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Javanese-Malay: Between Adaptation and Alienation Journal article by Koji Miyazaki; SOJOURN: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia, Vol. 15, 2000 Javanese-Malay: Between Adaptation and Alienation by Koji MIYAZAKI This paper aims to discuss the image imposed on immigrants and its manipulation through their settling process. "Settling" here does not mean a matter of dwelling alone but, rather, of positioning in a socio-cultural space as well. The idea is that in the settling process there will be negotiation and interaction between those who immigrate to the country and those who receive them in terms of the immigrants' socio-cultural positioning. Just as in the economic sphere where they usually start their life by accepting the lowest-wage jobs, in the socio-cultural sphere the newcomers usually end up undertaking what the hegemonic group does not wish to do. This paper will focus on the relationship between "magical practices" and the Javanese-Malays in the state of Johor. "Javanese-Malays" refer to Malaysians with legal status as

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Page 1: Javanese-Malay Between Adaptation and Alienation

Javanese-Malay: Between Adaptation and Alienation

Journal article by Koji Miyazaki; SOJOURN: Journal of Social Issues inSoutheast Asia, Vol. 15, 2000

Javanese-Malay: Between Adaptation and Alienation

by Koji MIYAZAKI

This paper aims to discuss the image imposed on immigrants and itsmanipulation through their settling process. "Settling" here does notmean a matter of dwelling alone but, rather, of positioning in asocio-cultural space as well. The idea is that in the settling processthere will be negotiation and interaction between those who immigrateto the country and those who receive them in terms of the immigrants'socio-cultural positioning. Just as in the economic sphere where theyusually start their life by accepting the lowest-wage jobs, in thesocio-cultural sphere the newcomers usually end up undertaking whatthe hegemonic group does not wish to do. This paper will focus on therelationship between "magical practices" and the Javanese-Malays inthe state of Johor.

"Javanese-Malays" refer to Malaysians with legal status asMalay-Malaysian but have retained a strong consciousness of theirJavanese origin. The Javanese-Malays have not been fully studiedprobably because they have become relatively invisible, a conditionengendered by the omnipresence of their "Malay" status. They are alsoinvisible in comparison to the recent legal, and illegal, migrantworkers whose number is estimated to be as many as 1.2 million in1997, the overwhelming majority of whom are from Indonesia.(1) TheJavanese-Malays described in this paper are differentiated from therecent Indonesian migrant workers by their Malaysian citizenship, atleast officially.

Moreover, because of their "Malay" status, the Javanese-Malays alsotend to be overlooked in the context of ethnic politics in Malaysia.The existing multiethnic society, originally created in the nineteenthcentury during the colonial period, has always been defined in termsof the three "officially" recognized "races", namely, Malay, Chinese,and Indians.(2)

Wang Gungwu described the Chinese and Indians in Malaysia as "migrantsof difference" because they have cultural backgrounds totally

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different from the local Malay people.(3) In contrast, theJavanese-Malays and the recent migrant workers from Indonesia aredescribed as "migrants of similarity" because they follow Islam as theMalay people, speak languages closely related to Malay and havesimilar customs. Although integration into Malay society has beeneasier compared with the Chinese and Indian immigrants,Javanese-Malays, nevertheless, have not always become Malay withoutany difficulty.

Arriving as newcomers, they had, and still have, to cope withestablishing relationships with the local Malay society in one way orother. Often, they were alienated by "Malay" people because of theirhumble jobs and less orthodox attitude towards Islam. They thus haveto seek their niche in Malay society and adapt themselves to it as"others" when gradually integrating into the larger Malay population.And in the integration process, the Javanese-Malays used theirstereotyped images, both imposed and self-made, as their "culturalresource" for gaining a certain position in Malay society.(4)

Generally, there have been few discussions on the migrants ofsimilarity, except for the recent influx and the alleged "peril"caused by the Indonesian immigrant workers. Yet it is probable thatthey too, like the Javanese-Malays, in the long run would settle downand become "Malays". But it is not yet clear how the process of thisincorporation or amalgamation had taken, or would take, place. Duringthe British colonial period, although the official census includedpeople from Indonesia under the "Malay" category, it did until 1921mention their place of origins.(5) In the post-colonial regime,however, in part because the differences between Javanese-Malays andMalays are no longer discernible and in part for political reasons,the place of origins of the Javanese-Malays, and of Indonesianimmigrants who have attained Malaysian citizenship in general, are nolonger specified in the official census.(6) Nevertheless, although nodetailed data is available, the Malay people definitely include asubstantial proportion of people of Javanese (Indonesians in general)origin.

Migration from the Archipelago in Historical Perspective

Human flow from the archipelago to the peninsula happened during thepre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial times and still continuestoday. Although the Javanese and Bugis formed the majority of thisflow to the peninsula, it was the Minangkabaus who had much earlier

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established their kingdom in the peninsula.

Human flow from Java to the Malay peninsula began as early as thefifteenth century when the Javanese settled in Melaka where theyestablished their own quarters and were administered by an appointedchief (Winstedt 1986, pp. 72-73). In Melaka, the Javanese werereported to have specialized in trading rice and other foods, as wellas in sailing. Because the term "Javanese" then was often usedgenerically to refer to people from the area controlled by theMajapahit kingdom, it did not necessarily mean people from Java.Nevertheless, if they were Javanese from Java, then they were eitherfrom the capital of the kingdom or Javanese Muslims from the northerncoast of the island who were quite mobile in the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries. There is no known record on the fate of the"Javanese" community after the defeat of Melaka by the Portuguese in 1511.

The early Javanese immigrant experience to the peninsula was starklydifferent from the experiences of other immigrants from thearchipelago. According to Malay royal chronicles, the Minangkabausfrom Sumatra established their kingdom in the Malay peninsula bymarital alliance. And it is well documented that the Bugis worked forvarious Malay royal courts and eventually became a part of them.

