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Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 26, No.2, September 1988 A Preliminary Report on the Javanese in Selangor, Malaysia Teruo SEKIMOTO* One of the prominent features of Sabak Bernam is that the majority of the popula­ I Introduction tion there are Javanese who first immigrated This is a preliminary report on research I to this area between the 1910s and 1930s conducted at Parit Baru in the District of from many different areas of Central and Sabak Bernam, Selangor. The research Eastern Java. Though they are ethnically period covered forty days in August and Javanese, from the Malaysian point of view September 1987, including library work at they are classified as one of many sub­ the U niversiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and a groups of the Malays, in contrast to the brief field trip to a rural area of Johor. Chinese, the Indians, and the Orang Asli. Field research in Sabak Bernam itself was The Javanese in Sabak Bernam are now conducted for two weeks in the first half of fully assimilated into the Malaysian nation. SeptemberY Since my field research was of There are Javanese everywhere in the area, a preliminary nature, and is to be followed including a number of local government by longer, more intensive work at the same officials and employees. They still speak location, this is only a limited attempt to Javanese as their mother tongue. But, ex­ present a general view of the area and its cept for some very old ones, most of them are people.2) bilingual, speaking Bahasa Malaysia very fluently and sharing the marked local accent * OO;;$:Jffi.;:t:, Institute of Oriental Culture, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo­ with other local Malays who are not ku, Tokyo 113, Japan Javanese. 1) Research was made possible by grants from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Sci­ Thus, this paper is about the Javanese in a ences and the Hitachi Foundation. I am Malaysian rural community. These Javanese indebted to many individuals and institutions in Malaysia that helped me in the course of are not a minority group who have migrated research. Because of limitation of space, I can mention only a few of them: Socio-Economic to a totally unfamiliar environment already Research Unit of the Prime Minister's De­ inhabited by quite different people with a partment generously approved my research; Dr. Shamsul and many others in Universiti different culture. They have become Kebangsaan Malaysia gave me both warm Malaysian Malays without much difficulty as hospitality and valuable guidance for the research. far as the ethnic relation between them and 2) Some of accounts in this article may sound other Malay sub-groups is concerned. They self-evident to Malaysians and Malaysianists. But I am addressing this report not just to still maintain their ethnic identity as them but also to the Japanese reading public Javanese, particularly their language, and who are not necessarily familiar with the social conditions of Malaysia. they tend to concentrate in their own village 175 communities. But, despite these facts, they ability of the Javanese in Java to the govern­ have incorporated themselves into the mental and cultural hierarchies are fully ex­ Malay community in Malaysia. ploited by the present Indonesian govern­ The fact that they are at the same time ment as an important resource in running Javanese and Malays of the Malaysian na­ the modern state of the Republic of tion presents an interesting problem, because Indonesia. When I conducted field research the Javanese (in Java) and the Malays as in Central Java, the omnipresence of the an ethnic category (in Indonesia and governmental and cultural hierarchy was Malaysia) are often contrasted in oppositional striking.3) It permeated in quite concrete terms. Students in Indonesian studies often forms as far as the everyday thoughts and suggest that there is a marked difference in actions of villagers are concerned. For overall cultural traits between the Javanese example, every government official from (and perhaps the Balinese, too) on one hand, central to village levels seemed to represent and several major ethnic groups in Sumatra, the authority and dignity of the state vis-a-vis coastal areas of Borneo (called Kalimantan the common masses who were ruled. The in Indonesia), and Sulawesi, on the other. notion of hierarchy was even internalized by They tend to see the Javanese and other individual villagers in their ways of speech groups in Western Indonesia in a dichoto­ and behaviour. In contrast to this, it seems mous scheme, and stress the uniqueness of to me that the Javanese at Sabak Bernam Javanese culture in contrast to others. This live without the heavy burden of such a uniqueness is usually attributed to the social hierarchy. The difference I found Javanese tradition of large-scale kingdoms between the Javanese in Central Java and with a higWy