Malaysia. Letters of Sincerity. The Raffles collection of Malay letters (1780–1824). A descriptive account with notes and translation. By Ahmat Adam. Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 2009. Pp. 420. Plates, Appendices, Notes, Bibliography and Index.

Abstract

Letters of Sincerity. The Raffles collection of Malay letters (1780-1824). A descriptive account with notes and translation By AHMAT ADAM Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 2009. Pp. 420. Plates, Appendices, Notes, Bibliography and Index. This book is based on an extended essay the author submitted at SOAS in fulfilment of the MA degree in History in 1971. Although the eminent Raffles expert, John Bastin, stimulated the author to submit the thesis for publication, Ahmat Adam did not find the time or opportunity to work on the revisions before his retirement in 2005. Fortunately, the fact that this is a 30-year old thesis did not deter the author or the publisher from 'dusting off and revising the old thesis. As might be expected the book certainly shows some flaws from its transition from thesis into a book, but its great merit is that for the first time the book allows a large audience to view and use these primary sources in transliterated form accompanied with a good and reliable English translation. The book contains more than eighty Malay documents predominantly related to the British endeavour to obtain military support and provisions, livestock and information from independent rulers in the Malay Peninsula and Indonesia on the eve of the invasion of Java by British troops in 1811. In 1969 Bastin rediscovered these documents with Raffles' descendants in Scotland and the letters were soon reunited with the other items in the Raffles' family collection of letters, papers and other materials in the India Office Library, first on permanent loan, but in 2007 the British Library raised the funds to purchase the collection. The author presents the documents in six parts and subdivides them in accordance with their geographical origin (e.g. Part III: Letters from Sumatra; Chap. VIII: Siak letters). Each part has a concise introduction about the historical context of the region at the beginning of the nineteenth century, while more specific information is provided in footnotes. Here I will briefly discuss three regions that form the main providers of the documents. Perhaps rather surprisingly, Bali was the third biggest contributor of Malay letters, as Raffles considered the island of paramount importance in his strategy to conquer Java and envisaged it to supply 15,000 men with provisions and livestock (p. 321). There are ten Malay letters from the polity of Buleleng, under the ruler of Karangasem at the time, discussing their friendly relations, the rulers' eagerness to get rid of the Dutch, and the presents exchanged. There is also one letter in Balinese on palm leaf written by the ruler himself of which the Balinese original was enclosed with a Malay letter (Bali IX). A transliteration of the Balinese text and a Malay translation are given in an appendix. The English translation in the main section on Bali contains some confusing mistakes, which may be caused by errors in the Balinese original, but were left without comments by the editor. For instance, the English translation mentions that the ruler is sending twenty men or slaves as presents which is also stated in the Balinese original, but in the Malay translation of the text, and in the Malay letter accompanying the Balinese lontar manuscript, only two slaves are mentioned. In the introduction to the Palembang documents, the second most important contributor to the collection with 11 documents, the rule of the rather unmanageable Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin is discussed, in particular, the prelude to the massacre of the Dutch garrison in September 1811. Ostensibly, Raffles instigated Sultan Badaruddin in killing the Dutch in the first letters he sent to Palembang which contain the phrase pukul buang habiskan sekali-kali segala orang Holandes ('attack, evict and finish off all the Dutch'). The ruler seemed quite reluctant initially as the Dutch had been friendly with the Palembang court, but evidently changed his mind and decided to kill the garrison. …