MALAYSIA, INDONESIA AND ACEH ARE ACHING ALL OVER. – PART I.

…WHILE THE HAPLESS FOURTEEN IN THE SO-CALLED ‘EMINENT PERSONS’ GROUP’ (EPG) ARE HAVING A BALL. .
By Mansor Puteh


I guessed and was given the impression then that going to Aceh was like going to another world altogether. There was this fear and excitement that they had created in me. I felt quite confused by the conflicting information and images, but was nevertheless intrigued by it.

Aceh was like the neighboring Melayu village, yet it seemed so far away in another world of their own.

They are a people who want to be on their own and not be part of the Republic of Indonesia, unless of course it becomes an Islamic Republic, an idea which may be implausible now but which can become a reality in the near future as more and more Indonesians come to their senses and think more as Muslims than as people of differing racial backgrounds and origins.

And I can’t help but notice the change in the thinking and attitude of more and more Indonesian each time I visit the country.

In fact, they are generally more Islamic than the average Melayu in Malaysia. Yet, we are already the Islamic and Melayu Kingdom of Malaysia, while they are still a so-called ‘secular state’. In some parts, especially in Jakarta this may be true, but in the other areas, it looks like an Islamic Republic.

I was still intrigued by it because I had been to other regions in the world and liked what I had seen. And I was made known of Aceh since small. Many Melayu and Muslims in Malaysia are also as aware of it as I was.

For without the ancient Kingdom of Pasai in the present Aceh, the Melayu in Malaysia and the Melayu World of Nusantara Melayu of Southeast Asia would not be as what it is now. This is how intriguing it is.

For many Muslims, Aceh where Pasai was known in ancient times was the place where the Hindu prince called Parameswara who founded Melaka in 1400 CE had come to, where he reverted to Islam after marrying a local princess and taking the name of Megat Iskandar Shah, thus reshaping the entire Melayu World of Nusantara Melayu of Southeast Asia from being a Hindu region to a Muslim one till today.

The only area which had remained as it was is Bali. There are some vestiges of Hindu and Buddhist influences in the region the most notable of which is the Pura Borobudur and Pura Prambanan.

In Malaysia, they had to dig deep to discover remnants of ancient Hindu temples in the Bujang Valley.

Yet, interestingly, Islam came to this region not by fiery evangelists from Saudi Arabia or the Middle East, but by traders, who did not preach; they showed what Islam is to the others who were convinced that this was the religion for them. So if their ruler was convinced it was good for them, his people, too, embraced it willingly.

The only Melayu and Muslim country which had been forced out of Islam is the Philippines, except for the southern region of Mindanao where the Melayu are Muslims and where separation from the Catholic country has been going on for many decades.

Isn’t it a fact that because the Spanish invaders of the Philippines had failed to force the people of this region to leave their religion and also their race, to embrace Catholicism that they were never embolden to them, that this region can be said to have never been subjugated or colonized?

If this is the case, then the case for separation by the Melayu and Muslim in this region cannot happen as they have always maintained their independence even during the Spanish rule of the Philippines.

Parameswara (means Prince Consort) was an exile prince from Hindu Srivijaya Kingdom of Palembang in Sumatera whose ancestors had come from India, was said to be a direct descendant of Iskandar Zulkarnain or Alexander the Great.

So now it also appears that some of the Melayu royalties of the sultanates of Perak and Pahang are also said to be the descendants of Alexander the Great because they are all descendants of Parameswara, too.

I admit that I missed going to the city then so that I could see the differences between the same city today and when it was then before the Tsunami of 26 December, 2005 so I could record the city before the Tsunami and after that. Going there during the Tsunami was not a good option at all, because of the confusion. They did not need another person to add to all that.

So I had actually wanted to go to Aceh much earlier before the Tsunami of 26 December, 2005 when the province was still under Indonesian military rule, but because I was not comfortable with the situation I gave it a miss when I was Medan few times during that time.

I finally made it there in August, 2008. I could not tell how much destruction the city suffered and especially the valley where the Tsunami had destroyed thousands of buildings and killed hundreds of thousands of people of Aceh, some of whom include my close relatives who had gone to live there after he got married to a local woman. He has not been heard of since.