sophisticated court culture, Sabak Barnam presents further questions. which was deeply influenced by the Indic What framework can we adopt to explain tradition before it was Islamized. It is this difference? Is it attributable to the also pointed out, a little exaggeratedly and difference between two contemporary states impressionistically, that the Javanese are -Malaysia and Indonesia-in conceptual­ more used to the complex network of izing and operating the state and statecraft? governmental hierarchy, more accomodative Do differences in ecology and mode of sub- to collective actions, and more obedient to sistence play any part? How do Javanese higher authorities, while peoples of other in Sabak Bernam view their world? What ethnic groups are less tightly bound to is their perception of self, society, power, collective order, more straightforward, and and authority? put more stress on individual strength and Though it is not my intention to jump power. to any quick conclusion in this preliminary Though I suspect the usefulness of sweep­ report, I write with these questions in mind, ing generalizations, which are often found in and try to give some idea how Javanese in a arguments about ethnic or national charac­ 3) I conducted fieldwork in Sukoharjo regency of ters, I believe that the sensitivity and adapt- Central Java in 1975, and in 1978-79. 176 T. SEKJMOTO: A Preliminary Report on the Javanese in Selangor, Malaysia particular locality of Peninsular Malaysia are nngoing research project. I shall have to different from their counterparts in Java. In wait for a future occasion to pursue research other words, this is an attempt to explore in that direction. how and to what extent the Javanese can be different among themselves according II A Profile of Sabak Bernam to different social environments. I hope District that the comparative framework I follow will The village of Parit Baru Baroh where cast a new light on the present situation of I stayed for the field research is located in rural Malays in a particular part of Selangor. Sabak Bernam district at the north-western That is what our joint research project fringe of the State of Selangor (see Fig. 1). generally aims at. Administratively, the district (daerah) IS I should also note here that my comparative divided into six subdistricts (mukim), each framework is a synchronic one; that is, I of which is then further divided into several compare present-day Javanese in Sabak villages (kampung). Parit Baru Baroh IS Barnam with those in Central Java. Syn­ one of those villages in the subdistrict of chronic comparison of two communities in Sungai Air T'awar. different geographical areas cannot avoid Sabak Bernam district has a land area of arbitrariness to some extent, and I hope I 995 square kilometers and a population of can complement this by a diachronic com­ 103,261. About seventy percent of them are parison or a search into the historical process Malays, while Chinese and Indians repre­ of change in one and the same community. sent respectively twenty-five percent and If I can obtain reliable information about five percent of the population (in 1987; social conditions in the particular local com­ see Table 1). Though no statistics are munities in Java where the forefathers of available about the exact numbers of each the Javanese in Sabak Bernam lived at the ethnic group among the Malays, a number turn of the century, our understanding of of local people told me that the Javanese Sabak Bernam would be much deepened. are the largest group, while the Banjarese, But this will be a hard task. I interviewed who originally migrated from the southern several elderly people of the community part of Indonesian Borneo, are second. who migrated from Java themselves. But Sumatran peoples, such as Kamparese and so far I have only obtained piecemeal infor­ Table 1 Population of Sabak Bernam by mation about their early lives after they Ethnicity came to Malaya. These oral histories can Malays 72,778 be supplemented by governmental and Chinese 25,509 other records in Malaysia from the early Indians 4,927 part of this century. But a further histor­ Others 47 ical survey on the social conditions of the Total 103,261 particular localities of Java which they left Source: Sabak Bernam District Information is not intended in this paper, or in my Office, 1987 177 Teluk Intan o PERAK L_ ) .... 1 - "6 ....l..., "" \. ..... " \....... ,.--. Sa b a k '.' .... _.~... ~ "\.. " \. Sungai )\ '. / ''''''''''''. B 0 \ .. ~ '-.' \ eSar\abak Be,nam -.-- i \ ,.,.-- , ~ --,-' , ) "".""". , Sekinchano,".... " , (" ) I Kuala Selangor { \ PAHANG ) I : \ I I t \ ""'", ...."--."'\... ---- __ ..1 Kuala Lumpur ~ o "? " r,t t I ,t r---··/ I I \, I o 30km ) 1::'========,' t" NEGERI I I SEMBILAN Fig. 1 Selangor Minangkabau, are also found in the area. filled with people from various areas of And there are a few Malays whose fore­ Indonesia.

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