In contrast, nothing is known about the Javanese in the peninsula fromthe second decade of the sixteenth century to the nineteenth century.Moreover, even if they were present in the peninsula, their bilateralkinship and relative indifference with genealogy would havecontributed to "genealogical amnesia" and the loss of their initialidentity. The Javanese presence in the peninsula appeared again, inthe records, as migrant workers in the first few decades of thenineteenth century. A Singapore census in 1825 included thirty-eightJavanese among 1,746 Indonesians when the total population of theisland was 11,851. In the second half of the nineteenth century, thenumber of Javanese and Boyanese increased considerably. (7)

No statistics of immigrants from the archipelago to Johor wereavailable until about 1911. In that year, out of the 117,800immigrants from the Netherlands East Indies to British Malaya, 37,000were found in Johor.(8) Roughly speaking, Johor absorbed aboutone-third of the immigrants from Netherlands East Indies to thepeninsula during the period 1911-57 and possibly after this period too.(9)

Javanese-Malays in Johor

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The present study focuses on the Malays of Javanese origin inJohor.(10) They, or their parents, are immigrants from Java who hadarrived in the peninsula in the first half of the twentieth century.The term "Javanese-Malay" has not been established, nor analysed, inlocal and academic discourses. The term "Javanese-Malay" here isadopted to denote their legal status as "Malaysian Malay" and the factthat they have retained their Javanese identity and other Malays alsoregard them as orang Jawa ("Javanese people"). Moreover, theJavanese-Malays have differentiated themselves from recent Indonesianmigrant workers by defining themselves as Malay and calling themigrants orang Indonesia ("Indonesian people").

Compared with the other peninsula states, Johor is very well known forits heavy concentration of Malays of Indonesian origins. The ruralareas around the city of Batu Pahat are particularly conspicuous withthe presence of Javanese and Buginese descendants.

According to a 1947 survey, more than half of the Indonesiansdomiciled in the peninsula arrived in the period between 1911 and1930.(11) This period coincided with the expansion of small rubberholdings and cultivation programmes by the British colonial government(Tunku Shamsul Bahrin 1967, p. 273). A number of Javanese came asindentured workers to work in the rubber plantations. After theircontract terminated, although they were supposed to return to Java,some of the Javanese workers remained in the peninsula and settled inthe inland areas as farmers.(12) This is in line with the generalpattern of development in the peninsula where the early inhabitantssettled in the coastal areas and the latecomers had to settle in theinland areas. Thus, in Johor the Bugis, being the early arrivals,settled in the coastal areas where they planted coconut trees, and theJavanese, as the later arrivals, occupied the inland areas where theyplanted rubber trees.

S village (mukim), where the author conducted his research in 1991,was officially established in 1937, though some hamlets (kampung) hadalready existed even earlier. Located about 20 miles from the sea, thearea initially was not an agricultural tract. Rather, it was a miningarea in the early 1930s when the discovery of iron attracted aJapanese mining company to open up an iron mine. To work the mine, theJapanese brought in a number of Javanese. However, the iron mine wasnot very productive and was closed down in 1940 because it could notcompete with the iron mine in Dungun, Trengganu, on the East Coast.

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According to the present villagers, some of the Javanese miners whoremained in the area after the mine was closed down gradually openedup the virgin forest in the vicinity for agriculture. However, somevillagers insisted that even when the mine was still in operation someJavanese had already cultivated the land around the mine to grow andsell vegetables to the miners.

The Javanese-Malays in S village generally know where in Java they ortheir parents originated from. It is remarkable that most of themstill can trace their ancestral origin from East Java, in particularto the area around the city of Ponorogo. This should be regarded asthe result of chain migration. In the S village experience, it doesnot seem to be the case that migrants follow their kin or relatives.Thus it is rather difficult in S village to trace the kinship tiesamong the present residents, except for the ties established afterthey have settled in the village. The villagers claimed that theirparents, or grandparents, were brought by agents to Johor asindentured workers. Of the many "push" factors that generated thehuman flow from Java, the main ones were poverty, dense population,heavy taxation, and the over-fragmentation of cultivated land.

Most of the present residents of S village are engaged in agriculture,either running their own small oil-palm holdings or working at theholdings of other people. Some of the villagers also hire migrantworkers from Indonesia. There are still some rubber plantations in thearea.

There are no statistics showing the place of origin of either theinhabitants of the village or their ancestors. Thus, there is nodocument to show that a particular villager originated from Java.Moreover, in the 1987 state census, only three politically significantethnic categories were used to classify the village population (seeTable 1). According to the official census then, 90 per cent of thepopulation were Malays. In contrast, however, the villagers themselvesinsisted that "90 per cent" of the village population were orang Jawa,or Javanese-Malays. In S village there were also Banjarese thoughtheir number is quite small compared with the Javanese-Malays.

Table 1 Population and Houses in Mukim S.

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Total Malay Chinese Indian

Population 14,750 13,536 1,161 53 Houses 2,287 2,138 138 11

Source: Rengkasan Maklumat Asas Kampung Kawasan Mukim S., 1987. Thevillage is administered by a penghulu who is appointed by the DistrictOffice in Batu Pahat. The village consists of sixty-five hamlets(kampung). Among them, ten are ranked as major hamlets (kampunginduk), which have their own hamlet heads (ketua kampung). In Svillage, kampung are called "Parit (drainage passage) so-and-so",named after the persons who dug them. The spatial formation of akampung is quite simple; the houses are lineally arranged along theonly road that runs parallel to a drainage passage.(13)

Javanese-Malay Identity

The term orang Jawa is usually used in Malaysia, in general, as asubcategory of orang Melayu (Malays), on the one hand, and in contrastto orang Indonesia (Indonesians) , on the other. The latter term refersexclusively to the recent migrants from Indonesia. Indeed, theJavanese-Malays in S village, who are Malaysian citizens, consciouslywill differentiate themselves from orang Indonesia. As descendants ofpeople who left the archipelago before the Republic of Indonesia wasborn, what evoked the Javanese-Malays' nostalgia is not "Indonesia"but "Java". This is because, for them, they are from "Java" and notfrom "Indonesia".

