Culture and Dusun adat (customs) expert Raymond Tombung is perplexed that no one has thus far emphasised the common cultural heritage of Indonesia and Malaysia in the ongoing spat between the two countries which has worsened "to the point of war cries".

"Malaysia indulging in cultural theft from Indonesia is a non-starter," said Tombung. "It must be remembered that the Malays in Malaysia descended from groups that came from various parts of Indonesia."

Malay was the umbrella term used by the British colonialists for the various groups from the Indonesian islands that settled down in Malaysia over the centuries.

NONEBriefly, Malays in Malaysia are only singing the songs and dancing the dances that they had brought long ago from their original motherland viz. the Indonesian islands.

The case of who has a right over a common cultural heritage does not arise, added Tombung who wanted to contribute his "two-sen worth" to the ongoing debate on the cultural war between the two countries.

Tombung, however, conceded that the overwhelmingly Hindu-Buddhist pendet of Bali does not appear to be part of the collection of Malaysian dances which includes the joget, kuda kepang, mak yong and zapin.

"The US production house in Singapore made a mistake to feature pendet as a Malaysian dance," said Tombung. He was referring to a recent trailer for Tourism Malaysia which sparked off the cultural spat between the two countries.

The shoot featured two dancers from the Indonesian Art Institute in Den Pasar, Bali.

No right to claim exclusivity

However, the Indonesians cannot easily claim an exclusive right to Rasa Sayange, allegedly stolen by Malaysia from Maluku (the Moluccas), said Tombung.

"Its simple beauty and expressive tune reflects the soul and character of numerous peoples in the archipelago. It makes us wonder if it had not been sung since time immemorial in the Malay world," he added.

"Having been around for so long, it seems unreasonable to forbid us to sing it now."

If the Indonesians can claim an exclusive right to Rasa Sayange, Tombung expects them to next dispute Malaysia’s continued claim to gongs, the Javanese culinary arts carvings, royal court traditions – dress, protocol, titles etc, the Dusun Lotud traditional house and mojumbak tunes with the kulintangan and gongs and the adat pepatih and adat temenggong practiced in Negeri Sembilan and even the Malay language.

Tombung questioned if all the products of Malay language education and literary masterpieces of Malaysia will now be considered as cultural pilferage from Indonesia "which originally spawned and developed the Malay language?"

He added the interesting snippet that the Malay language is in fact largely based on the Sanskrit language of India. "Of the original Malay language, only five words are left," said Tombung and referred to padi (rice plant) and babi (swine) as among them.

As a result of Indian influence, it is said, the term Indonesia itself derives from two Greek words viz. Indos (Indian) and Nesos (islands).

Where is all this heading? asks Tombung. "Will the English next ask us to stop speaking English and the Chinese make a similar demand with Mandarin and the Chinese dialects?"

It would be a nightmare if the Anglo-Saxons started demonstrating in Trafalgar Square in London and the Chinese in Tienamen Square in Beijing against Malaysia.

Negative image on websites

There are a million and one things in the Malay world, said Tombung, which have long been established as being open to common ownership by virtue of shared origins.

"This is not just confined to fine arts, architecture, costumes, royal court traditions, languages and so on."

It’s unlikely that Indonesians would be impressed by those in the know like Tombung who would like to enter into reasoned debate on culture and other issues.

Indonesian websites are more interested in circulating the seven "facts" about Malaysians: Poor, lazy, cheats, friends who eat friends, full of themselves, uncultured and rumour-mongers.

Indonesian workers in Malaysia, fed on stories about abuse, are said to be relaying home negative images of Malaysians as ugly, quarrelsome and selfish people who look down on their neighbours.

Therein may lie the origin of the cultural spat between Indonesia and Malaysia.

The cultural discord between Indonesia and Malaysia is by no means over but may have culminated with Jakarta declaring a "batik victory" over Malaysia.

This follows Unesco's decision to add the Indonesian batik form to its list of world’s Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Batik is by no means unique to Indonesia and was known much earlier in ancient India, Sumeria, ancient Egypt, Central Asia, China and Africa.

Batik form, in the case of Indonesia as noted by Unesco, refers to the unique way of producing batik in that country and not to the art form itself.

Although the word's origin is said to be Javanese, its etymology may be either from the Javanese amba ('to write') and titik ('dot' or 'point') or lie elsewhere.