Writing ‘Bangsa’: The Discourse of “Bangsa Melayu” within Jawi-script publications
Taken from July 1950 issue of Qalam. This was Qalam’s first ever magazine editorial. Screengrab taken from the free public online repository on Qalam magazine by the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University and Klasika Media-Akademi Jawi Malaysia, http://majalahqalam.kyoto.jp/eng/maglists.
“Bangsa” Melayu in everyday usage can carry various meanings such as the Malay “community”, “race” or “nation”. Meanwhile, academic discussions of the concept of Bangsa points to the discourse of Malay nationalism, and in some cases, the issue of “Malayness”. Within the 20th century Singapore Malay community milieu – when the height of colonialism coincided with its impending demise – discussions of Bangsa took place in public spaces like the kedai kopi (coffeeshops) and community circles, but most prominently in the Malay language Jawi-script publication landscape.
Early 20th Century Contentions
Arriving in the late 19th century, Bangsa was the latest addition to debates surrounding the concept of “Malayness” that had already been engulfing the region.
An early contributor to the conceptualisation of Bangsa was Munshi Abdullah, whose early writings can be said to inadvertently engender the intellectual discourse that surrounds the notion. His prominent auto-biography (also an account of his travels), Hikayat Abdullah published in 1849, detailed his views on Malay socio-political realities. Munshi’s construction of Bangsa came from his critique of the Malay kerajaan (sultanate) system. Highly influenced by Western-derived concepts and also his own firsthand account of how the British colonial system managed to usurp the local (Singapore) sultanate, Munshi emphasised that the Malays were not aware of the strength in their “race”. In the epilogue of his Hikayat, Munshi argued that Bangsa Melayu was becoming increasingly “foolish”.
Munshi’s discourse was just the start. The development of colonial politics from the turn of the 20th century further galvanised the discourse of Bangsa Melayu. Colonial politics imbued the Malay society with new ideologies that helped them comprehend their place within an increasingly changing capitalistic environment. These included ideas on what constitutes “modern” and “developed” in order to raise the socio-economic standard of the community. Intellectuals and ideologues of the Malay community in Singapore sought to understand, formulate and conceptualise Bangsa. Their debates were increasingly ingrained into the modern Malay nomenclature, especially in the Malay language publication landscape.
Later, the emergence of Eunos Abdullah was a watershed moment in history. In the very first edition of Utusan Melayu, a Singapore-based Malay language Jawi-script newspaper publication, in 1907, Eunos penned down his understanding of Bangsa and what the community had to do to awaken the pride of Bangsa.
Eunos’ approach differed from Munshi’s. The former was influenced by Jawi Peranakan, the first Malay language periodical that was written in the Jawi-script, and the language of reform brought forth by Islamic movements in Egypt. Eunos argued that the Malay community had to embrace development and be critical of their socio-economic position. Eunos treated Bangsa as an intellectual construct, asserting that the Malay community had to be involved and give priority to this construction of its “community”. His call was made even more urgent, considering that the native Malays were subjugated under foreign rule and increasingly displaced economically by the migrant Chinese community, who had begun to make rapid entrance into the business and labour industries in Singapore.
The language of social reform for the discourse of Bangsa Melayu was pervasive. So much so that the coming of Islamic reformist movements from Egypt at the turn of the 20th century actually impacted the discourse with a newer and greater emphasis on the ummah (Islamic community). Again, the Jawi-script publication landscape offers us insights. Radin Soenarno (1960) details that this initial language of social reform could be seen within Al-Imam, a Malay language Jawi-script periodical founded by Syed Sheikh Al-Hadi in 1906 in Singapore. As a student in Cairo, Sheikh Al-Hadi was greatly influenced by Al-Manar, an Arabic magazine published by Mohamed Abduh and Rashid Rida which he regarded as a significant intellectual platform to inject social change. Some of the articles in Al-Imam were in fact translations of the ideas in Al-Manar, making Al-Imam one of the earliest transnational Malay newspaper. To Sheikh Al-Hadi, the Malay community needed to address the already-faltering state of the religion, and socio-political change was crucial. The discourse of Bangsa Melayu blended together with religion seemed appealing and was soon followed by other newspapers and periodicals in the 1920s and 1930s, such as Warta Malaya and Al-Ikhwan.
