doesn‘t Malay people disappear from the World yet? Investigating the Traces of Our People and Language in Cape Town Malay)”. With a scientific paper written over his visit to Cape Town, Dr. Sharifudin explained the diaspora of Malay people in South Africa. Despite the difficulty to ascertain about exact time and Malay person to first arrive at Africa—due to the lack of strong evidence, either artifacts, inscriptions, or written documents—most historicists agree that the first arrival of Malay people in Cape Town was in the 17^th century or early 18^th century. “The assumption is based on the time of establishment of a village, called as Malay Quarter,” revealed Dr. Sharifudin.

Dr. Sharifudin added, the first Malay people in Cape Town were presumed to come from Java, particularly of Betawi, Bali, and Malay Peninsula descent. “Some of them came as sailors, and some other were workers of VOC‘s estates,” explained he. One of the evidence and fact about it, according to the lecturer of Malay Language and Linguistic in the Faculty of Modern Language and Communication of UPM, is the Bo-Kaap museum in Malay Quarter. “Being located in the middle of people‘s resident, Bo-Kaap is very important to give us picture about the existence of Malay ethnic there,” said Dr. Sharifudin.

MelayuOnline Unifies Malay Diasporian across the World

The holder of the Balai (House), Mahyudin Al Mudra, SH, MM, came forth as the second speaker, presenting his paper called “MelayuOnline.com Unifies Malay Diasporian across the World”. He was more focusing on the role of www.MelayuOnline.com he leads, in attempts to unify Malay tribes all over the earth, including those in South Africa and Madagascar. Mahyudin Al Mudra is pretty sure that until today, www.MelayuOnline.com is still the biggest and most comprehensive online database about Malay and Malayness. Hence, he added, the existence of the site is still much needed as an information source by all Malay people, even those Malay diasporians, because the site is easily accessible everywhere across the world. The vital position and demand of the site as an effort to preserve and document any study concerning Malay was in fact granted by the forum when Mahyudin Al Mudra questioned them about this.

As the founder and chief of www.MelayuOnline.com, that was established on 20 January 2007, Mahyudin Al Mudra called for commitment of various parties to come along helping and keeping the biggest Malay portal going. This resulted in all participants of the workshop, who apparently feel the necessity of www.MelayuOnline.com, agreeing to work hand in hand helping each other to sustain the site. Moreover, in the upcoming days, there will be built more intensive network and cooperation between BKPBM and a number of related institutions, including Science University of Malaysia (USM), Putra Malaysia University (UPM), Brunei Darussalam University (UBD), Gadjah Mada University (UGM), State University of Riau (UNRI), Matan Sultanate (Ketapang, West Kalimantan), and some other organizations committed in attempts of Malay culture preservation.

Furthermore, the first workshop of Malay Diaspora produced some agreements. One, there will be board of editors of any writing to feature in www.MelayuOnline.com as well as other work to be published. Two, www.MelayuOnline.com is honored to have Prof. Dr. Awang Hasmadi Awang Mois from Brunei Darussalam University joining the team as consultant of BKPBM in the mission of introducing BKPBM and the sites under its aegis to people in Brunei Darussalam.

The third agreement is to keep the agenda of similar workshop going, periodically and continually, every year. It was planned that the next workshop would be held on November 2010 in Science University of Malaysia, focusing on the theme: Malay Diaspora covering Sumatra, Malaysia and Kalimantan. Four, all the working papers from the first workshop are to be bundled and published as a bilingual book in Indonesian/Malay and English. The book will be launched in the second workshop.

The first Malay Diaspora workshop was run to celebrate www.MelayuOnline.com‘s third anniversary. There were a number of prominent figures in academic and Malay culture attending the occasion. Among them were Mahyudin Al Mudra, SH., MM., (BKPBM), Dr. Aris Arif Mundayat (PSSAT-UGM), Prof. Heddy Shri Ahimsa Putra (UGM), Ir. Gusti Kamboja, MH. (Sultan/Traditional holder of Matan Sultanate and Head of Regional House of Representatives of Ketapang Subdistrict, West Kalimantan), Prof. H. Suwardi MS. (UNRI), Prof. Dr. Muhammad Haji Saleh (USM, Malaysia), Dr. Mohd. Sharifudin Yusop and Hj. Halimah Hassan (UPM, Malaysia), Prof. Dr. Awang Moeis (UBD, Brunei Darussalam), Ir. Said Fadillah, M.Si., (Riau Islanders Bond for Yogyakarta), and some other notable persons.

(Iswara NR/04/01-2010)

Translated by Reza Daffi (terj/08/01-10)

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