INTRODUCTION: KAMPUNG CHITTY, MALACCA

Ten minutes from historic Malacca's town centre is its best–kept cultural secret. It is Kampung Chitty, a quiet village of one hundred Malay–speaking Hindus, descendants of Malacca's fourteenth–century Tamil merchant community. Popularly known as “Chitty ” but also referred to as Peranakan Indians (see Appendix 2.1), they reside in a five–acre village off a main road in Gajah Berang. On my first visit one evening I notice an old woman in sarong kebaya standing on the village road, deep in prayer. Her palms are clasped on her forehead and are pointed toward an old (1887) Shiva Temple at the village entrance, from which emanates the sounds of bells and Hindu devotional songs. At the end of the village road is a larger and older (1822) Mariamman Temple with intricate, colourful statues and figurines. An old Chinese man casually walks in to pray.

The houses are a mix of Malay, Chinese and Indian architectural styles. One small house built on stilts has a Sumatran Minangkabau–style roof, ornate concrete balustrades, and red lanterns in the veranda. Inside is an altar with photographs of Hindu deities. But there is also a table with very large black–and–white old photographs, similar to Taoist ancestor–worship altars. Some occupants of the house look “Indian”, others “Malay” or “Chinese”. The older women wear sarong kebaya, and everyone including the children speaks in Malay.

The Chitty are an epitome of the cross–cultural influences embraced by Malacca through six centuries. Through interaction, intermarriage and acculturation with ancient Malacca's cosmopolitan port population of Malays, Peranakan Chinese, Javanese and Bataks they have evolved a hybrid culture, with their language, cuisine, dress, dance and music incorporating diverse influences. Yet their identity has remained anchored in their deeply orthodox Saviate (Siva–worship) Hindu faith, their core residential space and Malay, their mother tongue (Dhoraisingam 2006, pp. xi–xii; Narayanasamy 2004, pp. 5–6).

This is the story of how a tiny hybrid community, a “little tradition”, has survived five “great traditions” (Redfield 1956), namely, a Malay Empire, Portuguese, Dutch and British colonial rule, and a Malaydominated Malaysian post–colonial State. Despite colonial dislocation and dispersion, communal land ownership has saved their village.

Malaysia is among the most ethnically diverse and culturally rich nations on earth. Yet much of its cultural wealth lies buried beneath the rubric of its main Malay, Chinese and Indian “race” categories; the dazzling diversity within and outside these groups remains largely unexplored. In this book I uncover some of this fascinating diversity through the stories of five ethnic minorities: the Tamil Muslims of Penang, the Portuguese Eurasians and Chitty of Malacca, the Peranakan Chinese of Terengganu and the Baweanese of Selangor.

The book outlines their shared histories and overlapping identities by examining their migration patterns, occupations, locations, religious traditions and — where relevant — their built–heritage, language, cuisine, dress and music. To what extent have they maintained their identities, or been transformed by inter–ethnic interaction, acculturation and assimilation? How are they affected by social change, inter–marriage and out–migration? How do they harness their multiple identities? What of their futures? What lessons do these hybrid groups offer for inter–ethnic relations and nation–building today? These are some questions this book attempts to answer.

This publication will interest not only laymen, but also scholars, students and visitors interested in culture, ethnicity, heritage and migration in Malaysia and the region. There is little published, discussed and debated about these groups, which by virtue of their smaller numbers and relatively weaker political and economic power are overshadowed by larger communities. While there have been articles, chapters, and in recent years some books on individual groups, there are very few publications introducing a range of ethnic minorities in one volume, allowing for an analysis of common issues.

Most previous work comprises historical monographs or specialized cultural, anthropological and migration studies. There are also a few journal publications, seminar papers and magazine and newspaper articles on their language, music, culture, and performing arts. This book draws on these works to provide a historical and cultural backdrop, but relies on original fieldwork including interviews, personal profiles and local histories from community leaders and ordinary people to link broader historical and cultural trends to experiences and perceptions at group and individual level. In other words, it attempts to give voice to people, and to discuss their past and future as they understand and experience it.

WHY I WROTE THIS BOOK

This book is inspired by my childhood experiences in the diverse cultural milieu of old Malacca. I grew up in Bandar Hilir, near the seaside fronting the Straits which gave birth to its great cosmopolitan port. My neighbours and playmates included Peranakan Chinese, Portuguese and Dutch Eurasians. We spoke Malay, and our playground was the breezy seaside padang (field) near the town centre. A tourist would have had a hard time figuring us out; there were Malay–looking boys with vibhuti on their foreheads, Indians buying Malay–style cakes from a Chinese, and Portuguese Eurasian, Peranakan Chinese and Peranakan Indian mothers in Malay–style kebaya and kerongsang. Yet we were doing just what Malaccans had done for centuries in this multi–ethnic port–city — revelling in its rich hybrid culture which had seeped through porous ethnic borders.

