mamakk!!!

Egalitaria wrote:

Indonesia has now defined ‘indigenous Indonesians’ as those people who are Indonesian citizens without going through a naturalization process.

Now do a quick comparison with Malaysia. We know the following:
1. The term “indigenous” is not clearly defined in the constitution.
2. The term “Malay” is identified in the constitution as one who speaks the Malay language, adopts Malay culture and is a practising Muslim.
3. The term “bumiputera” is not clearly defined and does not appear in the Constitution. In fact, there is debate as to the origins of this term. Based on Tun Dr Ismail’s book, the term was first introduced in year 1972. (He also says the term was a curse.) Other sources state that it was first used in Parliament in 1965, while debating the act that would create the Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA), a government agency to preserve Bumiputera interests.

Blogger compares Indonesia’s Anti-Discrimination Bill with the way Malaysia handles its definition of “bumiputera”.

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via Alternate BR:

There was this tale of a local boy, who went away to better his and his family’s lot in life. After many years, he achieved success and wealth, married a a noblewoman and became the owner of a huge ship, forgetting his humble roots in the process. One day, in order to take shelter from an impending storm, his ship happened to berth near his birthplace. His ageing poverty stricken mother recognising him rowed out in a canoe calling out to her long lost son.

In front of his beautiful rich wife, he was too ashamed to acknowledge her as his mother and threw her overboard. She was shocked and very depressed and placed a curse on her unfilial son whereupon a storm suddenly appeared capsizing the ship and transforming it into rock. Sounds familiar?

In Malaysia, this tale is known as the tale of Si Tanggang, in Indonesia as Malin Kundang and in Brunei as Nakhoda Manis. Each and every single country has natural proof of the legend. Malaysia has the Batu Caves in Selangor where the caverns of the caves are said to resemble the cabins of the ship. Indonesia has the pieces of the ship in rock forms including that of a rock which resembled a man prostrating for mercy along the beach in Air Manis, Sumbar about 20 kilometers from Padang in Sumatra. Brunei too has the Jong Batu, a small island which jutted out of the water in the Brunei River which resembled the keel of the ship jutting out. So, who is right?

Pretty interesting as in how the stories were about the same in 3 different countries, but honestly speaking, I’ve never heard of this story before…

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via Straits Times:

Untypical candour shown by the Environment Minister, Mr Rachmat Witoelar, will encourage hope that Indonesia is beginning to be seriously focused on tackling the pollution after the stern Asean-level intervention of three months ago. Mr Witoelar discussed coping measures before the Jakarta foreign correspondents club this week, thereby guaranteeing publicity for an issue which this year generated more dissatisfaction than usual in Singapore and Malaysia.

Not only that, he did the remarkable thing of asking Indonesia’s neighbours for two years’ forbearance before they could expect to see improvement. Was this chutzpah or realism?

There would be disagreement over whether the people of Southeast Asia would care to endure even another season of the choking carbon and methane clouds, or if he was being realistic talking of cleaning up the environmental degradation in a short period of time. By his admission, the problem had developed unchecked in Indonesia over 30 years.

At least something’s being done…and let’s hope they’ll be some results. Seriously I don’t even mind paying like RM50-100 every year to help the cause if they really need the money.

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JAKARTA (Reuters) - Mention the words Islamic and fashion and most people think of big black burqas or shapeless chadors.

But a fashion show of Islamic clothing in Indonesia on Tuesday shattered the stereotype, as dozens of models sashayed down the catwalk in outfits that complied with Muslim tradition but also oozed funk and flounce.

“Muslim fashion should not be identified with long black scary attire, but Muslim women can appear in nice, trendy, up-to-date fashion,” said Musa Widyatmojo, supervisor of the Indonesian fashion designers’ association.

“Indonesia is a trendsetter for Muslim fashion followed by Malaysia.”

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kince13 wrote:

…in the Philippines, many Filipinos consider the term “Malay” to refer to the indigenous population of the country as well as the population of neighboring countries like Indonesia and Malaysia. This misconception is due in part to American anthropologists H. Otley Beyer who proposed that the Filipinos were actually Malays who migrated from Malaysia and Indonesia. This idea was in turn propagated by Filipino historians and is still taught in schools. However, the prevalent consensus among contemporary anthropologists, archaeologists, and linguists actually proposes the reverse; namely that the Malays of Malaysia and Indonesia originally migrated south from the Philippines during the prehistoric period. Among these are scholars in the field of Austronesian studies such as Peter Bellwood, Robert Blust, Malcolm Ross, Andrew Pawley, and Lawrence Reid.

I didn’t know that…

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