Since orang Jawa is a sub-category of orang Melayu, the two identitiesare not mutually exclusive. "Officially" orang Jawa is not arecognized category, and as a sub-category it is usually latent andcovert. Nevertheless, being categorized as Malay enabled theJavanese-Malays to enjoy certain privileges under the government'spro-bumiputera policy.

One of the features used by the Javanese-Malays to define themselvesis with regard to the use of the Javanese language. TheJavanese-Malays in S village speak Javanese with each other in theirdaily life.(14) Besides the use of Javanese words, a Javanese-Malaycan be distinguished by his/her peculiar pronunciation of the Malaylanguage. Consequently, Javanese-Malays are sometimes ridiculed bytheir Malay friends for their Javanese-like accents and wordings.

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In the big cities it is not uncommon to encounter a Javanese-Malay.Usually after several minutes of casual talk, they will reveal theirancestry upon enquiry. The slight reluctance they may show when theyconfess their origin is largely due to the fact that they are oftendiscriminated by Malays. Indeed, Javanese-Malays are sometimes lumpedtogether with the recent illegal migrants from Indonesia or oftenstereotyped as workers of the lowest stratum.

A person's Javanese origin is often revealed by his/her personal name.Although the second and third generations of Javanese-Malays usuallyhave Malayo-Arabic names, similar to other Malays, their fathers oftenwould have retained Javanese names which often end with -man or -min,for example. Thus when a person's father's Javanese name is attachedto his/her name with bin or binti, then his/her Javanese origin willbecome obvious.

Although language is one of the important indicators of a person'sJavanese identity, this does not mean that Javanese-Malays are notgood in the Malay language. This is because the Malay language, whichhas long been the lingua franca of the archipelago, must have beenmore or less familiar to the Javanese in Java. Generally speaking,however, as one might expect, younger Javanese-Malays can hardlyunderstand Javanese and are Malay monolingual. (15)

Many Javanese-Malays still maintain relationships with Java in one wayor another. While some Javanese-Malays have never visited theirrelatives in Java, others have, even though they are without anyfamilial ties in Java. Those who visited Indonesia often talk aboutthe culture shock they experienced in the place of their ancestralorigin. Many were shocked by the poverty and the dense population.Many also recalled how they were fleeced by locals, for example, taxidrivers would charge double when they know that their passengers arefrom Malaysia. Those visiting their ancestors' villages were oftenasked for economic assistance to their far poorer relatives. It iseasy to understand that for the Javanese-Malays who have beenaccustomed to the tranquil Malay kampung life, the chaos, hustle, andbustle in Javanese cities were a totally different and alien world.

Skills in Magical Practice: Self-Image and Imposed Image of Javanese-Malay

While many Malays sometimes show a contemptuous attitude towards theJavanese-Malays because of their immigrant status, they neverthelesstend to believe that the latter possess strong "magical" powers and

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are skilled in sorcery.(16) Thus they often pointed out that there aremany bomoh of Javanese origin. Although their statement has no solidbasis, Javanese or some things associated with them are often regardedas "magical" or "mystical". For example, in 1994 a bomoh and his wifewere accused of murdering their client for money. The bomoh insisted,according to a report, that he was in possession of the late PresidentSoekarno's scepter, which it is believed, bestows upon the holdertremendous mystical power. Although not reported in the newspapers, arumour that the couple were of Javanese origin prevailed.(17)

Among Malay bomoh, their Javanese rivals are regarded as powerful butdangerous, or dangerous but powerful. A Malay bomoh in Kedah insistedthat Malay bomoh never harm people while Javanese bomoh are quitedangerous (Miyazaki 1994, p. 90). In contrast, another Malay bomoh wasproud of his tutelage to a Javanese guru who happened to visit hisarea (Miyazaki 1994, pp. 99-100).

The stereotyped image is not merely imposed by outsiders. TheJavanese-Malays also often described themselves as magically powerful.Several medicine men in S village are in fact very proud of theirskills and knowledge in this field. They claimed that the firstsettlers brought the knowledge from Java and they still maintain atleast a part of it.(18) They explained why they succeeded in operatingas bomoh in the new environment. The villagers also acknowledged thatthe first settlers were so powerful in terms of magical and mysticalknowledge that these people could fell trees and open virgin forestsinto rubber plantations with tremendous vigour.(19)

It is impossible, of course, to prove whether the Javanese-Malays"really" have such powers or not. We must be content with presentingseveral examples of the knowledge and skills held by Javanese-Malaysin order to have a little clearer image.

Divination

In S village the divination based on the Javanese calendar is stillknown to most of the old men. The Javanese calendar consists of anumber of cycles; among others, the five-day and the seven-day cyclesare most important.(20) These cycles are used in combination so thatthey form a thirty-five day cycle.

The specialists divine one's fate or fortune of a certain day based onthe numbers allotted a priori to the days of the five-day cycle and

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the seven-day cycle. These numbers are used exclusively for thepurpose of divination and they form a part of specialist knowledge.This numerological method is exclusively Javanese and has never beenreported in other societies of Southeast Asia.

A few methods for finding a good direction to move in or of avoidingan ominous time to move are still found among the Javanese-Malays in Svillage. According to this method, one should not proceed or movetowards the direction of the cosmic serpent which changes its positionevery three Javanese months or every day of a week (see Figures 1 and 2).