I had multiple identities. I was Malayan, Malay–speaking, Malaccan, Ceylonese Tamil and Catholic. When firecrackers exploded non–stop one night in 1963 I realized I had also became Malaysian. But there were no contradictions between the many worlds I inhabited. My religious values were universal and perennial, but my cultural boundaries were permeable. For me this was so natural that I simply never thought about it.

However I soon came to realize that my Malacca childhood had insulated me from the harsh realities of my own country. During two careers spanning thirty years, first as a journalist and later as a migration researcher, I travelled to various parts of the country and met Malaysians of many ethnic backgrounds. While I was impressed by high economic growth, I was distressed by the way ethnic ideology and politics was engendering a hardening of cultural boundaries, particularly between Malays, Chinese and Indians. Worse, there was a lack of creative and concerted attempts to counter these divisive trends by highlighting our shared histories and cultures, common universal spiritual values and our interlinked future.

The gap between economic growth and ethnic harmony is particularly high in Malaysia. This is despite the fact that affirmative action via the New Economic Policy (NEP), the main thrust of Malaysian nation–building since 1970, has in many ways made Malaysia a model multi–ethnic developing society.

This book presents — for the first time in a single volume — fascinating historical and ethnographic details of five hybrid ethnic minorities in Peninsula Malaysia. They comprise Penang's Indian Muslims, Malacca's Chitties and Portuguese Eurasians, Trengganu's Peranakan Chinese, and the Baweanese, who are of Indonesian origin. The Baweanese chapter, in particular, stands out as a significant contribution to the literature on Peranakan–types in the Malay world.

Combining the acuity of a scholar with the skills of a journalist, Patrick Pillai leads us on an intriguing journey, tracing how migration histories, occupations and residential locations facilitated interaction and acculturation.

His aim is to highlight Malaysia's rich diversity, and to discover how the experiences of these Peranakan–type communities can provide useful lessons in cultural intermingling, sharing and ethnic harmony. He finds that working, living and schooling together are essential prerequisites, as is proficiency in Malay, which bridges and bonds diverse ethnic groups.

However his fieldwork indicates that acculturation is a necessary but insufficient prerequisite to fostering inter–ethnic harmony; a sense of belonging is equally vital. Such inclusiveness, he argues, is best achieved through multi–ethnic politics and policies consonant with affirmative action. He concludes with a plea for inter–cultural dialogue to cultivate greater understanding, empathy and trust between diverse ethnic and religious groups.

Written with sensitivity and insight towards both minorities and the larger communities, this book is an outstanding contribution to interethnic understanding, to ethnic studies in general, and minority studies in particular. For Malaysian Studies enthusiasts this is a must read.

INTRODUCTION

Despite the obsession with race and religion in public discourse, Malaysia has made many strides towards nationhood since 1957:

1. • The identification of race with social and economic function has been weakened.

2. • The vibrant economy has united our disparate racial groups.

3. • Sabah and Sarawak have given to pluralism a territorial dimension.

4. • Malaysia has successfully used the economy to create and maintain social harmony. By encouraging entrepreneurship and allowing the minority communities to provide leadership in the economic arena, twin objectives have been achieved: the economy has developed fabulously. Every community has acquired a stake in the country.

NOT ALL IS WELL, HOWEVER

Sadly, since the nineties racial and religious polarization has reached alarming levels. We have become a “nation of strangers”. In many corners of the world walls of separation are being dismantled. Sadly, in our society these walls are being fortified. Recently the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an advisory body of the U.S. Government, placed us on Tier 2 of a Watch List over concerns about limitations in Malaysia on freedom of religion. To this bleak picture two qualifications must be added.

One, some of the racial and religious discord that exists in our society is a natural process of democratic freedoms. As a transforming society opens up, pent up feelings are expressed, often in ways that are deeply hurtful to others.

Second, many of the conflicts between the Muslims and non–Muslims of this country are actually not about Islam versus non–Islamic religions but about a resurgent Eastern society seeking an alternative to the hegemony of “Western” values.

INTRODUCTION: A VILLAGE BY THE SEA

At first sight there is little “Portuguese” about the Portuguese Settlement, a seaside village outside Malacca town. Most people have brownish complexion, some women wear sarongs, and their homes are more akin to those in an urban Malay kampung than an exotic “Portuguese” village. But a closer look reveals a crucifix and an image of the Virgin Mother Mary at house entrances. Children play barefoot on narrow streets, speaking a strange mixture of English and Malay, interspersed with screams of “Alleluia!” (Fieldwork 15 September 2008). The people here speak a Portuguese Creole called Kristang, practise a common Catholic religion, and live a culture which, through long interaction within Malacca's diverse cultural milieu has became a Malay–Portuguese–Eurasian hybrid, with Chinese, Indian, Dutch and English influences. This hybridization is also evident in their ethnic origins, family names, language, religion, cuisine, dress, and performing arts and varied descriptions of them as Malaysian Portuguese, Portuguese Eurasians, Luso–Malays, Serani (Nesrani or Christians in Malay) or simply Kristang or Christian in their own language (Sarkissian 2002).

