Malay Studies

In the construction of the modern Malay-Muslim woman identity, it would often be that adat (culture) and religion (Islam) are seen as markers upon which the identity is formed. However, as would be discussed in greater detail, it is also in these markers that the contestations arise. This is due to the different definitions, and the implications which follow, of these markers by what Shamsul (1998:18) referred to as the authority level and the everyday level. These interpretations are brought about by the experiences following the process of modernisation and thus the changes brought about by modernity, including that to the idea of femininity.

This paper describes the movements, personalities and processes in Thailand’s Malay dominated provinces of Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat that have led to unprecedented diversity within the ummah. Like the rest of Thai/Malay peninsula, although the overwhelming majority of Muslims in Thailand’s far-south are conservative traditionalists, the size and influence reformist Islam continues to increase. This is particularly the case among urban Malays. While the roots of reformism were sown in the 19th century by luminaries such as Syeikh Daud al-Fatani (1769-1847), and Syeikh Ahmed al-Fatani (1856-1908), the most important reformist personality in the early 20th centuries was Haji Sulong (1895-1945). Since his return from Saudi Arabia in the 1990s, Dr Ismail Lutfi Japakiya, the founding of rector of Yala Islamic University (Thailand’s first Islamic university) has emerged as the leader of Saudi style salafism. I conclude by considering the impact of the Tablighi Jama’at, a South Asian revival movement, on Islamic diversity in South Thailand since its arrival in the 1980s. A important point infrequently made in analysis of the Tablighi Jama’at is that both reformists and traditionalists are involved in this important revivalist movement.

Abstract

This thesis aims to explore the presence of internalised racism amongst Malay youths and how this has affected their responses towards stereotypes of Malays in Singapore. In doing so, this thesis contributes to the discourse on internalised racism in the local Singaporean Malay context which is sorely lacking. It has been found here how the responses of Malay youths towards stereotypes reproduces, directly or indirectly, these stereotypes. Internalised racism has led to Malay youths to associate with or disassociate themselves from Malays in general. Other forms of differentiation like class can also be observed in some cases. Yet, there are also those who show signs of rejecting stereotypes.

Keywords: Internalised racism, disassociation, association, stereotypes, cultural deficit thesis, Malay youths.

This short article presents provisional findings that shed new light on both the cultural geography of Islam in Thailand, and northern extremities of the Malay world. An analysis of mosques officially registered in Thailand reveals that 10% are located in Central Thailand. Half of these are part of metropolitan Bangkok, and 74% of these are concentrated on its eastern districts along the Saen Saep Canal. I summarise the picture provided by Thai studies specialists who have documented the dates, origins, and circumstances of the (mainly involuntary) movement of Malays to Central Thailand, central Bangkok, and (later) to its eastern outskirts. This is followed by discussions of Siamese practices such as the taking of all slaves (chalei), and the organisation of labour under the sakdina system.

It will be explored here how a form of popular culture has been imported into Malaysia, made possible by connectedness and cultural flows brought about by globalisation. Focusing on Japanese anime, specifically the Doraemon series, this paper will look into how it has penetrated into the Malaysian scene and why. Some effects of its coming into Malaysia will also be looked at briefly. This will be followed by the main part of this paper which is the appropriation of Islam, and the Malaysian ideals, in animated series (which adopts the Japanese anime style) in the Malaysian context.

Raja Bersiong, the Fanged King, is a cannibal monarch in the Kedah epic literature Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa (HMM). By looking closely into the character of Raja Bersiong, this article examines the underlying ambition of the Kedah Sultanate in commissioning the HMM as a rhetorical statement of power, presumably around the early 19th century. By the late 18th century, Siamese predation had greatly destabilised Kedah. Lacking military capacity to deny Siamese suzerainty, Kedah plunged into doubledealing: through writing, the HMM downplays Siamese power by masking Kedah's subordinate status to Siam as a relation of kin, and by considering Siam as an offshoot of Kedah's royal legacy. Adopting an approach informed by Hendrik Maier, this article interprets the HMM as an ambiguous text that alludes to the diplomatic desperation of a small state. Such critical lens enables a more complex understanding of court writing as a historical source. In the face of geopolitical insecurity, Raja Bersiong figures as the abject, the symbolic surrogate for Siam to be expelled from Kedah, embodying a dialectics between Kedah and Siam, self and other, civility and savagery.

