--- Henry Ford, American inventor
What if the Malays undergo a conscious and mandated name-change - from Melayu or Malay to Sawojaya? I believe this is possible as a preamble to a suggestion of a planned evolution of the name “Malay”.
I think we are at an exciting historical juncture in which human creativity is at its highest point, given the power of the advanced digital communication technologies such as Web 2.0 and the like.
It is time that the Malays are “rebranded” into something less contentious as the name of a race or ethnic group or even a political entity. It would be an exciting idea in postmodern anthropology' - one that will signify a discovery of the grounded theory of the Malay philology. The anthropological challenge might be to erase all the prefixes, affixes, and suffixes of “Malay” in all existing documents that have ever existed about the Bangsa Melayu.
An exercise in rebranding
Why this proposal?
Consider these, within the context of the syntagmatic perspective of history, within the paradigm of the political-economy of change, and the archeology and philology of language analysed within the context of class and the post-modern caste system.
The word "Malay" or "Melayu" in the modern and post-modern times has carried its connotation of "malaise", "withering", "wilting" "backwardness", "paranoia", disempowerment", and even “laziness”.
Me-layu = wilting
Malays = malaise
Mel-ange = range of differences/fragmentation
Malas = lazy
In Malaysia, particularly wherein Malays form a substantial majority and political power is in the hands of a "Malay" party called "United Malays National Organisation", concepts related to the word "Malay" have been hovering to indicate the "malaise-ness" of ideas:
Notions such as ketuanan Melayu successfully marketed by the Malay propaganda outfit, Biro Tata Negara (BTN), kedaulatan Melayu trumpeted by Malay blind nationalists and ageing sloganeers, and tak Melayu hilang di dunia (Malays will never be extinct) vainglorified by one-dimensional historians and inscribers on meaningless statues propped in front of a national museum – all these have been the reason behind the bad publicity the Malays have been getting over the last 500 years.
In fact the founding of Melaka itself has been a historical accident that has catapulted the word Malay into a situation of historical problems and contributed to the feel of the malaise-ness of the Malays.
Politicians no Malay paragons
The biggest culprits in contributing to the malaise have been the Malay politicians.
Of late, there is confusion amongst the Malays themselves as to who is representing who in the struggle to "liberate" the Malays. Many are confused why there is a small segment of the Malays supporting the continuation of the use of the repressive tool of the state, the Internal Security Act.
Many are confused why the Malay linguistic nationalists are insisting that Mathematics and Sciences are taught in the Malay language. Many are even more confused about which Malay political party is actually representing the Malays.
In modern times much has been written about the Malays and what is happening to this ethnic group. Works such as The Malay Dilemma, The Malays: Their problems and their future, Revolusi Mental, Tuntutan Melayu, Quo Vadis Bangsaku, are amongst those that address the Malay racial and political-economic problems.
Might is right seems to be the notion that governs which political entity or entities will guide the Malays. It is as if the leadership of the Malays has undergone a process of salah pimpin (bad leadership) in the process of leading due to the fact that they have undergone salah tuntut or wrongly following the philosophy of leading. In the culture of the Malays, salah tuntut is a serious matter – entailing a life relegated to following this or that cult that produces deviant teachings.
Institutions and ideologies that have permeated the psyche of the Malays, create misrepresentation, and exacerbate the malaise-ness of the Malays abound. Consider these outfits that are disabling the culture of the Malays:
- Biro Tata Negara
- PLKN
- Malay-only institutions
- Malay centric curriculum
- Malay Rights doctrine
- Malay centric notion of a "social contract"
- Malay postmodern bourgeoisie class
- Malay media power that monopolises the indoctrination of the Malay mind
- UMNO or United Malays National Organisation
The Malays are generally considered a people of a dark brownish skin color. In the language it is called "sawo matang" drawn from the kiwi/mango-looking brownish fruit popular in the island of Java.
The word "Jaya" is a Sanskrit word meaning "Victory"; the core idea of The Mahabharata. The assassin-prince of Melaka, had a name of a Hindu god, Parameswara.
