Petty Indonesians

Hantu Laut

Whether you are Malaysian Malays or Indonesian Malays, you are the same, you came from the same roots, as far as ethnicity is concerned and you speak the same language.The culture itself is not far divided. Many Malays in Malaysia inherited a big part of themselves and their culture from Indonesia.

Malays were largely Hindus before the 15th century, before they were converted to Islam.That's why there were still remnants of Hindu cultural practices in the Malay culture.Peninsular Malaysia was the confluence of the merging of the Malay race from all parts of Indonesia.

The difference is, in Indonesia the world 'Bangsa Melayu' or 'Malay race is rarely used. Indonesians prefer to use 'Bangsa Indonesia' and 'Bahasa Indonesia' to reflect nationality rather than race.In Malaysia it is 'Bangsa Melayu' for Malays and the rest according to their ethnicity.There is no 'Bangsa Malaysia' here. Anwar and Pakatan were trying to peddle the term to make the non-Malays happy knowing it wouldn't last the 100 meter race, the Chinese and Indians wouldn't want to give up their origins and be called by any other names.

Many Malaysian Malays are of Indonesian origin, whether it be Bugis,Achenes,Minangkabaus or Javanese there is no escaping the links with the lands of Nusantara.

The recent rash action taken by some Indonesians against Malaysians in what they say was the hijacking of their culture, a Balinese dance used for a promotional campaign on Malaysia, not sanctioned or approved by the Malaysian government but was an erroneous part of a documentary production by a private company shown on Discovery Channel was most appalling.The rumpus goes to show the pettiness of the Indonesian minds.The same way they have reacted to the isolated cases of abuse of Indonesian maids in Malaysia which, unfortunately, has, by the misdeeds of a few bad apples, thrown Malaysia and Malaysians in a bad light.

Not unlike Malaysia, some of the cultural heritage of Indonesia had come from the same oldest living religion, Hinduism and needless to say, the Malays animistic past.Can Indonesia claim propriety rights to such endemic cultural practices?

Although the Balinese dance is not part of Malaysian culture per se, should Indonesians be so emotional,irrational and uptight over such trivial issue and resort to calls of 'crush Malaysia' and deploying overzealous vigilantes to prowl the streets of Jakarta and other cities looking for Malaysians to be kicked out of the country?

I believe not all Indonesians share this irrational behaviour.

There are probably close to a million Indonesians in Malaysia seeking better lives that their home country could not provide.Malaysians have been robbed, raped and murdered by some of these bad hats from Indonesia but we have kept our cool and did not generalise that all Indonesians are thieves,rapists or murderers.

Malaysians did not resort to uncivilised manner to vent their anger.

To err is human.Let's hope the Indonesians would err on the side of caution.