Kuntilanak is an icon of pop culture well known in several nations in Southeast Asia. While the female vampire is the subject of horror films and novels, people in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, claim that the city was founded by evicting Kuntilanak, who inhabited the confluence of the Kapuas and Landak rivers before the city was built. This article examines narratives on Kuntilanak, comparing it with other spirit perceptions found among Dayak in West Kalimantan. It suggests that the horror of that terrifying ghost is the price people had to pay for conceptualizing nature in accordance with Islamic Malay modernity. Referring to Critical Theory approaches, it is argued that the hostility and horror of Kuntilanak are expressions of a specific mode of enlightenment in the widest sense of the term, that is, an effort to conceptualize nature in order to rule over it. Nature thus emerges in opposition to the civilized, Muslim societies (masyarakat madani) of Malay coastal towns.

This withdrawn book chapter will eventually be expanded into a book with co-authors Vivienne Wee, Normala Manap & Ivan Kwek,  "Lost Singapore: The Pulau Seking Story" [provisional title]. Singapore: Singapore Heritage Society. See the posting "Serendipity Island" on this webpage for some of the photographs that will go into the book.

This article reconstructs the history of Kling Muslims' contribution to the religious and ethnic cosmopolitanism of sixteenth-century Ayutthaya. This study's argument is constructed based on an aggregate of written fragments about the Kling in both Portuguese primary sources and the wider academic literature. We reveal that, amongst the many ways in which Siam benefited from the Iberian invasion of Melaka in 1511, the dramatic geopolitical rupture of the invasion rerouted trade across the Bay of Bengal. As a result, Kling merchants began arriving in Ayutthaya in greater numbers via the new network of Siamese-controlled ports and portages. Moreover, this study demonstrates the utility of greater synergy among South Asian, Southeast Asian, Thai, and Malay Studies through focusing on the exonyms employed in primary and secondary sources. Finally, this article contends that Ayutthaya's ethnic and religious cosmopolitanism was impacted by the arrival of South Asian Muslims, referred to as Kling in the Malay World and Khaek in Siam, approximately one century before Persians arrived in greater numbers. This, among others, was an unintended result of Portugal's sixteenth-century interventions into, and alliances with, the Siamese.

Dalam perjalanan sejarah nusantara, hubungan islam dengan melayu sangat erat kaitannya. Baik dalam menjalankan aktivitas harian maupun aktivitas politik, masyarakat melayu bersendikan nilai dan ajaran - ajaran islam. Dalam pemerintahan melayu dikenal dengan kesultanan dan kegiatan - kegiatan keagamaannya juga berkaitan dengan  keislaman.

Budaya sesebuah masyarakat boleh difahami melalui pelbagai ragam bahasanya.  Selain daripada peribahasa, pantun mempunyai fungsi yang istimewa khususnya dalam memanifestasikan nilai, norma, sikap dan pemikiran serta akal budi orang Melayu.  Pantun Melayu menyentuh pelbagai aspek kehidupan individu; daripada kanak-kanak hingga warga tua, lelaki dan perempuan; daripada ekonomi, agama dan kepercayaan kepada budipekerti dan hubungan sosial hinggalah kepada cinta dan kasih sayang.  Sehubungan itu makalah ini akan meneliti pantun-pantun yang menyentuh beberapa aspek tentang keluarga dan hubungan kekeluargaan dalam masyarakat Melayu.  Sebagai satu tinjauan awal, hal-hal yang berkaitan dengan nilai dan norma keluarga khususnya berhubung dengan perkahwinan dan perceraian, peranan ahli keluarga, didikan/asuhan anak dan jalinan hubungan kekeluargaan akan disentuh.  Hal ini dianggap penting dalam memahami tradisi keluarga dan sejauhmana keluarga hari ini masih kekal atau telah menyimpang daripada norma dan nilai tradisional.

