International Journal of Management (IJM) Volume 11, Issue 11, November 2020, pp. 2062-2072. Article ID: IJM_11_11_195 Available online at http://iaeme.com/Home/issue/IJM?Volume=11&Issue=11 Journal Impact Factor (2020): 10.1471 (Calculated by GISI) www.jifactor.com ISSN Print: 0976-6502 and ISSN Online: 0976-6510 DOI: 10.34218/IJM.11.11.2020.195 © IAEME Publication Scopus Indexed COLLABORATIVE INITIATIVES TO MANAGE MALAY LANGUAGE RESEARCH James T. Collins Distinguished Professor, Institut Kajian Etnik, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia Chong Shin* Lecturer, Institut Alam dan Tamadun Melayu, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia ABSTRACT One hundred years ago, western scholars finally realized that the Malay language had a documented history as old as the English language. The study of Malay should then have followed the procedures and methods developed for studying other major languages of the world. But, instead, narrow nationalism coupled with hyper- prescriptivism has emerged as the trademark of Malay language studies. In this brief paper, we will explore observations by outsiders about Malay in the region and consider the contrasting narrow and bounded scope of contemporary research about the Malay language. The importance of devising a management program for transdisciplinary and transnational collaborative research projects needs to be emphasized, not as an exploration of the past but as a blueprint for the future. Key words: Malay language, Transdisciplinary, Transnational, Collaborative Management. Cite this Article: James T. Collins and Chong Shin, Collaborative Initiatives to Manage Malay Language Research, International Journal of Management, 11(11), 2020, pp 2062-2072. http://iaeme.com/Home/issue/IJM?Volume=11&Issue=11 1. INTRODUCTION In November 1920 an inscription carved on a stone was discovered near Palembang in South Sumatra. Scholarly investigation proved that this inscription was the oldest example of written Malay, dated 683 AD (van Ronkel 1924); see Figure 1. This inscription and other Malay texts discovered in Sumatra (Miksic and Goh 2016) were soon matched by lithic inscriptions and impressed bronze plates written in Early Malay (Old Malay) found beyond Sumatra: among many others, in Bangka (dated 686), Java (832), even the northern -like, chronologically layered expansion of Malay language texts demonstrates the centrifugal force of the tradition of Malay literacy, dynamically http://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJM 2062 [email protected] James T. Collins and Chong Shin released by its association with the advanced philosophical traditions of major world The evidence is indisputable: Malay-languages texts date back to 683 AD. However documented and preserved reports about Malay and its role in the cultural milieu of Southeast Asia by on-the-scene observers date to only eight hundred or nine hundred years after the emergence of the seventh century inscriptions. Early in the sixteenth century, European visitors and officials wrote about the amazing and unparalleled importance of the Malay language in the region. Five hundred years ago Antonio Pigafetta wrote about the use of Malay in the Philippines, Brunei and Maluku (Bausani 1960). In 1544, A. G crown in Ternate, compared the widespread use of Malay to the lingua franca of the Mediterranean (Jacobs 1971). In 1545 the Basque scholar and missionary, Francis Xavier, decided to go to Malacca to translate Catholic prayers and doctrine from Latin to Malay so he could use them in the proselytization of Sulawesi and Maluku (Schurhammer 1980:135). In 1578 the Spanish governor in Manila sent a letter written in Malay to the sultan of Brunei, where it was received in an elaborate court ritual (Collins 2018a:28). The Dutch traveler, Frederik de Houtman started collecting Malay language materials for his book of Malay dialogues and dictionary, when he was held prisoner in Aceh in 1599 (Collins 2018a; Karim 2017). In the same year the Dutch reached Ternate in Maluku where they assembled a wordlist of Malay (Collins and Schmidt 1992). These documented accounts of the use of Malay for diverse purposes in many places indicate that the contemporary role of Malay in Southeast Asia has a long history. Malay with various names is the national language of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Moreover it is the largest minority language of Thailand. In some other Southeast Asian countries, such as Cambodia, Myanmar, the Philippines and Timor Leste, Malay is spoken by certain communities or for specific purposes. With an estimated three hundred million speakers, Malay is the Southeast Asian language with the largest number of speakers. Figure 1 The Inscription of the oldest example of written Malay, dated 683 AD (Source: van Ronkel 1924) http://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJM 2063 [email protected] Collaborative Initiatives to Manage Malay Language Research Yet, the fact of Malay and its role in Southeast Asia as a region is obscure and poorly ken in Thailand. The number of Malaysian scholars who study Malay outside of Malaysia is very limited. Many Indonesian scholars do not recognize the connection of their national language with Malay other media the Malay language is incapable of expressing scientific concepts. In this brief paper, we will explore observations by outsiders about Malay in the region and consider the contrasting narrow and bounded scope of contemporary research about the Malay language. The importance of devising a management program for transdisciplinary and transnational collaborative research projects needs to be emphasized, not as an exploration of the past but as a blueprint for the future. 