I didn’t realize the trip in the bus from Medan to Banda Aceh would be very long as I would later find out – fourteen hours. I thought it lasted for eight hours with the bus leaving Medan around midnight and arriving there later next morning.

I made the first trip at the invitation by a local cultural group to show some of my early television dramas and also to talk about the need to introduce and create Sinema Nusantara and Sinema Islam or the Melayu Cinema and the Islamic Cinema.

And in my second trip there in November, 2009, I was invited to talk about the same matter on a local television radio talk show program and also to the students at the Universitas Syiah Kuala or Unsyiah.

Many unnecessary controversies had erupted since the Eminent Persons’ Group or EPG was formed. They were formed by the governments of Malaysia and Indonesia to promote greater understanding between the two countries.

And the fourteen are still sitting on their behinds and not knowing what else that they can do other than to meet in fancy hotels in Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur, is talking in vague terms.

Their silence on the matter, even after two years the group was formed only spelled trouble; that they may not know where to start and how to use the EPG to device a new setup to create better understandings between the peoples of the two countries.

However, basically, it is between the Melayu in both the countries as the non-Melayu are almost irrelevant in the equation since recent disputes only involved them and not the others, despite some disputes had erupted in Indonesia involving the Chinese in Jakarta and few other cities in Jawa. But the situation has been contained somewhat.

But this still does not mean that disputes and controversies involving the Indonesian Chinese cannot happen again in the future.

But for now, the issues only involve the Melayu in both countries.

I doubt that none of the fourteen members had traveled around Indonesia and Malaysia by land on their own to sample life at the very bottom of the pit, to know how the grounds shake. This is their greatest disadvantage with the other being that they are all too old to undertake the task. They speak in a totally different language.

And so far they have not created subcommittees and get other groups of like-minded Malaysians and Indonesians to come and sit and offer views from their own perspectives.

And this is where the EPG has failed. They are totally relying on themselves to come up with ideas on how to promote greater understanding between the Melayu in Malaysia and Indonesia.

So they still prefer to sit in their offices and meet in fancy hotels and travel first class and issuing statements to the media which readily embrace them to their delight.

Any Malaysian and Indonesian Melayu can ask what has the EPG been doing? What can they convince the governments of the two countries to do if they have not studied the thinking of the people in the ground some of whom had caused the two countries to shake lately?

And from the land trip I had made to Banda Aceh all the way to Bali, I can tell that the EPG won’t be able to do much. If they could do anything, they would have said so publicly so we can evaluate their thinking.

There’s aching all over in Aceh, Malaysia and Indonesia, yet, they having a ball and aloof to their feelings and pains. Formation of the EPG did not even become balm to the psychological spasms the Melayu in the two countries have been having for decades, if not centuries.

So the discourses have not taken into account the historical perspectives, as well as the social, cultural, linguistic, religious as well as psychological ones, which are important to create new ideas that work to consolidate the possible tensions that might erupt in the future.

So basically what is wrong with Malaysia and Indonesia or with their leaders is that they are too focused on the political and economic nature of nation-building and cooperation between them.

They are happy if their elected political leaders me where they get massive coverage in the local media in their respective countries. They hug each other and their wives kissed each other’s cheeks, and they claim everything is right with Malaysia and Indonesia and with Malaysians and Indonesians.

They are not.

What is important is that the daily activities of the average Malaysians and Indonesians, or more specifically the Melayu in the two countries are interacting in the right way, everyday, and in all forms and at all levels, so that they can create a conducive environment for greater understanding, failing which the political leaders of the two countries have to return to the same, old and tired ways of silly diplomacy by using slogans that they think and believe can soothe the anxieties of the warring factions.

Malaysian and Indonesian leaders have plenty of slogans. They are good at sloganeering. But they are not so good with promoting goodwill between our two countries and amongst the Melayu herein.

Worse, they don’t even know how to use the cinema, television and media as well as music to create a new environment that is conducive to promote goodwill and greater understanding between the Melayu in the two countries on an everyday basis.

They are stuck with slogans and state and official visits between the elected leaders of the two countries and issuing official statements that they think can create wonders. They can only make the headlines of the papers and are screamed on prime-time television of the two countries without affecting the daily lives of the people.