Drama merupakan suatu seni sosial yang mempamerkan polemik naratif naskah yang dimainkan dalam satu ruang bagi menyampaikan gagasan idea dramatis. Ianya merupakan cabang seni sosial di mana ia tidak semestinya memerlukan sebuah pentas yang berupa prosenium atau sebarang ruang pentas yang khusus. Namun, bantuan teknikal seperti tatacahaya, bunyi merupakan penambah deria suasana kepada naratif yang dimainkan oleh para pelakon di dalam sebuah ruang tersebut.
Malah apa yang menjadi asas kepada seni drama merupakan pergerakan, tutur kata dan suara. Kita tidak boleh menafikan drama secara tuntasnya merupakan imbasan kepada kehidupan sesebuah masyarakat. Malah dramatis yang baik, adalah yang menjerumuskan diri mereka ke dalam kacah pergolakan masyarakat itu sendiri dalam memahami dan menyampaikan gagasan mereka itu ke dalam naskah dan permainan lakonan di pentas.

Drama adalah 'makhluk' yang boleh dikatakan sifatnya berbentuk pragmatik; kerana ianya bergerak seiring dengan kesusasteraan dan kebudayaan. Membaca sesebuah naskah drama akan memberikan kita sebuah imbasan latar tempat dan masa melalui perwatakan yang muncul dalam setiap watak. Aliran drama ini tidak hanya tertakluk kepada konvensional enam elemen Aristotlean semata-mata. Malah, garis masa sejarah dunia yang telah berlaku dalam pelbagai pergolakan masyarakat telah membawa kepada penerokaan aliran-aliran baharu seperti Bangsawan, yang dikatakan menjadi transisi antara teater tradisional dan moden, sandiwara, absurdisme, realisme, surrealisme dan lain-lain lagi. Dalam konteks Malaysia, sejarah perkembangannya amat memeluk erat dengan perkembangan masyarakat tempatan.

Setiap dekad dengan corak kebudayaan masyarakat yang berbeza melahirkan idea-idea baru dalam menzahirkan isu yang hadir dalam masyarakat dalam sesebuah naskah. Kemudian wujudnya perbincangan dengan pelbagai polemic seusai sesebuah naskah itu dipentaskan dalam merungkai idea dan hal sebenar isu yang berlaku sebalik tirai panggung. Dekad lewat 40an dan 50an merupakan zaman kemuncaknya perbincangan akan jati diri dan peri pentingnya akan kemerdekaan kepada negara dan keadaan masyarakat pada ketika itu melalui aliran Sandiwara. Menurut Roselina Johari Md. Khir (2009), antara beberapa tujuan gagasan di dalam elemen sandiwara ini adalah untuk mencetuskan semangat nasionalisme Melayu serta memberikan panduan dan prinsip untuk sebuah negara yang ingin mencapai kemerdekaan seperti Lawyer Dahlan dan Si Bongkok Tanjung Puteri (1943). Menelusuri drama Realisme pada dekad 60an, ianya memaparkan citra kehidupan seharian masyarakat dalam dikotomi antara masyarakat bandar dan kampung. Kesan daripada Rancangan Malaysia Pertama yang diperkenalkan pada tahun 1966 merupakan sebuah pelan penyusunan masyarakat dalam mengurangkan kadar kemiskinan dengan memajukan masyarakat luar bandar. Selari dengan itu juga drama Realisme ini bertindak sebagai pemangkin kepada pengisian sesebuah masyarakat dalam membangunkan negara.