[Figures 1 and 2 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Several old men in the village know of a method for matching couples.The numerological values of the birthdays of a boy and a girl areadded and then a diviner subtracts one by one from the sum, uttering aword each time. The word uttered last shows the fate of thecouple.(22) This numerological method of divination is very muchJavanese and has not been found in any other place in Southeast Asiaincluding the Malay peninsula. These examples of divination thus showthat they were brought from Java and were not acquired from othercultures.

It is, of course, unlikely that the second or third generation ofJavanese immigrants would still retain the great variety of "magicalknowledge" found in Java. The range of knowledge possessed by theJavanese-Malays is quite limited compared with the whole body of themagical knowledge in Java. It should be taken into account, however,that even in Java practitioners in folk knowledge often consulthandbooks that are specialized in the field. These manuals, however,are totally unknown among the Javanese-Malays?

One should also think of the position of this kind of knowledge in thelife of Javanese-Malays. In Java, the calendrical cycles are not onlyone of the essential constituents of divination and magic, but arealso related closely with daily life as they serve to refer to one'sbirthday, village meeting, or practice of asceticism.( 24) This is notthe case among the Javanese-Malays. They never use the Javanesecalendar in their daily life, but solely for divination. The knowledgeof calendar is, for them, of specialized nature. In this sense, theJavanese-Malay "tradition" has been uprooted from the socio-culturalcontext from which it was born.(25)

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In Malaysia, it remains unclear to what extent and how frequently thedivination mentioned in the above are actually put into practice.Nevertheless, one often encounters Javanese-Malays who boast ofpossessing knowledge of magic and divination and look down on theMalay people for being not knowledgeable in the field. At the sametime, however, they are fully aware that what they know is anincomplete version of the divination in Java. The Javanese-Malays'lack of confidence occasionally led them to invite a bomoh, or bettersay dukun, a Javanese and Javanese-Malay term for sorcerer andmedicine man, in their quest for more powerful treatment of diseaseand other matters.

Folk Medicine

Besides the field of "black magic", the reputation of Javanese-Malaysas skilful bomoh also relied on their practice in folk medicine. Thereare several medicine men in S village, with a diverse variety ofspecialization, professionalism, and orientation. They vary from thosewho only medicate their families and relatives using plants in theiryards for, mainly, chronic diseases such as asthma, diabetes, orhypertension, to those who run "laboratories" where they producevarious medicine with their own brands. In the vicinity of S village,there is even a factory producing Javanese medicine (jamu) run by aJavanese-Malay. (26)

Except for the factory-made medicine, the medicine prepared by a bomohwould be given to patients with proper spells (jampi). Medicationwithout spells is believed to be ineffective. In principle, Muslimsare allowed to use only the Koranic verses for "spells". Although afew bomoh in S village admit the use of Javanese spells, and manystill retain that knowledge, most bomoh insist that they only made useof the Koranic verses. They also explained that although they formerlyused Javanese spells, they are now aware of the "proper" waysaccording to Muslim doctrine.

Some medicine men's reputation extends beyond the village. Patientssometimes come over from the town of Batu Pahat or even from JohorBaru. The medicine men often boast of even having clients coming fromKuala Lumpur or Singapore.

An example of a Javanese-Malay medicine man is a man in his sixtieswho lives in the periphery of the S village. Although his father wasfrom East Java and was not a dukun, he privately learned herbal

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medicine from Javanese, as well as Chinese, specialists in severalplaces in the peninsula. He regarded his tutelage under the Chinese asof lesser importance and stressed his mastery of the Javanese herbalmedicine through a Javanese Muslim. He had regular transactions withChinese traders of medicine and it was probably his knowledge ofChinese herbal medicine that had helped him to merchandise his productthrough this channel.

This medicine man believes that quality of plants is of utmostimportance in the production of medicine, and it was because of thisthat he moved from Muar to S where good plants could be found. He hadvisited Indonesia several times to purchase materials for medicine andbooks on Javanese medicine. According to his evaluation, Javaneseplants and know-how are the best and the most authentic. He explainedthat Javanese people still have "vital force" (semangat) because thereare still "saints" (wall) and many miraculous beliefs in Java. Thevital force is extremely important when one makes medicine, hereiterated. He lamented the loss of such vital force which was onceheld by the Javanese-Malays; the vital force was lost when they becameMalay and pious Muslims. Yet, although he emphasized the importance ofquality of plants and does not waver in his belief that the Javaneseway of medicine is the best, he never fails to add that the use ofKoranic verses as a spell is indispensable.

In contrast to the relatively Islam-oriented medicine man, theproducer of jamu is a secularized Javanese-Malay businessman whose"factory" is just located outside the S village. The founder, thefather of the present owner, is alleged to be a descendant of one ofthe Javanese royal families. The founder had studied Javanese herbalmedicine (jamu) in Java under Javanese and Chinese specialists. Justlike the medicine man in S village, this factory imports materialsfrom Java for producing medicine because they are of a better qualityand cheaper than the ones available in Malaysia. The medicineproduced, mostly pills and capsules, are sold in drugstores andmarkets, and do not require the spell of the medicine man when taken.The brand suggests their Javanese origin and the products seem quitepopular, at least, among the Javanese-Malays.

From the two examples above, it is clear that the Javanese-Malays havemade use of the knowledge of traditional medicine that was broughtfrom Java as their resource for operating as sorcerers or medicinemen. Their knowledge and skill in sorcery and folk medicine havecontributed to their reputation as powerful bomoh. The view that

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something "authentic" and "powerful" exists in Java is not limited tothe above-mentioned medicine men but is also shared by otherJavanese-Malays. A number of Javanese-Malays insisted that a dukunfrom Java could exert much more power than a Javanese-Malay bomoh.They also said that sometimes they would invite a dukun from Java whenthey needed a more effective treatment of diseases or other personaltroubles. Despite their fame as powerful bomoh in Malaysia, theJavanese-Malays are aware of this "limit".