I consider the suffix “Jaya” as a successful idea that can be used in hybridizing the word “Sawo” (“brownish-skin”) to replace the word Malay.
Examples abound, especially in the names of places-- symbols installation of the ideology of “victory”: “Cyberjaya”, “Putrajaya”, “Petaling Jaya”, “Subang Jaya”, “Kelana Jaya” “Seberang Jaya”, “Nusajaya” “Johor Jaya”. There is also a Malaysian mall that uses the word “Jaya”: Jaya Jusco. There is also a favourite 1980s composition called “Raja Jaya” by the Malaysian percussionist Lewis Pragasam's band Asiabeat Percussion.
A new race is born
In the age of biogenetics, cloning, nanotechnology, embedded journalism, casino-capitalism, stimulus packages, this or that “-nomics” Web 2.0, deconstructionism, and cultures that undergo re-enculturalisations, a name-change of the Malays is necessary. A new identity, a karma, a rebirth, a renaissance, a cure for this linguistic myopia in the form of a construction of a brave new world is necessary.
I hereby call upon the Malays to agree on a name change.
Viva Bangsa Sawojaya!
While the opinion in the article is mine,
the comments are yours;
present them rationally and ethically.
AND -- ABOLISH THE ISA -- NOW!
written by yellowwoman, October 07, 2009 08:01:31
One more thing. As long as the Malays, or anyone for that matter (eg child of rich Chinese man) think that the world owes them a living, they will forever be trapped. No one owes us anything, not even our parents or our spouses. We owe it to ourselves to be the person we want to be.
So my humble suggestion to my Malay friends: Stand up for yourself. Do everything you can to better yourself. Don't expect anyone to help you and sincerely live because you want to be better, for yourself, your family, your fellow humankind. Once you accept that no one owes you a living, then you can truly find the ways to help yourself.
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written by yellowwoman, October 07, 2009 07:41:27
It is exactly like what Najib is doing with 1Malaysia. It is just a brandname, nothing else for it doesn't stand for what it is hoped to be. I prefer Muhibbah because Muhibbah means all races living together happing with our differences and accepted for our differences. 1Malaysia means we are one and we can only be one if we are all one and the same.
Malays needs to accept their problems, whatever those problems are and God forbid if the non-Malays were to point them out. No, the Malays got to tell their fellow Malays what is wrong and to change their mindset. Otherwise no matter what you call yourselves will amount to nought. As it is now, they can't enough accept it when non-Malays point out their weakness. First find out what's wrong, then accept it, and only then you can find a cure/solution.
Sawojaya???? What a bad name. Firstly, why use a Javanese word to mean brown skin? And, another JAYA? Enough of XXX jaya names. I used to think it was very unimaginative of the creators to just add the suffix JAYA to any name.
Adding JAYA doesn't make you a successful SAWO, Dr Azly. Sorry to disagree with your idea.
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written by Sagaladoola, October 07, 2009 06:09:11
Hahahaha ..
MACC used to be called ACA right?
You tell me what is the difference anyway... I don't see any
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written by Vayu, October 07, 2009 01:43:05
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written by temenggong, October 07, 2009 00:55:40
Ethnically malays are austromelanesians from the nusantara. Why not call them that, nusantarans, austromelanesians or simply melanesians!
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written by johanssm, October 07, 2009 00:36:26
A catchy brand will not sell a product but quality will.
A malay cannot be a malay nationalist and yet claims to be a muslim. It just doesn't c***k. As it means the malay nationalist are overriding Islam.
Such Malay nationalist can be found mostly in umno and in recent cases in Pas and PKR. Hell, even some sultans are spinning the ketuanan tune.
End of the day they are all just a bunch of crappy politicians hanging on to power by making the malays believing that they are "special" on earth and must be protected .This means ignoring their very own Islam as their religion.
To begin a change , we must be prepared to do so.
lets starts with the pakatan Rakyat.
throw away that hassan beer , throw away the kulim wonder , kick out that Klang MIA MP. They are not just terrible but they are potential Hee yit frog of perak.