Naning merupakan sebuah rantau Minangkabau yang mempunyai hubungan kebudayaan secara langsung dengan Pagar Ruyong di Sumatera Barat, Indonesia. Penghijrahan orang Minang ke kawasan hulu Melaka pada abad ke-14 mewujudkan beberapa buah penempatan baru yang dikenali sebagai Nagari Nan Sambilan. Naning merupakan salah sebuah negeri yang menjadi sekutu dalam sembilan buah negeri rantau Minangkabau ini. Hasil interaksi sosial perantau Minang dengan orang asli mewujudkan sebuah asimilasi kebudayaan yang melahirkan sebuah kesukuan baru iaitu Biduanda. Naning merupakan sebuah negeri yang mengamalkan sistem adat Perpatih dan mengutamakan konsep matrilineal dalam kehidupan sosial mereka.
Kertas kerja ini akan membincangkan mengenai sebuah naskah lama yang ditemui di Alor Gajah milik salah seorang pemimpin adat Perpatih Naning (Encik Muhammad Nazri Deris). Dipercayai naskah ini sebagai pusaka keluarga yang diwariskan secara turun-temurun daripada moyangnya (Khatib Zainudin) sebagai tanda kebesaran keluarga. Naskah ini bertulisan tangan di atas kertas Eropah dengan menggunakan tulisan jawi yang kemas. Ketebalan naskah ini adalah 37 halaman dengan halaman pertamanya mengandungi enam baris ayat yang disertakan dengan cap mohor Sultan Seri Maharaja Diraja ibni Sultan Abdul Jalil Muazzam Syah bertarikh 1193H (1779M) pada halaman pertama.
Umumnya, naskah ini menceritakan sejarah pembentukan kerajaan-kerajaan Melayu lama di kawasan Sumatera Barat. Kronologi penceritaannya dimulakan dengan kisah Nabi Adam dan Hawa diusir daripada syurga lalu mengembangkan populasi umat manusia. Selain itu, kisah para nabi turut diceritakan seperti Nabi Syith, Nuh, Ibrahim, Ismail, Syuib, dan Yaakob. Teromba ini turut mengisahkan mengenai kejadian Iskandar Zulkarnain yang membina tembok menghalang Yakjuj dan Makjuj serta kisah penabalan Maharaja Diraja (anak Iskandar Zulkarnain) menjadi raja di Pulau Percha (Sumatera). Beberapa kisah lain diceritakan seperti kisah Datuk Ketemenggungan, Datuk Perpatih Nan Sebatang, dan tokoh-tokoh bangsawan Minangkabau yang lain. Pada akhir teromba ini menceritakan mengenai kerajaan-kerajaan di sekitar Pulau Sumatera memohon pewaris kerajaan Pagar Ruyong untuk dijadikan raja di negeri mereka.

Kata kunci: Filologi, Naning, Pagar Ruyong, Minangkabau, manuskrip

This paper attempts to reconstruct a socioeconomic and urban history of Kampung Boyan beyond the common narratives of the early Baweanese community in the region as merely labour migrants. It challenges dominant modes of representation of the indigenous landscape by examining how colonial documentation in the form of colonial maps, census and newspapers reflected a viewpoint, which led to biases in the way of seeing and, by extension, gaps. It supplements these sources by considering indigenous-contemporary sources and those beyond colonial boundaries. It then attempts to map against the monopoly of authoritative narratives to reveal a spatial logic that underpinned the physical arrangement of urban wards and settlements in Singapore Town. It finally argues that these closely linked and mutually reinforcing sources hold an explanatory power and may form an analytical framework beyond colonial mapping conventions where micro-communities such as the Baweanese lie beyond the map's grasp.

In 1977, sociologist Syed Hussein Alatas wrote his seminal work titled “The Myth of the Lazy Native: A Study of the Image of the Malays, Filipinos and Javanese from the 16th to the 20th Century and Its Function in the Ideology of Colonial Capitalism”. To a certain extent, this narrative opens up the possibility to analyze the colonialist discourse of laziness through Homi Bhabha’s concept of “sly civility”. By looking through Alatas’ collection of accounts made by European observers from the 16th century to 19th century on the incidents of indolence committed by the Malay farmers, this permits an analysis of the regulation of colonialist discourse and how the “the myth of the lazy native” is a product of an elusive process of “doubling and splitting”, to meet a particular agenda for the successful operation of colonial exploitation.

