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Letter: On RI-Malaysia relations
This is a comment on “RI-Malaysia relations: All in the family, (The Jakarta Post, Dec
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his is a comment on “RI-Malaysia relations: All in the family, (The Jakarta Post, Dec. 30) by Vissia Ita Yulianto of Freiburg, Germany.
I have to say that your analysis of Indonesia-Malaysia relations is very shallow.
You claim that Malaysia has claimed cultural superiority and has an institutionalized pejorative sentiment against Indonesians.
Malaysians have never claimed cultural superiority over Indonesians, with whom we share common culture. The forefathers of most Malay Malaysians, including my ancestors, are from Indonesia.
On Indonesian maids, while admittedly there are rotten eggs among Malaysian employers, there are also numerous rotten Indonesian maids who have misbehaved and tortured children under their care despite being treated kindly by their employers. Malay employers always treat Indonesian maids as part of the family, though I can’t say the same of the non-Malay employers.
On “Indon” as a racial slur, I would comment that Malaysians have never regarded “Indon” as a racial slur. It is just short for Indonesia. Don’t you think that’s obvious? Just as we refer to Australians as “Aussies” and New Zealanders as “Kiwis”. Are the terms “Aussies” and “Kiwis” racial slurs? Your occidental reference about stereotyping with the term “Indon” is laughable.
On culture, Malaysia has never appropriated Indonesian traditional properties. I would suggest that you ask who are the people of the Malay archipelago.
The people of the Malay archipelago — which includes Indonesia, Malaysia, southern Thailand, the southern Philippines, Brunei and Singapore — are of the same stock, which I am sure you are aware of as you are student of anthropology.
These same people transmigrated within the archipelago while practicing their cultures. How can then they be accused of stealing Indonesia’s culture when these cultures predate the existence of Indonesia as a nation? Our prime minister has his roots in Sulawesi, our deputy prime minister in Java and I myself, am a Minangkabau from West Sumatra.
As a doctoral candidate, you should do a more in-depth analysis of the cultural relations between Malaysia and Indonesia and source from reliable references.
Ahmad Durah
Kuala Lumpur