Source of the Power and Re-Islamization in Malaysia

It is obvious that some aspects of the knowledge on divination thatJavanese-Malays possess are clearly of Javanese origin. The fame ofherbal medicine imported from Java to the Malaysian market may havehelped to associate folk medicine with the Javanese-Malays. The exoticcalendars used by Javanese-Malays when they make divination may havehelped to amplify their image as possessors of mystical knowledge.However, it is unlikely that only these factors played a decisive rolein shaping the image of Javanese-Malays as powerful medicine men;there are other factors as well.

Let us turn our attention from the immigrants to the receiving party,that is the Malays, for a while. It is clear from Skeat's book, MalayMagic, that Malays had -- at least in the past -- considerableknowledge of, as well as practised, divination and sorcery. However,one rarely encounters the great variety of "Malay magic" as recordedby Skeat at the end of the nineteenth century. Much seem to have beenlost within the lapse of almost a century. Perhaps "modernization" and"re-Islamization" have contributed to this change. These twoprocesses, sometimes contradictory yet more often than not areinterlinked with each other, have contributed to the decline of ilmuand folk beliefs in general by condemning them as "heretical" or"backward". Consequently, Malay magic is still practised but not asmuch as in the nineteenth century? Nevertheless, even today, there isat least one bomoh in each Malay hamlet. However, the bomoh is now notjust a rural figure for they are also often seen in urban areas wherethe business is usually much more lucrative. The point is Malay magicis still very much a part of the daily life of the Malays.

On the whole, however, it is the re-Islamization process that appearsto have left its presence in the practice of Malay magic. Nowadays, abomoh, particularly a Muslim bomoh, is much more careful with being"Islamic" than in the past. Frequently, Malay spells have been

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supplemented, or even replaced, with the Koranic verses. Also, thebomoh generally tend to deny, at least formally, that they belong tospiritual cults. They thus pretend to be pious Muslims even though thedefinition of Islam differs from bomoh to bomoh.(28)

The shaping of the image of Javanese-Malays as powerful bomohobviously was influenced by the change of attitude among the Malaystowards folk belief. We need to take into consideration the following:folk beliefs still play an important role among the Malays; Malaysstill have, though to a lesser extent, knowledge and skills of sorceryand folk medicine; and Malays' reliance upon folk beliefs has becomelatent as a result of re-Islamization.

Generally speaking, Javanese attitude towards Islam has been ratherdifferent from that of the Malay. Javanese tolerance in the practiceof folk beliefs was more or less maintained by Javanese-Malays,although the beliefs and rituals they tolerate might often becondemned as heretic by the Malays. Islamic orthodoxy is morepervasive in Malay society than in Java, where the beliefs tend to bemore syncretic.(29) Thus both Malays and Javanese-Malays share theview that Javanese are less orthodox in Islam. Hence, even though theJavanese-Malays stressed their piety in Islam, they are still viewedas retaining heretical elements. It should be noted that they, in asense, take advantage of this negative labelling for shaping theirstereotyped image as medicine men.

The negative labelling of Javanese-Malays is part and parcel of theimages attached to marginal groups in general. Association ofmarginality and "supernatural power" is also apparent in Malay viewstowards the Orang Asli and Thai people. In Malay society, thedifferent groups of Orang Asli are believed to possess very strongsupernatural power and are often feared for this.(30) When we onlyobserve Orang Asli groups, we are tempted to interpret the label interms of "nature/culture" opposition, arguing that the Orang Asli'scloser position to "nature" causes awesome feeling for those who standon the side of "culture". However, this interpretation is notconsistent with the fact that a similar image is also applied to theThai people in the northern states where Thai bomoh are believed to beskilled in spiritual cults. Rather, negative labelling should beviewed in terms of the relations between the dominant vis-a-vis themarginal groups within a society.

Thus, the association of the Javanese-Malays and their supernatural

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skills should also be viewed in the context of the relationshipbetween the dominant Malays and the marginal Javanese-Malays. Themarginality is not only defined in terms of "ethnicity" but also interms of religion. Since Muslim orthodoxy has become more influential,Malay bomoh are much more sensitive to the distinction betweenorthodoxy and heresy than are the Javanese-Malay dukun. In particular,they would avoid the views that they are engaged in spirit cult orthat they use non-Koranic spells. Due to "re-Islamization" , manyelements in Malay folk beliefs have been questioned and subsequentlyeliminated as heresy. The folk beliefs are alleged to belong to"others", the marginal groups. Because it is impossible to wipe outfolk beliefs totally, the re-Islamization, paradoxically enough,necessitates complementarity in the non-Islamic sphere. In this sense,Javanese-Malays utilized their knowledge and marginal position astheir "cultural resources" that serve to create for them a certainposition in Malay society.(31)

It should be noted that the definition of "others" does not occur in areciprocal way. Theoretically, "self-other" relationship is alwaysrelativistic and inherent in any level of group interaction. Mostimportantly, in reality, it reflects an asymmetrical relationshipbetween the dominant and the marginal groups. In the realm of magic,Malays, as the dominant group, are never regarded as dangerous by themarginal group, while the latter finds their niche in theMalay-dominated society by being regarded as dangerous.

Becoming Malay

The Javanese-Malay knowledge and skills in medicine and sorcery haveenabled them to establish their niche in Malay society. However, nowthey increasingly distinguish themselves from their ancestors, and theJavanese in Java, by asserting that they are pious Muslims.Accordingly, the Javanese spells they once used seem to have beenreplaced with Koranic phrases. Indeed, re-Islamization is taking placeamong the Javanese-Malays precisely because it is one of the necessarysteps they have to take in order to become a full member of Malaysociety. In general, the process of becoming Malay is an ongoingprocess for the Javanese-Malays and it, among other things, involves atransition in terms of religion and language.

