Melayu

Chapter 12 Melayu and Malay — A Story of Appropriate Behavior

300 Hendrik M.J. Maier Chapter 12 Melayu and Malay — A Story of Appropriate Behavior Hendrik M.J. Maier The Outside: An Anecdote 27 February 1850, hgh noon. The sun s fierce, the land s shrouded n a glstenng mst. The East coast of Sumatra. The Dutch Indes government offical has gven orders to strke the sals of the proa on enterng the shallow waters of the bay. The maps have told hm there should be a settlement here, nland, not far from the sea, on the southern bank of the rver mouth. Probably behnd those mangrove trees. But then, n Sumatra, rver mouths tend to move. And so do trees. And so do people, not seldom to the other sde of the Strat. The young man s on a tour of duty. Statoned n Palembang, he has been gven the assgnment to take stock of the order of thngs north of the Resdency, along the Strats of Malacca. Sun-burnt and dressed n mpeccable whte, clouded by stans of sweat — was t not always hot and humd ths tme of the year? — he jumps off the shp, followed by some dark colored companons, too late to carry hm through the tame surf. Unfazed by hs soppng shoes and wet pants, the whte unform wades through the water, past the small boats pulled onto the shore, straght toward a small group of men watng. All of them have just a dark sarong draped around ther hps; some of them are armed wth a spear, others carry a net over ther shoulder. Prates or traders? Or fishermen perhaps? Vsbly suspcous they are, and slghtly amused. Of course. Ths s gong to be another uneasy meetng, and not only so because hs shoes are now sngng on the stony and soggy sand: these locals never understand the true ntentons of whte vstors and they tend to ndulge n long wndng welcome ceremones whch nvarably open up to an 300 Melayu and Malay — Appropriate Behavior 301 exchange of non-commttal nformaton, based on half-understood sentences and complcated gestculatons. The unform has decded to keep the ntatve ths tme, as t befits an offical, eager to perform hs dutes as efficently and mpressvely as possble — and as a matter of fact, he wants to leave agan before dark, on the offshore wnd. Wthout delay, he takes pencl and paper from the leather bag one of hs companons hands to hm. “Apakah kamu Melayu (Are you Malay)?” Apparently, t sounds awkward: the men are clearly puzzled and t takes some tme before one of them, a smle on hs face, reacts: “Kta n orang (We are people).” Malay dd ts work. For the tme beng, that answer should suffice. Dutfully, the offical notes down that the local populaton ndeed conssts of Malays and that the vllage on the map stll exsts. That done, he throws another probng look at the men — one, two, five, sx, and now some chldren are closng n on hm. What should be the next queston? “Apakah pencaran kamu (What s the source of your lvelhood)?” perhaps? Is that not a textbook sentence they should be able to understand? And then, what wll happen next? And where dd the servants go? A dog comes runnng toward hm, barkng, when the men moton hm to follow them, presumably to the settlement, anxous to honor the guest, unexpected and unknown. Another ceremony. Another horror. The whte man sghs. Coconut mlk agan, rce and salty dred fish, and then these Malays have to be counted. Why not just wrte down: 94 souls, and leave? Yes, the East coast of Sumatra s defintely the land of the Malays, and t s good to be able to confirm the...