Malay Tradition Research Articles

Some order in ordering; Notes on suruh-constructions in 17th-century Malay

in general, and the form of the first verb and the semantic function of some of the constituents of the construction in particular. menyuruh Ali memanggil Hasan orders Ali to call Fatimah, is one example out of several of the possible types of suruh construction. The diversity of the morphological phenomena connected with the two verbs that form the nucleus of this construction and the mobility of the latter's constituents render these constructions rather complex. Furthermore, s?n//*-constructions seem to belong to those syntactical devices that have undergone change in the course of time. A detailed comparative description of these constructions may allow us to gain an important insight into the development of Malay syntax. As a first step, this case-study attempts to provide a basic description of swrw?-constructions from the 17th century. For the linguistic usage in the surviving manuscripts of that period represents the oldest stage of Malay that furnishes sufficient material to serve as a basis for linguistic research. From among the many traditional Malay texts we must be careful to select those that faithfully reflect 17th-century linguistic usage. This implies that we should use strictly only texts that have been handed down in 17th-century manuscripts. Consequently we have to leave out of consideration texts such as the Sejarah Melayuy which undoubtedly, on the basis of philological/historical evidence, originated in the 17th century or earlier but have been handed down to us only in relatively recent copies (mostly 19th-century). If we take into account the Malay tradition whereby the copyist was at the same time co-author,

Brunei In Transition

Brunei has been undergoing a process of change since the end of World War II. Although oil production began on the great Seria Field in 1929, the economic recession of the 1930s followed by the disruprion of the Second World War precluded litde overall development and for the great majority of Bruneians life continued in the traditional way. Since 1950, however, the income from oil revenue has fuelled a transformaron in Brunei with the pace of change increasing as stage follows stage and external factors enhance and permit further developments. These changes are, however, firmly based in the Islamic religion and Malay traditions and the approach throughout has been cautious and undramaric. The decade of the sevenries was a period of unprecedented upheaval in the world economic and polirical scene. Energy became the crirical factor in most economies following the Organizarion of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) price increases in 1973 and the situation was aggravated by the second oil crisis in 1979. The basic economic divide is now between those with oil and those without, and Brunei profits accordingly. Polidcally, the emergence of China into the world councils altered the balance of power in many regions, not least in Southeast Asia, while the end of the U.S. involvement in Vietnam was succeeded by the expansion of Vietnamese power in Kampuchea and Laos and the problem of the boat people. Within the region, this posed new threats to stability and many lesser problems faded into oblivion when measured against the major threat. All of these changes had an effect on Brunei although the country was buffered by the fact that external affairs were the responsibility of Great Britain under the 1971 revision of the Anglo-British Treaty of 1959. The signing of the Treaty of Friendship and Co-operadon between Britain and Brunei on 7 January 1979 marked the beginning of a five-year transition period leading to the resumption of full independence and sovereignty for Brunei on 31 December 1983. The Treaty contains six articles and is accompanied by five exchanges of notes. Article 2 is central to the agreement and reads as follows:

The Making of Islamic Political Tradition in the Malay World

With regard to the word "Islamic" in the title of this study, "The Making of the Islamic Political Tradition", it might be significant to take the above quotation into consideration. In the Malay tradition, what the people say about themselves seems to support the argument which is revealed in the sentences quoted. One of the most well-known Malay proverbs runs as follows: "to convert to Islam is to become a Malay". This proverb obviously expresses the feelings of the Malay people who identify themselves with Islam. Islam is acknowledged as having constituted a significant part of Malay society; Islam is regarded as the source of its cultural identity. Thus, if what is conceived of as being Islamic as such is accepted, perhaps there is no reason to wonder how "Islamic" Malay society is; and there is a solid validation for taking the sentence quoted as the argument for this study.DOI: 10.15408/sdi.v8i2.687