The nineteenth century witnessed the emergence of new patterns of interaction between the Ottoman Empire and other parts of the Islamic world. This development became, especially during the latter part of the century, an important issue for the colonial powers. Sometimes the latter tried to use these new relations to the advantage of their colonial policies, but at the same time there was a widespread fear of their potential to undermine western control over the Muslim-dominated parts of their colonies. Ottoman rapprochement with the wider Islamic world was thus problematised within the context of colonial policies and led to considerable debate among western policymakers and some leading orientalists such as Snouck Hurgronje...

Rantau Malayonesia didiami penduduk berbahasa Austronesia mencakupi kawasan di Madagaskar, Taiwan, Asia Tenggara hingga Oseania. Makalah ini bertujuan melengkapkan data nama-nama objek samawi seperti buruj dan planet dari pelbagai suku kaum Malayonesia di Asia Tenggara seperti yang pernah dilaporkan oleh Shaharir (2013a). Kajian kami adalah menggunakan kaedah kerja lapangan, wawancara dengan pemaklumat, pemerhatian ikut serta di lapangan dan telaah susastera. Kami menemui istilah untuk 33 daripada 88 buruj yang diketahui oleh orang Malayonesia, berserta jasad fana dan planet.

Beyond somewhat vague allusions to Sufi influence, a qualitative sense of early Javanese Islamic praxis remains sadly lacking among scholars. This article attempts to rectify that deficiency by re-assessing the importance of a Kubrawī silsila (spiritual genealogy) found within the 17th- to early 18th-century Javanese chronicle, Sejarah Banten Ranté-Ranté. First identified by Martin van Bruinessen in 1994, this silsila preserves detailed information about two separate Sunni-orientated Kubrawī lineages attributable to the latter’s Central Asian sub-branch, the
Hamadānī. Set within the context of other early Javanese Muslim texts containing previously overlooked evidence of Kubrawī praxis, in addition to hagiographical traditions identifying one Jumadil Kubra (a probable cypher for Kubrawī founder, Najm alDīn al-Kubrā) as the island’s earliest Muslim practitioner and a resident of Gresik, we argue that this silsila indicates considerable Kubrawī influence over Java’s initial Islamisation. Further consideration of the silsila’s specific Hamadānī characteristics set against wider 13th- to 15th-century Islamic history suggests either a north Indian or, more probably, Sino-Muslim origin for that influence. We therefore conclude by interpreting the Sejarah Banten silsila as a possible window onto the substantive nature of Sino-Muslim involvement in early Javanese Islam, adding further nuance to our understanding of that island’s Islamisation.

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The Legacy of Melaka’s 15th Century Successes in 16th Century Siam

This paper seeks to respond to the perceived dearth of studies pursuing an explicitly comparative approach to Southeast Asian historiography. Before the publication of Chris Baker’s Ayutthaya Rising From Land or Sea?, there were a few examples in the secondary literature on “littoral“, and “mainland” of any engagement between Thai Studies specialists and members of the Malay Studies Guild. Although this paper seeks to build on Baker’s seminal contribution to comparative historiography vis-à-vis mainland Southeast Asia subservient to Ayutthaya, and Melaka, I ask questions about what insights into Melaka in the 15th century might be provided from an exploration of developments in the 16th. I argue that the prosperity of port cities such as Ayutthaya and Patani following 1511, confirms Melaka’s regional importance in the 15th Century. Furthermore, the presence of transcultural entrepreneurs in Siamese palaces and ports suggests Ayutthaya to have actively imitated Melaka’s highly successful cosmopolitan model. Finally, I consider case studies of how aspects of Melaka’s religious cosmopolitanism spread to Ayutthaya. These include Sufi tariqat, and Persian mercantile networks present in South Indian port cities arriving via transpeninsular portages revitalised by mercantile networks forced to establish new operational hubs.