The process of becoming Malay, however, also implies the abandonmentof their niche and their skill in magic. Some dukun lament their lossof power (semangat) which, they believe, is still held by Javanese in

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Java or Indonesians who remain less Islamic. In search of their lostpower, Javanese-Malays will often invite native Javanese dukun fromJava whom they believe are still powerful in magic. The quest forJavanese materials for making herbal medicine is also based on theperception that they are "authentic" and "powerful".

Since the transition from Javanese-Malay to Malay also means amovement from the periphery to the centre, it would necessarily becoupled with the creation of a periphery that should be marginalized.For Javanese-Malays then, the new Indonesian arrivals, and Indonesiansin general, are to be peripheralized. The perplex and dismay theyexperience in Indonesia is connected with, or at least contributes to,their effort of peripheralizing Indonesia. In spite of being theirland of ancestry, Indonesia, for them, looks like a mysterious landfull of chaos, poverty, crowd, and uncertainty. Hence, althoughIndonesia is their place of origin, it is no longer theirs but hascome to belong to others.

It is not superfluous to add that becoming Malay is not necessarily aprocess of adopting one thing and abandoning another. An excellentexample of this is the folk dance performed by Javanese-Malays. InBatu Pahat area, there are several groups that perform a folk dancecalled kuda kepang. The dance was

originally brought to Batu Pahat from Java and has been performedexclusively by Javanese-Malay dancers and musicians. The groups areoften invited to perform in the capital as a representative of Johor.Without any mention of its origin, the dance is just introduced as atraditional folk dance in Johor. Importantly, kuda kepang provides theJavanese-Malays a sense of cultural superiority to compensate fortheir socio-religious inferiority. Indeed, Javanese-Malays, whosometimes suffer from abuse by other Malays for their formerly humblestatus and their proximity to illegal entrants from Indonesia, consolethemselves with praises of the refinement and variety of Javanese artand literature. Above all, the kuda kepand example also shows that theformation of Malay culture, and "Malayness", has incorporated elementsfrom different ethnic origins.

Conclusion

A synopsis of the Javanese-Malays in Johor can be summarized asfollows. First, their alleged skill in magical practice is partly dueto their tolerance in syncretism and largely due to their marginal

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position in Malay society. Second, as the Javanese-Malays becomeassimilated into Malay society, their niche and specialty willinevitably dissolve. Third, when they become incorporated in thedominant Malay group, Javanese-Malays seem to need to discover a newmarginal group that they can stigmatize and define as "others". Themarginal group they found was none other than new Indonesian arrivals.

The existing Malaysian society was shaped by waves of immigrants overthe centuries. Ethnic pluralism in Malaysia has, however, too oftenbeen recognized and examined in terms of the officially defined groupsMalay, Chinese, and Indian -- the segmentation formed during theBritish colonial period. However, it should be questioned what kindsof people are classified together under each of the official groups.The Javanese-Malays mentioned in this paper form a sub-category ofMalay, and they are totally invisible in the political landscape anddiscourse that is dominated by the three main groups. Yet they haveplayed a crucial role in creating the Malay identity especially byacting as the "others" for the Malay "self". Paradoxically, as theformer immigrants are assimilated with Malay by accepting orthodoxIslam and the language, newcomers have to be called in for maintainingthe Malay identity and coherence. The situation of the Javanese-Malaysuggests the historical process through which the identity of "Malay"has been formed. In this sense, even though the people mentioned hereare the descendants of the immigrants during the colonial era, theybelong to the continuous waves of migration from the archipelago tothe peninsula.

NOTES

This is a revised version of the paper presented at a workshoporganized by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies on Migrations inContemporary Southeast Asia, held in Singapore on 22-23 January 1998and funded by the Ford Foundation.

(1.) New Strait Times, 1 January 1997. See also Azizah (1997). TheMalaysian authority has repeatedly strengthened their legal measuresand tried to round up these illegal workers. Although the economicsituation affects the influx of illegal workers, the shortage oflabour inherent to the Malaysian economy has made the tough measuresagainst illegal workers ineffective. Azizah (1998) gives a detailedand concrete view of illegal migrant workers from Indonesia.

(2.) The term "race" is officially used in various Malaysian documents

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to denote a citizen's ethnicity. The origin of this categorizationwas, however, introduced and institutionalized during the colonialperiod. It is apparent that the presence of "migrants of difference"offered the basis for the present multiethnic situation in Malaysia.It should also be noted that categories such as "Chinese" and "Indian"were created by the colonial administration; various dialect groupsfrom China were lumped together as "Chinese" and from India as"Indian", respectively.

(3.) Wang Gungwu, "Migration in Southeast Asia -- Past and Present",oral presentation at the Workshop on Migration in ContemporarySoutheast Asia, organized by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies,Singapore, 22-23 January 1998.

(4.) Mariam Ali (1998). In her paper she also discusses the migrants'or immigrants' "resource" for survival in their new environment.

(5.) Tunku Shamsul Bahrin (1967).

(6.) There are groups such as Orang Asli, Thai, and Sam Sam. For thelatter two groups, see, for example, Kuroda (1992) and Nakazawa (1992).

(7.) The survey started one year earlier in 1824. However, no Javanesewas counted in 1824, while there were 1,851 Bugis and Balinese. In the1871 census, however, the number of Bugis remained almost the same andBalinese disappeared, in contrast with the increase of Javanese (TunkuShamsul Bahrin 1967, p. 269).

(8.) Tunku Shamsul Bahrin estimated that only a small number ofJavanese stayed in Johor until 1901, because of the limited economicopportunities (Tunku Shamsul Bahrin 1967, p. 275).