“Agama, Bangsa, Nusa”
The construction of Bangsa Melayu developed a new trajectory in the post-World War II milieu. This was captured within the pages of Qalam magazine, which was published by Syed Abdullah bin Abdul Hamid Al-Edrus (Edrus), more commonly known through his pen-name, Ahmad Lutfi. In its first-ever editorial, Qalam stressed on upholding the “agama, bangsa, nusa” (religion, race, land) through its writings. Qalam tried to envisage the daily realities of Malay-Muslims in Singapore, both from its role as a contributor and as a recipient of knowledge in this publication landscape, by according attention to past successful Muslim communities as well as the Muslim community in Indonesia, which Edrus strongly regarded as a strong post-colonial nation. In this case, Qalam offered an alternative to the progression of the discourse on Bangsa Melayu. Qalam espoused for an inseparability between religion, community and culture within Bangsa. Furthermore, Qalam lasted till 1969, which meant that it traversed both the decolonisation and Malaysian independence context, further underscoring its role as both an observer and a player during a changing age for the Malay community in Singapore.
Taken from July 1950 issue of Qalam. This was the first instalment of Edrus’ series on “Melawat Indonesia Merdeka”. This series was intended to see how Indonesia and Indonesians particularly were faring in newly decolonised aznd independence context. Screengrab was taken from the free public online repository on Qalam magazine by the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University and Klasika Media-Akademi Jawi Malaysia, http://majalahqalam.kyoto.jp/eng/maglists.
Voice of Bangsa
Ultimately, no matter what approaches and biases these publications took, they formed one of the more important mediums through which the Bangsa Melayu could be envisaged, debated and understood. As much as Bangsa was a localised idea, developed from the Western concepts of race and nation, it was also imagined, inadvertently developing what Benedict Anderson calls a “deep, horizontal comradeship” amongst the Malay community.
Bibliography
Abu Bakar Hamzah. 1991. Al-Imam: Its Role in Malay Society 1906-1908. Kuala Lumpur: Pustaka Antara.
Anderson, Benedict, 2006. Imagined communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso Books.
Milner, Anthony. 2002. The Invention of Politics in Colonial Malaya. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Milner, Anthony. 2003. “Localising the Bangsa Melayu.” In Bangsa and Umma: Development of people-grouping concepts in Islamised Southeast Asia, edited by Hiroyuki Yamamoto, Anthony Milner, Kawashima Midori and Arai Kazuhiro, 17-36. Kyoto: Kyoto University Press.
Qalam Article Database. Accessed 20th May 2018. http://majalahqalam.kyoto.jp/eng/maglists.
Radin Soenarno. 1960. “Malay Nationalism, 1896-1941.” Journal of Southeast Asian History 1: 1-28.
Roff, William. 1994. The Origins of Malay Nationalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Yamamoto, Hiroyuki. 2009. “The Jawi Publication Network and Ideas of Political Communities among the Malay-Speaking Muslims of the 1950s.” The Journal of Sophia Asian Studies 27: 51-64.
Zinnurain Nasir is currently a Masters of Arts student (Research) in the Department of Southeast Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore (NUS). His current research interest revolves around the biographical construction and historical analysis of the Jawi-script magazine, Qalam, produced by Qalam Press, established in 1951, as a medium to comprehend the politics of magazine publishing in post-World War II Malay society in Singapore. His broader interests include local Singapore history, microhistories of urban communities, global intellectual history and identity politics, especially within the Malay community.
Zinn also discusses the significance of jawi-script publications in AKAR Vol 01 Foundations. Purchase our first issue to read more!