Human rights culture is relatively new in Malaysia. Thus, locating and unearthing the values of human dignity from traditional heritage would help to enhance understanding on modern human rights. An attempt to connect traditional values buried under Malay proverbs with contemporary sociological findings should be made. In order to make this attempt successful, George F. Mclean's formulated framework 'human rights and the dialogue of civilizations', together with the categorisation of Malay proverbs by Syed Hussein Alatas, was chosen. Mclean's formulation looks into the needs of civilisations in dialogue, values and virtues, cultures and traditions and the ontological foundation of the many faces of humanity. Syed Hussein Alatas's categorisation of Malay proverbs helps to select suggestive and 'reprimandative proverbs' that contain human rights values. This essay intends to identify features of human rights in traditional society, and by doing so, challenges the notion that human rights are a Western product and incompatible with the culture and religion of Islam.

Although historically influenced by Theravada Buddhist for more than a millennium, Thailand’s ethnic, linguistic, and religious homogeneity has been over-asserted by state-makers, and erroneously assumed by some scholars. After descendants of Chinese immigrants, widely regarded as Thailand’s largest and most successfully assimilated ethnic minority, Malays residing south of Satun and Songkhla are over three times more numerous that the Northern Khmer of southern Isaan, its next most populous ethnic minority. Practically all Thai citizens self-identifying as Melayu are Muslims, and Islam is Thailand’s largest religious minority. Nevertheless, not all Muslims self-identify as Malays, and Islam has long been acknowledged as being anything but a monolith. In addition to being an ethnically diverse ecumene, its sectarian divisions mirror those present throughout Southeast Asia. Some surmise Thailand’s Muslims being divided between “Malay-Muslims”, and “Thai-Muslims” who are either traditionalist or reformist in orientation. This paper proposes perspectives on Thailand’s Muslim mosaic based multi-sited fieldwork among Sufi orders (Ar. turuq, tariqa [sg.]) with visible and viable followings from among the Central Thai-speaking, Southern Thai-speaking, and Malay-speaking Muslim communities. This paper seeks to articulate alternatives to the double-barreled binaries that have provided the theoretical ballast in previous explorations of Muslim ethnic and religious diversity. Whilst relevant details of these hereunto unstudied Sufi orders are provided, this paper’s considers the significance of their presence in three cultural milieu between Ayutthaya and Narathiwat over the details of the spiritual lineages (Ar. silsilah) or litanies (Ar. wird) of individual orders. Rather than where these orders have come from, I concentrate on both their adoption by Central Thai, Southern Thailand, and Malay-speaking Muslims, and the manner in which they have been adapted in ways that reflect these regional identities. Most tariqa might remain within the cultural milieu where they have been localized, but boundaries between these are far from fixed.

Although historically Sufi orders (turuq, sg. tariqa) have been an important element of Thailand’s Islamic traditionalist majority, these regrettably have received almost no scholarly attention. The reasons for this neglect are complicated. Beyond (non-negligible) methodological constraints and difficulties in attaining access to some orders not open to outsiders, a double marginalization is observable. In addition to being located at the periphery of Southeast Asia’s “Islamic arc” (Tagliacozzo 2013), those studying Islam in Thailand have focused on but more has been written on religiously motivated violence, and the (revivalist) Tablighi Jama’at and (reformist) Salafiyyah which developed mass followings during the twentieth century, than the turuq they replaced. These range from those violently resisting Bangkok’s project of assimilation in the far-south since 2014, to the revivalist Tablighi Jama’at and reformist Salafiyyah that are now found throughout the country. This paper redresses such neglect by presenting a historical anthropology of Thai tariqa based on fieldwork among sufi orders in Thailand since late 2012. I begin by introducing some of the most important sufi personalities who, during the twentieth century, returned from educational sojourns in the Middle East, Java, and Kelantan, with permission (ijazah) to initiate or revive a range of sufi orders in Central Thailand (Ayutthaya and Bangkok), the Southern Thai-speaking upper south (Pang-nga Bay and Songkhla), and parts of the Malay-speaking far-south (Narathiwat). I describe ways in which orders widely distributed throughout the Muslim World such as the Qadriyyah, Shadhiliyyah, and Ahmadiyyah-Idrisiyyah, have been localized by Muslim communities in Thailand. I argue that successful doctrinal and ritual innovations are frequently championed by familiar people advocating and embodying something strange. The variety of localized global turuq that I present, challenge a number of assumptions about the cultural geography of Islamic diversity in contemporary Thailand.