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written by Semut Jantan, October 06, 2009 18:20:49
I could see your genuine intention but that is not enough to change the mentality by changing the "brand". You could put the label "Sadin Cap Ayam" on cincarok, soon people are going to stop buying sardin.
The Blacks in America now called themselves, proudly, African Americans. They said black means dirty, undesired, hoplessness, ghosty or even death. And so they change their "brand". Today, their plights are still the same, if not worse, like before.
It is all in the vein, Dr. Azly. It is the attitude and the mentality. Not the outward wrappings. A simple brand (name) change without changing the ingredients are pointless.
Sorry to disagree with you this time.
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written by Steven Ong, October 06, 2009 15:15:18
You are out of your mind. How can you suggest such a thing? This time foolish should I say? Re-branding is used to market the same product in the business world. The product basic does not changed. Only repackaging and facelift are done ------- to ? to --- to deceived the people to buy the product of the same ingredient. are trying to deceive the people of Malaysia?
Real transformation only comes with the renewing of the minds and hearts. The mistakes that Umno are doing is like what you suggest. That is to transform the perceptions of the people towards the Malays and Umno ,without real transformation from within. You can see that in our national Tvs currently showing.
What the Malays ( without feeling insulted of me saying so ) need is a transformation of the minds and hearts. One must be humble to learn from the best. Even to back track for a while before going forward. What I see now the Malays are proud, sturbbon, and defensive. They see everthing said, that concerned them as sensitive and insulting to them and their beliefs. They would get angry very quickly and threaten anyone who dares to comment about them. They are the one to loose and gain nothing from their threats and anger.
I suspect it comes from their indoctrinations as from young. They are taught to defend their prophet, religion, rulers and race at all cost. This is their altimate commandment at all cost.No questions can be asked. Anyone who asked is an enemy and should be remanded. Can you see that in our dailies?
One of the ways to move forward is to ask, knock and seek. To be transform by the renewing of the mind. The Nobel prizes are being given out this week and next. Most if not all are going to be from the west and Jews. Why? What is so special about them or are they bias? It is all about their minds and hearts. If there is a disaster as in Padang or Manila or anywhere else on earth, it is almost always the 'white men and women ' first. Where are the Arabs? they are some of the richest on earth.
I pray that the Malays would see the Truth and be Transformed for the nation's development. A peaceful and progressive nation.
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written by Sutha, October 06, 2009 14:31:01
I like the Malaise and Malas
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written by KingSolomon, October 06, 2009 14:24:57
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written by Watchdog, October 06, 2009 14:23:59
Here all are lumped as Malays - provided they are Muslims
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written by onnetline, October 06, 2009 13:51:09
Sawojaya is an option but UMNOs members may want to remain exclusive and call themselves .... Rasuahjaya !
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written by KingSolomon, October 06, 2009 13:47:55
The only hope for them is to wake them up by their own people like RPK, Azli Rahamn, Dr Bakri Musa, Anwar, Zaid Ibrahim, Khalid Samad, Tengku Razaleigh, Husin Hamid, etc.
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written by KingSolomon, October 06, 2009 13:35:33
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If you do that - the Melayus can't say to the Chinese and Indians, "The term Chinese show that you're from the land of China, Indians from India. So the Chinese go back to China, Indians to India. Malaysia = Malay Land. Malaysia = Melayu Punya."
There's also the point, that there's no such thing as a/the Malay race. There's the Constitutional Malay thing, that makes the Melayus think that there's such a thing as Malay race, when 'Melayu' is Javanese of 'pelarian'. And 'Malai' is and Indian term for this land/peninsula and people for over a thousand years.
I am among those (tens of thousands? millons?) of Malaysians, who've been thinking for a over a couple of decades, of a name change for 'Kuala Lumpur'(Muddy Estuary).
So I'd rather change the name of our Federal Capital. But of course, it's too late already. So we're stuck with, in the, Muddy Estuary, forever.