Set by the sea on 11.5 hectares two kilometres south of the city, the settlement was built in 1934 by the Catholic Church, elite Eurasians and the British to improve housing and living conditions for poor fishermen of Portuguese descent who lived as squatters in overcrowded seaside villages. Today it remains a vibrant community. “We have 120 houses and 1,200 residents, but only forty depend on fishing for a livelihood,” says Peter Gomez, the headman or regedor (Interview, 15 September 2008). The majority of young wage earners today work in services and manufacturing; the rest comprise housewives, students and pensioners. Housing is still a problem among some poorer families, especially those involved in fishing, and in the poorer streets of the settlement it is common for one house to be occupied by several families. In addition about 300 Portuguese Eurasians occupy private and public low–cost flats around the settlement, and 1,000 others reside in nearby Ujong Pasir and suburbs such as Bukit Baru (Interview, Michael Barnerji, 26 July 2011).

The community is widely dispersed, with a diaspora of over 10,000 members living in other Malaysian towns, Singapore, and Perth. Despite their dispersion, many return yearly to the settlement and to churches and chapels linked to it for family reunions and religious festivals.

The literature on widows and widowers has focused mostly on coping and adjustment aspects as well as factors that have enhanced the adaptation of the surviving spouse to the newly achieved status of widow or widower (Lopata 1973, 1987, 1996; Silverman 1986; Utz et al. 2002; Chambers 2005). It has been reiterated that gender is a mediating factor that explains different strategies of adjustment, and that socio-cultural or contextual influences have a bearing on the choices made by the surviving spouses. Against this scenario, a multi-disciplinary research project titled “Widowhood: The Asian Experience” was undertaken on widows and widowers age 50 years and above in Singapore in 1997– 2000, funded by the National University of Singapore, because of a lack of research on this particular age group.

THE SINGAPORE CONTEXT

According to the Singapore Census of Population 1990 and 2000, there were 127,300 widows and 129,200 widowers in Singapore (Singapore Census of Population 1990 Release No. 1: 51 and Singapore Census of Population 2000 Advanced Release No. 8: 1). While widowhood is not related to chronological age, the demographics show that the majority of widowed persons belong to the age group 50 years and above. Two key points should be mentioned here. First, Singapore is a rapidly ageing society and the percentage of its population 65 years and above will increase from 7 per cent in 1999 to 19 per cent in 2030 (Inter-Ministerial Report on the Ageing Population 1999). Second, because of the gender differentials in life expectancy and the fact that women tend to marry men older than themselves, the phenomenon of “feminization” of ageing occurs, that is, in the older age groups women form the majority. Owing to these two demographic factors, there are a larger number of widows as compared to widowers above the age of 65 years in Singapore. The proportion ratio is about 5:1 (Singapore Census of Population 2010).

INTRODUCTION

Rapid population ageing in many Asian countries including Thailand has led to increasing public concern about the vulnerability of the elderly. In addition, gender has been identified as a factor that might worsen the situation among older women, especially their quality of life. The processes of socialization, socio-economic development, as well as cultural setting are likely to have a cumulative impact on their life course, especially during old age. In particular, gender differences may lead to differing ability between men and women in preparing themselves for quality ageing. Insufficient or poor preparation for old age may degrade the quality of life as well as the ability of older people to contribute to society. Past studies tended to investigate the factors influencing preparation for old age, but rarely linked the preparation process with active ageing.

According to the World Health Organization, “active ageing” has been defined as the process of optimizing opportunities for health, participation and security in order to enhance quality of life as people age (World Health Organization 2002). In this sense, the word “active” refers to the ability to be physically active by participating in the labour force as well as by continuing participation in social, economic, cultural, spiritual, and civic affairs. Active participation in social activities by older persons not only increases their quality of life in terms of maintaining their autonomy, independence, and dignity, but also promotes intergenerational relationships and increases their contribution towards sustainable development in an ageing society.

This chapter presents gender differences in the preparation for old age and investigates the relationship between preparation for old age and active ageing among the present and future cohorts of male and female elderly in Thailand.

DATA SOURCES

Two sets of national surveys have been used for the analysis in this chapter. The first data set is the 2007 National Survey on Older Persons in Thailand conducted by the National Statistical Office.