(9.) The Johor kingdom, too, opened its gate to foreign migrants forthe purpose of accelerating land development (Aziz Muda 1981, p. 157).According to an estimate, the number of Javanese and Buginese in Johorreached 30,000 in 1894 (ibid., p. 157). The number of migrant workersfrom Indonesia was far less than those from China and India. Theformer usually formed the second or third choice when Chinese orIndian workers were not available because of the epidemic and so forth(Saw 1988, p. 40).

(10.) The data for this study is mainly based on my research in BatuPahat, Johor, in 1991. The research was conducted as part of a study

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on folk medicine and its conceptualization in Malaysia. Anotherresearch on the aforementioned theme was carried out in Kedah in 1992.For this, see Miyazaki (1994). Thanks are due to the Socio-EconomicResearch Unit (now Economic Planning Unit), Prime Minister'sDepartment, for its official support. The research was funded by theJapanese Ministry of Education, Program of Scientific Researches.

(11.) Although it is difficult to gather information on migrants fromIndonesia, especially on the free and independent migrants, somedocuments are available for the indentured migrants. The indenturedmigrants were regulated by the Netherlands- Indies government with someexceptions. Prohibition was issued in 1887, while in 1909 the measuresfor protecting and regulating Indonesian labourers to the Malaypeninsula were enacted by the Dutch colonial government (Saw 1988, p. 38).

(12.) At least after 1913 when the Malay Reserve Law was enacted,there was no restriction for Javanese migrants accessing the MalayReserve, which was, and still is, not open to non-Malays. In this lawJavanese were included in the concept of "Malay" (Malay Reserve Lawno. 15, quoted by Khazin 1987, p. 63). It is likely, as Aziz Muda haspointed out, that some of the Javanese migrants first occupied landsleased by the Malay dignitaries (orang kaya), the Chinese, orEuropeans (Aziz Muda 1981, p. 159) Official statistics shows that mostof the indentured workers had returned to Java (Saw 1988, p. 41).

(13.) The present writer stayed in one of the kampung in Mukim S, andinterviewed the local people while observing their daily practices.The main language of his communication with them was Malay, andoccasionally complemented by Javanese, as they often speak Javanesemixed with Malay.

(14.) Although the Javanese language is well known for its elaboratehonorific forms, the villagers only use the "low Javanese" calledngoko. This does not mean that they have already forgot the "high"version (krama), which requires an alternative set of vocabulary. Thisexactly reflects the general situation in Javanese rural areas aswell. Use of honorific forms in Java is too often emphasized andstressed so far, based on the royal practices. Daily conversation inJavanese villages is usually devoid of too much honorifics. WhileJavanese in Java characterize their language by mentioning thehonorific forms, Javanese-Malays in Johor seldom refer to honorificforms as the distinctive feature of Javanese.

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(15.) Malay has been used as a lingua franca in the archipelago,although it consists of many dialects and possibly there aredifferences between the lingua franca version of Malay from place toplace. The degree of penetration of the lingua franca has also beendifferent from place to place. Generally speaking, Malay has been usedin the north coast of Java, while in the interior the Javaneselanguage dominate. For those who had not received any school educationin Bahasa Indonesia, Javanese is still the sole means of communicationin the rural areas of interior Java.

(16.) Here I employ this rather obsolete term only for the sake ofconvenience. By "magic", I mean the whole range of practicesconcerning the cause-effect relationship which are excluded fromso-called "science". Distinction of science from magic is notclear-cut and depends on folk definitions.

(17.) In 1994, a state politician was murdered and his propertyincluding his car, cash and landholding certificate were stolen. Abomoh, his wife, and his assistant were accused. The politician turnedout to be a client of the bomoh and was murdered during a ritual forregaining vital force conducted by the bomoh. The bomoh, some peoplesay, was of Javanese origin, though this was not confirmed. It wasproven, however, that on many occasions the bomoh claimed that he hadhis training in Java. It was also proven by other politicians that hetried to sell them "a scepter once in possession of the formerIndonesian President Soekarno" as an object with mystical power.

(18.) While magic practitioners are in general called bomoh amongMalay people, Javanese-Malays call such specialists dukun or wong tua,as is the case in Java. In contrast to the term wong tua (literally"an old man") which connotes respect for a person of wisdom, the termdukun is often used in Java to refer to a "sorcerer" who practisesmagic for evil purposes. Among Javanese-Malays, and Malays in general,the term dukun is not regarded in this negative sense. The terms bomohand dukun are often used interchangeably in Malaysia, though theformer term is preferred. In any case there is no official orrecognized body to set the standard, and so the distinction betweenspecialists and non-specialists is not clear.

(19.) Javanese and Javanese-Malays are believed to be hardworkingworkers. In contrast, Javanese in Java portray themselves as nothardworking, which is a remnant of the colonial view of "the natives".

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(20.) The cycles in use in modern Javanese divination are the fivedays, seven days, six days, twelve months (Javano-Arabic lunarmonths), thirty weeks, and eight years. Old Javanese (that is,pre-Islamic) and Balinese calendars have more cycles. For this, seeMiyazaki (1981, 1983).

(21.) Although dina literally means "a day", it more specificallydenotes seven days.

(22.) See Table 2 for the cycles and the numerological values.Javanese birthdays are based on a combination of these two cycles.This means that one may celrebrate one's birthday (weton) everythirty-five days. The sum of the days according to the two cycles arereduced one by one while uttering a word each time; lahir, sandang,pangan, lara, and mati. The first three words, which means "birth","clothes", and "foods", respectively, are good omens, while the lasttwo are the bad ones; they mean "sickness" and "death".

