By Rene Q. Bas
In our region‘s slow but unstoppable movement toward unity, the Malay people of Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines will do well to form a tight bloc within Asean. We Filipinos will do ourselves a disservice if we do not do what the late statesman Blas Ople vigorously recommended: Learn to speak Bahasa Melayu/Indonesia and speak as our ancestors did before Magellan and Legaspi arrived.
The language of our Malay cousins in Malaysia and Indonesia are identical as British English and American are.
Indonesian is the younger language. It developed from Malay, which was the lingua franca of the prosperous kingdoms of the Malay Peninsula, the coastal towns of the Indonesian and Philippine archipelago.
Our pre-Christianization ancestors, the Philippine Malays, spoke Malay. Magellan‘s Malay interpreter, whose name reaches us as “Enrique or Henrique de Malacca” could have been a Philippine Malay the Spaniards got through the Portuguese in Malacca.
Kapampangan—the language of Pampanga which is not a coastal province—is the Philippine language closest to Malay. This reinforces the theory I adhere to that Malay must have been the lingua franca of the Philippine Malays everywhere before and during the 15th century. For language theory posits that the older language of a people is preserved in remote and isolated areas. In the United States, for, example, the English used by the Okies and other highland Americans, until the spread of the TV culture after WWII, was the one closest to the language of Shakespeare.
Now, let me tell you about the phrase “rasa sayang.”
“Rasa” means exactly as our “lasa” does—and more. It means not only “taste” but also “feeling.”
“Merasa” means to feel. “Merasa-i” is to taste. “Saya rasa” means “I think.” (“Saya” is our “ako” but in Bahasa, especially in Indonesia, “ako” is used in sentences in which the one who refers to himself as “ako” is a feudal superior.)
“Bagaimana rasa nya?” is “How does it taste?”
“Tidak berasa” means “tasteless or has no taste.” But it can also mean “heartless, unfeeling.”
“Merasa” means “to feel.”
“Merasakan” means “to feel, to experience. To endure and to bear.”
“Rasa tanggung jawab” means “sense of responsibility.”
Now “sayang” means “longing, love, affection” or “pity, sorry.”
Our use of “sayang” is one way the word is used in Malay and Indonesian. So “Sayang!” means in Bahasa as we use it in Tagalog, “Dear! Dear!”
“Sayang sekali!” means “It‘s a great pity!” and “Alangkah sayang nya!” means “What a pity!” “Kasih sayang” means “to love” or the noun “passion.” “Kesa yangan” is one‘s “darling, pet or favorite.”
One of the most popular old Malay-Indonesian songs is “Rasa Sayang—“Feeling love” or “Feeling a passion” or “Feeling a longing.”
In the days before Lee Kuan Yew‘s republic became a First World country, I was working in Singapore (with Johnny Gat bonton, Arnold Moss, Bert and Blanche Gallardo and the late Noli Galang—and with a happy bunch of Indians, Sri Lankans, Pakistanis, Chinese, Malays and Singaporeans). One of our watering holes was a pub named Rasa Sayang. A chanteuse would sometimes sing the plaintive “Rasa Sayang.”
I am writing about it today on learning news that, as Malaysia‘s New Straits Times says, “It appears that in the eyes of many Indonesians, the use of popular songs like ‘Rasa Sayang‘ and traditional dances like the barongan to promote Malaysian tourism amounts to appropriating what is theirs. As such, we should seek their consent before making use of what belongs to them. All we need to do, said Indonesian Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wachik, is ‘just mention‘ it is Indonesian and ‘just inform us.‘ ”
The Indonesian minister must be blaming himself for not using the song and the dance in his own commercials. The Malaysian commercial is really so beautiful and good. CNN and CNAsia and other cable channels run it.
Happily, the New Straits Times continues, Minister Wachik‘s “is not a sentiment that is to be found within the top circles of the Indonesian government.”
The trouble is that the “feeling… is shared by the Indonesian people and their press who have vented their spleen in the streets and in column centimeters. If the discord over culture, the disputes over territory, the dissatisfaction over the treatment of Indonesian migrant workers, and other troublesome issues which are pushing relations between the two countries into deeper and more troubled waters are not better managed, there is a danger that things could spiral out of control.”
I agree with the NSTPress that it does “not do any good if the invectives and insults degenerate into something worse.”
Source: http://www.manilatimes.net (23 January 2008)