2. TRAVELLERS AND SCHOLARS As noted by Miskic and Goh (2016:518), the beginning of the sixteenth century marked a watershed in the history of Southeast Asia. The arrival of the Portuguese in the first decade of the century did not cause immediate changes in the social and economic structure of the region, but by the end of the century the encroachment of the British and Dutch generated deep and long-lasting restructuring of the regional socioeconomic ecology. The sixteenth century visitors, however, produced eye witness accounts of the roles of Malay and early efforts to understand the meaning of Malay in the region. This era is sometimes called the Age of Discovery because westerners first en Portuguese official posted in Ternate, North Maluku. As he wrote in 1544 (Jacobs (1971) e Malay language has come into vogue; and most of them speak it In sixteenth-century Europe Latin was the language of religion, education, diplomacy and scholarship. especially if we remember that Ternate, the threshold of the Pacific Ocean, is more than 5000 kilometers from Melaka. Basque priest from northwestern Spain, waited in Melaka for favourable winds to bring him to the eastern periphery of Island Southeast Asia. While he was in Melaka, he focused on studying the Malay language. As Schurhammer (1980:30- understood on the islands, Master Francis spent all the time left over from his apostolic labors in studying this language. He had no written or printed works to assist him in learning it, and it was written by the Mohammedans in Arabic characters. In February 1546, Xavier disembarked in Ambon island, where he wrote on 10 May 1546 very common in these parts. With much labor (at the time when I was in Malacca), I translated into this Malayan language the Credo with an explanation of the articles, the general confession, Pater noster, Ave Maria, Salve Regina and the commandments of the law so that they might understand me when I Again in a distant island of the archipelago thousands of kilometres from the Straits of Melaka, Malay was in widespread use, not just among Muslims but among those who had yet converted to a world religion. This led a Catholic priest to choose Malay for his missionary activities. http://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJM 2064 [email protected] James T. Collins and Chong Shin Elsewhere, in the center of Southeast Asia the Malay language was emblematic of major trading cities. As Anthony Reid (1988), summarized the role of the Malay language and its link to identity--- Asia. The cosmopolitan trading cities came to be classified as Malay because they spoke that language and professed Islam, even when their forebears may have been Javanese, Mon, The Dutch missionary and author of a compendium about Southeast Asia and beyond, Francois Valentyn, wrote at length about his own observations in the region (Valentyn 1726, Their language, Bahasa Melayu, that is, the Malay language (whether called after its people or after the country) was not only spoken on the coast, but was used through the whole of the Indies, and in all the Eastern countries, as a language understood everywhere and by everyone, just as French or Latin in Europe, or as the Lingua Franca in Italy or in the Levant, to such an extent that, knowing that language, one never will be at a loss, because it is used and understood in Persia, nay even beyond that country in that region, and also as far as the Philippines. Moreover, if you do not understand this language, you are considered a very badly educated man in the East, whilst the Malays are accustomed to study it, trying their utmost to enlarge their knowledge of it and to learn also Arabic; some among them even study Persian, and those who are more studious still strive to obtain knowledge of Sanskrit, the mother It is by nature a pleasant, mellifluous, charming and very forceful language with which to express oneself. French, Latin, lingua francaMalay was similar to all these languages of wider communication, but Malay was much more. Malay functioned as the language of scholarship and religion like Latin, but also as the language of diplomacy like French. Moreover, Malay was the language of international commerce like the lingua franca of the Mediterranean. Malay played more roles than any single language of Europe.