Contesting “Yawiness”: Negotiating Malay Nationalism on the Peripheries of Thailand and Malaya, 1909 – 1960

Introduction

This study seeks to ask if there was an invention of “Yawiness” that genuinely represented the national consciousness of Thai Malays in ways that could not be represented by modern Malay nationalism. “Yawiness” can be described as a hybridized sense of identity that was a product of cultural, political and social tensions between “Malayness” and “Thainess”. This study proposes to investigate how its manifestation can be seen in the unrealized aspirations of Gampar (Gabungan Melayu Pattani Raya or the Greater Patani Malay Association) to “re-join Malaya” when the Federation of Malaya gained independence in 1957 (McCargo, 2012:2).

A brief historiographical context

One of the most important contributions to the study of identity and territoriality in Thailand since its pre-modern past is Thongchai Winichakul’s Siam Mapped: A History of the Geo-body of A Nation. In this book, Winichakul conceptualized the discourse of Thainess to be existing within the “geo-body” of Thailand. The “geo-body” is where the premodern, indigenous conceptions of space in the Siamese kingdom are rendered ambiguous due to the introduction of modern technologies by colonial conquests in Southeast Asia. As a result, new geographical knowledge in Thailand is faced with a ‘twofold task’: to emphasize the differences between modern and indigenous understandings or to make sense of their ambiguities and co-exist (Winichakul, 1994:59).

Besides discussing the preservation of the Thai geo-body, Duncan McCargo addresses the question of “un-Thainess” in his book, Mapping National Anxieties: Thailand’s Southern Conflict. According to McCargo, the collective fear of territorial loss to Malay Muslims is formulated by “evoking historical myths to suggest a narrative of humiliation and vulnerability” (McCargo, 2012:1). Much of this fear stems from a Thai Buddhist identification of “separatists” tendencies in the cultural, religious and social practices of Malay Muslim life (McCargo, 2012:116). He finds that Malay Muslims are quite ambivalent towards “Thainess”, leaving them with empty and meaningless choices between “separatism” and “loyalty” in regards to their relationship with “Bangkok’s political and cultural authority” (McCargo, 2012:127). As a result, McCargo hints at the historical continuity encapsulated by the notion of “Thainess” which is being discursively challenged by “Malayness”.

Patrick Jory takes the notion of Thainess further by paying attention to the contesting discourses of Thainess, pan-Malayanness, Islamism and the more particular “Melayu Patani” identity that is rooted in the memory of the former Patani sultanate (Jory, 2007:257). He makes close reference to the Malay historiographical tradition, particularly the text, “Hikayat Patani” (The Story of Patani). Based on the text, he highlights the lack of antagonism between the Siamese kingdom and its tributary, Patani, as well as the minimal mention of Islam and Malays in describing the relations between the realms (Jory, 2007:259). This compels him to conclude that the radicalism of militants is inevitably “a logical outcome of the denial of Patani Malay identity and the difficulty involved in fully accepting mainstream Thai identity” (Jory, 2007:277).

It is this historically constituted tension between “Malayness” and “Thainess” that does not seem to be captured as much in seminal works like Siam Mapped when attempting to articulate the political grievances in southern Thailand today. Instead, this tension focuses on demonstrating how the discourse of Thai political history is “structured on the loss and preservation of its territory”. Consequently, this has affected representations of the origins of “separatism” in southern Thailand (Aphornsuvan, 2004:2-3). In spite of the many cultural, social and political similarities shared by Malays and Thais, the relationship between these two groups are “characterized” by misunderstandings and fear. This might explain why “territorial nationalism and the remembrance of past wars” are central to a Thai Malay sense of belonging. At the same time, the tension between two essentialist notions of identity represent he ambiguities on the shared peripheries as “destructive sources of potentially violent conflict” (Jenne, 2014:169)

Research questions

In Prasenjit Duara’s review of Siam Mapped, he posed the question: “Does the geo-body acquire its meaning simply from its territorial delimitation, or also from a racial conception at its core?” (Duara, 1995:479). Similarly, Renard suggests that in order to define the minorities of Thailand today, there ought to be a conception of the “Other” in Thai culture that dates back to the beginning of this process in the ancient kingdom of Ayuthayya (Renard, 2006:300-301). It appears as if it is not just a contestation of two essentialist forms of “Thainess” and “Malayness” (McCargo, 2012:124). Instead, there is a certain level of particularity due to the geographical ambiguity that surrounds the Malay Muslims of Patani. As Gilquin has pointed out, the Yawi language of Patani Malays has a “specific cultural context and worldview” combined with a “powerful attachment to Islam”. Unlike its Malay-speaking counterparts in British Malaya and the Dutch Indies, the political consciousness of Patani has not secularized itself from its glorious past as a centre of Islamic scholarship by holding on to Yawi and a Thai-Malay brand of Islam (Gilquin, 2005:54).

A study to investigate the emergence of “Yawiness” is highly relevant to developing a better understanding of the national consciousness of Thai Malays. However, an understanding can only be achieved by comparing it to the advent of “Malayness” propounded by its bordering neighbour West Malaysia, formerly known as the Federation of Malaya. It can be seen that the secessionist ambitions of Gampar were inspired by the development of a modern, anti-colonial Malay nationalism in Malaya. It has been mentioned that aspirations to “re-join Malaysia” were mooted in the 1950s, but were ignored in the lead-up to Malaya’s independence (McCargo, 2012:2). Such contrasting visions of “Malayness” should be explored to find out how they have informed the attitudes of the leaders of a newly independent Malaya towards the liberation struggle of Malays in Southern Thailand and the development of the discourse of “Yawiness” as a separatist worldview.

Research methodology

To examine questions surrounding the concept of “Yawiness”, this study will compare the development of Malay nationalism in British Malaya and Thailand after the signing of the Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909 up to the establishment of the Federation of Malaya following independence in 1957. Besides analyzing relevant historical documents such as letters, photographs, treaties, maps, and political statements, this study will be guided by the longue durée perspective. The basis of this approach is the concept of an episodic history (histoire événementielle) which takes into account of the existence of “social continuities, the multiple and contradictory temporalities of human lives” (Braudel and Wallerstein, 2009:173). This would be useful to analyze the ideological “turning points” of political movements in Southern Thailand (Braudel and Wallerstein, 2009:174).

Bibliography

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