Can The Batak Become Malay?
Transcript:
What is the difference between a Batak and a Malay?
Can a Batak become a Malay? Or a Malay become a Batak?
A Malay is, of course, from Tanah Melayu. And as noted by Chong, Carroll, and Milner, we speak Bahasa Melayu, practise adat resam Melayu, and we are Muslims.
Malayness should not be confused with race.
Being Malay is to be part of a nation. It refers to a group of people that shares certain common characteristics.
It refers to ideas and to behaviour.
Can a Batak become a Malay?
In his study of East Sumatra, John Anderson recounted that the Bataks lived mainly in the interior, while the Malays usually lived near the coast.
When Anderson visited in 1823, he found that there were more Bataks than Malays.
But according to Milner, by 1872, several Batak areas had become Malay.
While Milner accepted the possibility that some Malays had moved inland, he also suggested another explanation…
That the Bataks had become Malay.
“At the end of the nineteenth century, several European observers noted the existence in the region of a Malaynisation process… a tendency among some Bataks to become Muslim Malays.
The great grandfather of the chief reigning in Sunggal in the 1870s had become Malay, but the former’s brother and his descendants remained pagan Bataks and stayed in the interior.
The ‘Malay’ rulers of another district, Bulu Cina, also claimed Batak ancestors…
In adopting Malay customs, some (at least) of these Bataks were actually in the process of becoming Malay.
European accounts of East Sumatra suggest why it was possible to become Malay in this fashion:
Malays, it is explained, were distinguished not by physical characteristics, but by behaviour and attitude…
Malays were also distinguished, it was said, by the fact that they held ‘their persons upright’ and walked ‘rather gracefully’.
The Malays, of course, professed Islam.
To be Malay, therefore, was to behave and to think in a particular way, that is, to participate in Malay culture.”
Similarly, Milner recounted reports of Jakun who became Malay, and Malays who became Sakai.
It should be clear that a Muslim Batak (or Jakun, or Minang) who speaks, thinks and behaves like a Malay, is considered Malay.
We need to realise that how we define bangsa is not the same as how the West defines it.
Our definition of bangsa is based on language, customs, and religion.
And we should be proud and confident enough to declare that our definition is different from theirs.
While we may acknowledge how others choose to define themselves…
We should also note that their self-definition has nothing to do with ours.
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