Tag: Indonesia
-
If This Makes You Uncomfortable, You Should Ask Yourself Why
This piece is not written about you. It is written to you. This is addressed to everyone across Southeast Asia, particularly to those who benefit from dominant historical narratives and feel unsettled when indigenous communities seek to reclaim histories that were marginalised, softened, or rewritten. To you, who insist you are not racist, who genuinely…
-
Bumiputera Privileges: Why They Are Justified and Should Not be Challenged
In Southeast Asia, the question of indigenous rights and privileges often arises in public discourse, particularly in multi-ethnic nations such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, and Singapore. Indigenous or native communities, including the Malays in Malaysia and Singapore, the Brunei Malays, and various native groups in Indonesia, have historically been granted special rights, protections, and access…
-
Rooted and Unapologetic: Embracing Indigenous Pride in Southeast Asia
Indigenous identity in Southeast Asia has been historically devalued, leading many native people to suppress who they are. Pride must endure even when it is questioned, mocked, or dismissed by more economically affluent migrant communities. According to UNESCO, indigenous peoples across the Asia-Pacific region have faced sustained cultural marginalisation that pressures them to abandon language,…
-
Southeast Asia’s Hidden Hierarchy: Indigenous Disadvantage, Chinese Dominance
Walk through the skyscraper-filled skylines of Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Jakarta, Bangkok, or Ho Chi Minh City, and a pattern emerges that is almost too obvious to mention. The banks, conglomerates, ports, plantations, and industrial empires are disproportionately controlled by ethnic Chinese families, often long-settled, naturalised citizens who dominate sectors that shape national economies. Meanwhile, the…
-
The Racism Behind “Jungle Asian”
The slur “jungle Asian” is often brushed off as crude humour, a throwaway insult not worth engaging with. But language like this does not emerge accidentally. It exposes a hierarchy that has quietly taken hold within Asian communities themselves, one that elevates East Asians while positioning Southeast Asians as something less developed, less refined, less…
-
Inside the Hidden World of Magic in the Malay Culture
For all its modernisation, the Malay world still carries an undercurrent rarely captured in policy papers or tourism brochures, a complex belief system magic. Far from fringe superstition, these practices are deeply rooted in Malay cultural history, shaping social norms, village dynamics, traditional healing, and even the way communities interpret conflict or protection. Here is…
-
Why Some Histories Are Accepted Without Question, While Others Are Treated Like Myths
By someone who has spent more nights with old manuscripts than with actual people. History has a funny temperament. In some regions, it sits comfortably and unchallenged, like a pampered cat perched atop a bookshelf. Medieval Europe is allowed to have its knights and castles without anyone demanding footnotes. The Middle East enjoys an uncontested…
-
The Austronesian Tide: How Seafaring Genius Gave Birth to Asia’s Maritime Civilisations
Long before recorded history, before the rise of Srivijaya or Majapahit, before Chinese merchants and Indian traders reached the archipelagos, the seas of Southeast Asia were already alive with movement. This was the world of the early Austronesians, a maritime civilisation rooted in Island Southeast Asia, whose seafaring knowledge shaped migrations, trade routes, and later…
-
A Shared Wound, A Shared Conscience
Before present-day borders, Palestine awakened the Nusantara’s political and spiritual conscience. The Early Connections: Faith, Empire, and Awakening In the first half of the twentieth century, the Malay world was still finding its voice under colonial rule. Steamships carried pilgrims and students from Penang, Singapore, and Kelantan, and from Batavia, Aceh, and Surabaya, to Mecca…
-
Echoes of The Indigenous Narrative: Our Story Begins Here
For centuries, the voices of Southeast Asia’s first peoples have echoed through its forests, islands, and seas, yet their stories remain unheard. The Indigenous Narrative was created to change that. Southeast Asia is a region overflowing with diversity, heritage, and culture. From its mist-covered highlands to its vast archipelagos, this land has always been home…
The Indigenous Narrative 