This chapter describes Patani’s Indic, Islamic and Thai pasts. The argu- ment is that the Malay kerajaan of Patani was similar to—rather than distinct from—other port city-states on the peninsula and islands of Southeast Asia where a Sanskrit cosmopolis existed for a millennium before the earliest chapters of Islam’s Southeast Asian expansion. Islam also circulated east and west of Patani through trade between the Middle East and China via the Indian Ocean. This created a range of Indian/Arab/Malay creole communities whose members played key roles in the adoption of, or adhesion to, Islam in Southeast Asian port city-states like Patani. India’s importance to the arrival of Islam to the Thai/Malay peninsula relates to what Islam came to, where Islam initially came from, and who Islam came through. Rather than refer to conversion, I refer to an adhesion to, or adoption of, Islam. The impact of Thai and Islamic influences in Patani/Pattani following its defeat in 1785 is described. The details of the process through which the Malay Kingdom (SM. kerajaan) of  became the Thai Province of Pattani, including Bangkok’s legislative and administrative initiatives are also provided. A central con- cern of this chapter is to highlight the fact that these developments coincided with a period of revolution and reform in the Hijaz. I describe how these developments impacted local religious life and thought through local luminaries such as Shaykh Daud Al-Fatani, Shaykh Ahmad Al-Fatani and Haji Sulong. The methodologies and contributions of present-day reformist revivalist movements are also described.

This article explores how scholarship can be put to work by specialists penning evidence-based policies seeking peaceful resolutions to long-standing, complex, and so-far intractable conflict in the Malay-Muslim dominated provinces of South Thailand. I contend that more is required than mere empirical data, and that the existing analysis of this conflict often lacks theoretical ballast and overlooks the wider historical context in which Bangkok pursued policies impacting its ethno-linguistically, and ethnoreligiously diverse citizens. I demonstrate the utility of both interacting with what social theorists have written about what "religion" and language do-and do not-have in common, and the relative importance of both in sub-national conflicts, and comparative historical analysis. The case studies that this article critically introduces compare chapters of ethnolinguistic and ethno-religious chauvinism against a range of minorities, including Malay-Muslim citizens concentrated in the southern provinces of Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat. These include Buddhist ethnolinguistic minorities in Thailand's Northeast, and Catholic communities during the second world war widely referred to as the high tide of Thai ethno-nationalism. I argue that these revealing aspects of the southern Malay experience need to be contextualized-even de-exceptionalized.

Orientalism is the title of a book by Edward Wadie Said (1935-2003), a Palestine born, former professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. Orientalism appeared in 1978 and almost immediately became a milestone in the Anglo-American literary theory as well as a foundational text of (-->) postcolonial theory. Taking “the Orient” as example, Said discloses the connections between Western culture, Eurocentrism and colonialism in the scholarly and imaginative “construction” of non-European cultures.

This article seeks to situate soap opera as a popular vehicle for Malay women in contemporary Malaysia to engage with an increasingly globally oriented form of transnational modernity. While this study employs a textual analysis to examine this television genre, it argues that non-Western soap opera provides sense of modernity to the local audience particularly Malay women through various representations of consumer culture and its potential as a site for escapism and a channel for mediated reality. Through an insight into the role of a non-Western soap opera as a privileged site for engaging with modernity amongst Malay women, this article provides a clearer understanding of television’s role and its representation in the Malay world.