TABLE 2 Javanese Five-Day and Seven-Day Cycles and Their NumerologicalValues

Five-Day Cycle Numerological (pasaran) Value (neptu)

Legi 5 Pahing 9 Pon 7 Wage 4 Kliwon 8

Seven-Day Cycle Numerological (dina)(21) Value (neptu)

Ahad 5 Senen 4 Selasa 3 Rabu 7 Kemis 8 Jumuah 6 Setu 9

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(23.) In Java this method of divination is very popular and hasquite a few variations. The knowledge of divination and magic hadalready begun to be documented in the second half of the nineteenthcentury. Compendia in the form of books or booklets that carryknowledge on divination and magic are known as primbon in Java. As aconsequence of the transition to "literacy", orally transmittedknowledge of divination and ritual now tend to be underestimated. In Svillage, on the other hand, such compendia are not known. Although oldpeople in the village are quite proficient in speaking Javanese, theyseldom read and write in the language. Their ties with Java have notled them to import written sources from Java, even though some of themvisit Java frequently. (24.) The village meetings are named after thedays on which they are held: Selasa Kliwonan or Senen Ponan, for example.

(25.) In Java there is still a remnant of the old periodic marketsystem to which the five-day cycle was originally related. As the nameof the five-day cycle, pasaran (pasar = market), shows, it is relatedwith the market cycle. We can still find place-names much as PasarKliwon or Pasar Legi in Javanese towns. There is no such "market" inJohor.

(26.) Jamu is herbal medicine mixed with many kinds of herbs andplants. They are very popular in Indonesia. They are sold at marketsor by street vendors and frequently are made in factories in the formsof pills, powder, or capsules.

(27.) See, for instance, Miyazaki (1994). Itagaki (1995) offers adetailed account of the folk theory and materials of the Malay folkmedicine in Kedah. There are a number of written sources for Malayfolk medicine and belief; see, for example, Ahmad A. Samad (1988),Gimlette (1985), and Skeat (1984).

(28.) See, for example, Miyazaki (1994).

(29.) Javanese immigrants in the peninsula were already believed to beable to manage supernatural power better than Malays at the beginningof this century. See Khazin (1987). Yet the Malay preoccupation wassurely related with a point which will be discussed presently.

(30.) See, for example, Skeat (1984) and Mohammed Taib Osman (1989).

(31.) The same strategy has been adopted by the Baweanese in Singaporeand Malaysia. They make use of their knowledge in Islamic teachings in

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the process of gaining their position in Malay society. See Mariam (1998).

REFERENCES

Ahmad A. Samad. Warisan Perubatan Melayu. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasadan Pustaka, 1988.

Aziz Muda. "Sejarah Kependudukan dan Kegiatan Ekonomi Orang MelayuKeturunan Indonesia di Negeri Johor". Malaysia dari Segi Sejarah, no.10 (1981), pp. 155-62.

Azizah Kassim. "Illegal Alien Labour in Malaysia: Its Influx,Utilization and Ramifications" . Indonesia and the Malay World no. 71(1997), pp. 50-82.

--. "Immigrant Settlement in Peninsular Malaysia". Paper presented atthe Workshop on Migration in Contemporary Southeast Asia, organized bythe Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, 22-23 January 1998.

Gimlette, J.D. Malay Poison and Charm Cures. First published 1915.Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1985.

Itagaki, Akemi. An Anthropological Study of the Folk Medicine in MalayVillage: The Treatment and Socio-Cultural Influence of Man-CausedDiseases (in Japanese). Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languagesand Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA), 1995.

Khazin Mohd. Tamrin. Orang Jawa di Selangor: Penghijrahan danPenempatan 1880--1940. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 1987.

Kuroda, Keiko. "The Samsams of Kubang Pasu: The Historical Relationsbetween Kedah and Siam Viewed from a 'Kampung'". In Local Societies inMalaysia, edited by K. Miyazaki, vol. 1, pp. 89-109. Tokyo: Institutefor the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA), 1992.

Mariam Ali. "Islam, the Public Sphere and Social Construction ofBaweanese Workers' Identity". Paper presented at the Workshop onMigration in Contemporary Southeast Asia, organized by the Instituteof Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, 22-23 January 1998.

Miyazaki, K. "Javanese Divination and Classification Systems" (inJapanese). Minzokugaku- kenkyu [Japanese journal of ethnology] 46, no.2 (1981): 208-25.

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--. A Tentative Research Report of a Study on the Javanese Notion ofCosmological Order: The Javanese Divination and the Folk Knowledge.Yogyakarta: Pusat Penelitian dan Studi Pedesaan dan Kawasan,Universitas Gadjah Mada, 1983.

--. "Malay Bomohs and Their Voices: History and Development of MalayMagic (II)". In Local Societies in Malaysia, edited by T. Mizushima,vol. 2, pp. 83-124. Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages andCultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA), 1994.

Nakazawa, M. "Kg. Tas: A Rural Siamese Village in the State of Kedah".In Local Societies in Malaysia, edited by K. Miyazaki, vol. 1, pp.36-51. Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures ofAsia and Africa (ILCAA), 1992.

Mohammed Taib Osman. Malay Folk Beliefs: An Integration of DisparateElements. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 1989.

Saw Swee Hock. The Population of Peninsular Malaysia. Singapore:Singapore University Press, 1988.

Skeat, W.W. Malay Magic, Being an Introduction to the Folklore andPopular Religion of the Malay Peninsula. First published 1900.Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1984.

Tunku Shamsul Bahrin. "The Growth and Distribution of the IndonesianPopulation in Malaya". Bijdragen tot Taal-, Land- end Volkenkunde 123(1967): 26786.

Winstedt, R.O. A History of Malaya. First published 1935. KualaLumpur: Maricans & Sons, 1986.

Koji Miyazaki is Professor at the Institute for the Study of Languagesand Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies,Japan.

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