INTRODUCTION

Today's population of older Cambodians lived through an exceptionally traumatic period of history during their adult years. Prolonged civil strife starting in the 1960s eventually led to the complete take over of the country by the brutal Khmer Rouge regime in 1975. During their fouryear rule, political violence, severe food shortages, and lack of medical care resulted in the deaths of as much as a fourth of the population (Heuveline 1998). Many who died were the children or spouses of today's older-aged population. Social dislocation, continuing political conflict, pervasive poverty, and an AIDS epidemic took their toll during the succeeding years resulting in further losses of family members. These events potentially threaten the core family support of older persons in a country that is among the poorest in Asia and where formal channels of assistance are minimal (Knodel 2007; Zimmer et al. 2006).

Population ageing is at an early stage in Cambodia with less than 6 per cent of the current total population being 60 or older, the lowest proportion of elderly of all the countries in Southeast Asia (Mujahid 2006). The low proportion of elderly in the population has resulted in the general lack of attention to issues related to older persons by the Cambodian government and most international agencies. Nevertheless, over one in four households or around 27 per cent has at least one member who is 60 or older. With recent prodding by UNFPA and HelpAge International, ageing is beginning to emerge as an issue on the government's agenda, although efforts are modest and mostly appear to be in the planning stages (Office of the Council of Ministers 2007; UNESCAP 2007).

Gender issues in general have received some attention in Cambodia, although the focus almost exclusively concerns the interests of women. Again this is in part, if not in the main, in response to the prompting and support of international agencies (UNIFEM et al. 2004; UNDP Cambodia 2008).

INTRODUCTION

The world has undergone significant demographic shifts since the second half of the twentieth century. Fertility rates have declined significantly—principally because women have gained greater educational levels—and for many of these women, marriage no longer promises the benefits it once did to earlier generations (Bongaarts 1999; Castles 2003; Jones 2003, 2004, 2007, 2009b; Kim 2005). For this reason, marriages are occurring at a later age as young women have found more reasons to resist or at least postpone this rite of passage (Jones 2003, 2004, 2009a). Another staggering demographic shift has been demonstrated by the ageing of populations with a doubling in average life expectancy compared with figures from the last century (Kinsella 2009). While these demographic trends have enormous repercussions on the economies of countries, older persons, in particular, have been labelled as a “burden” by governments since they are seen to place hefty demands on healthcare and social security systems and, in turn, to exert higher pressures on the productive population (Mujahid 2006; Mehta 1997a). Apart from the economic implications of this trend, the impact of population ageing on national security and the sustainability of families has also been flagged as critical concerns deserving of attention (Jackson and Howe 2008; Kinsella 2009).

One thing for certain is that the perception of older women and men has not been the same in the discourse on ageing populations. The social construction of ageing is distinctly gendered in that men and women have been found to experience life differently in their older age in part because of their gender. First, women have an obvious “demographic advantage” in that they live longer than men. This phenomenon which continues across the life course into old age has led to the coining of the phrase ‘feminization of ageing’ which suggests that there are greater proportions of older women than men (Kinsella 2009; Gist and Velkoff 1997). Whether experiencing a longer life expectancy is necessarily an advantage to women, however, is far more nuanced since larger proportions of them compared with older men tend to live greater number of years in disability.

INTRODUCTION

Studies on gender and ageing have generally established that with the “feminization of ageing”, older women face more vulnerabilities than older men. In Singapore, the 2004 AWARE-TSAO Foundation Report on Women and Income Security in an ageing Singapore population found that Singapore is similarly affected with this phenomenon, as shown in the sex ratio for age groups in Singapore. The 2000 Singapore census shows that the sex ratio increases drastically from 1.061 (females per 1,000 males) for those age 60–69 years to 1.72 (females per 1,000 males) for those age 80–89 years. Older women face more vulnerabilities pertaining to health and finances. In terms of health, older women have higher needs for long-term care (Chia et. al. 2008). As a survey in a nursing home in Singapore shows, 70 per cent of its residents are female, with the majority single, widowed, and above the age of 75 (Yap et. al. 2003). There is also a larger number of older women compared to older men living in one-or two-room public housing flats, which suggests a higher level of poverty among them. Most of the above mentioned older women are either single, widowed, divorced or separated. Older women tend to have fewer financial means as compared to older men as childcare has kept them out of the workforce for a greater number of years. Moreover, they tend to be lowly educated, with only 10 per cent of women age 60 and above receiving education beyond primary school level. Similarly, a study of the retirement needs of elderly Singaporeans concluded that older women face severe inadequacy in retirement financial needs — a posited 12 per cent higher than that for older men (Chia 2008, p. 36). These reports highlight the plight of older women. As Tsao Foundation's report of the study states: “The situation of older women in the future looks grim as there are fewer siblings to share the financial cost of care giving. Moreover, the older woman is likely to be widowed and frailer due to longer life span and old age disabilities.”