WE are here talking about the pioneering ways of the Minangkabau community with all its social and cultural traits of old. The organisers have aptly employed the phrase “Merantau: Di mana bumi dipijak di situ langit dijunjung” or in its Baso Minang version: “Marantau: Dima bumi dipijak di sinan langik dijunjueng”. Agreeably, we are all here today because of the marantau culture that has expanded the socio-cultural ambit of Minangkabau. The five million or so of Minang people outside of Minangkabau are well-heeled in many ways and have adjusted well to the demands of the local environment.
The merantau or marantau maxim is a pillar philosophy for those who, having left their homeland for the adventure and glitter in a foster region (rantau), must also conform to the ways of life in his or her new environment.
For us here, let us be more specific and accept the philosophy behind the topic: When you are in Singapore do as the Singaporeans do. This is the most apt interpretation to Marantau: Dima bumi dipijak sinan langik dijunjueng.
So to the anak Minang or the urang awak here on the island Republic of Singapore it would be natural to resound the call: as sons and daughters of parantau in baso Minang or perantau in bahasa Melayu and bahasa Indonesia, Singapore has given you a country, a residence, an identity, education and a livelihood. Not only must you do like what the conscientious Singaporeans do, but you must also do your share to defend it and integrate with its diversities in culture.
The local wisdoms of the various ethnic groups in the Nusantara region are boundless and invaluable in terms of their relevance in determining who we are, whence we came, our language, our finer points of cultural realities and practices. In fact the idioms, proverbs, adat maxims, pantun, perbilangan, pepatah-petitih and other forms of local wisdoms used to be recognised and promoted even during colonial times.
There are numerous principles in the lives of the Minangkabaus that need to be looked at from the Asian point of view. The ubiquitous adat which encompasses budi and the whole kernel of Malay culture has somehow slipped mainstream instruction in schools and universities. The old Malay world holds many attributes of local wisdom of great value to the general psyche of the Malay people in the Nusantara and Asean in general.
In the midst of this obvious deficiency, Asean is forging ahead with its Asean Socio-Cultural Community pillar apart from the other two — the Asean Economic Community and the Asean Security and Political Community. Southeast Asian nations, having historical and cultural links inter se, with India and China in the main, must make concerted efforts to ingrain their modern ways with the wisdom supplement of old Asia. With some 500 million people in the Asean midst, and some 300 million speaking the Malay language, our adat, budi bahasa and other attributive facets that crystallised wisdoms of the ages must find place and be made to re-emerge as specific quantitative, and qualitative contents.
The creation of an Asean Community (AC) is not an empty concoction of wordplay. It must have concrete contents that are identifiable, meaningful and capable of being translated into ongoing socio-cultural ambits that deserve attention and nurture. Otherwise the public who are being primed to expect “delivery” of the AC15 on Dec 31, 2015 will be greatly disappointed if they are anticipating a Cinderella-like transformation on that day. Asean, under Malaysia’s chairmanship, has a heavy transformative agenda this year, namely, (i) delivering on the AC15; (ii) designing the post-2015 agenda which spans a decade to 2025; and (iii) hopefully reviewing the Asean Charter which was due in 2014. I would suggest that this task ought to import certain socio-cultural realities and wisdoms.
A basic reminder that serves the Minangkabau community here is more in the form of reminding friends to carry on the torch of traditions to its logical place and position. That is to say, know your roots, do not be apologetic when it comes to the brunt of displaying the culture of your ancestors who were the pioneers even here in Singapore. The antiquity historiography of Temasik may be ignored and disputed by many modernists but we know that at least 400 years prior to Raffles in 1819 the Malay world had offered Temasik its varied legends and accounts of local politics: its subversion by Majapahit, the emergence of Melaka in 1400 and thence the unfolding of the Melaka sultanate.
Minangkabau persons share the biggest communal ratio in terms of the professionals and tradesmen in Indonesia and to a large extent in the Malay peninsula states. They are well-known for their dexterity in trading, politics and culinary practices. Looking back at the late Yusof Ishak as Singapore’s first president or Zubir Said the national anthem composer alone will at once make us realise that the marantau phenomena for the Minang people had been of great significant development. For ulamak, we have Hamka, for leadership we have Mohamad Hatta, Agus Salim, Sutan Shahrir, For war we have Tuanku Nan Renceh and Tuanku Imam Bonjol. For poetry we have Khairil Anwar; for men of letters we have Hamka again, Abdul Moeis, Marah Rusli.
The Minang Nasi Padang is already a household branding for the culinary and food catering activity throughout the Nusantara region. The randang, lamang and tapai have represented Minang culinary since time immemorial. In Negri Sembilan they have created a permanent adat enclave and established a distinctive Yang Di Patuan Basa system that survives to this day.
I believe we need to justify modernity in all its myriad forms and justifications. To be overawed by the social media world alone, which appears to be the case today, we need to understand our heritage and historical tenets not to mention our local wisdoms. By making Asean as a socio-cultural bedrock, the Asean peoples will at least have a chance to revive its very own philosophical glory.
Confucianism, the adat, the bodhi (from which budi comes from), its poetry and age-old local wisdoms must be repromoted. From Vietnam to Thailand, from the Nusantara areas to Cambodia and Myanmar this realisation must come alive. Only then will the Asean socio-cultural community become meaningful and concrete.
The writer is Adviser to the government of Malaysia on Socio-Cultural Matters. These are excerpts of his keynote address at the Merantau Social Programme at the Pusat Kesenian Melayu Singapura on July 26, 2015.