Alamat Langkapuri in Sarandib: The World’s first Malay-language Newspaper Exiled in Ceylon
It is from the Sarandib, the Arab word for what we now know as Sri Lanka, that ‘serendipity’ got its meaning. This was coined in...
PEMENANG: The Early Years of the Penang Malay Association
THE founding of the Penang Malay Association (PMA) on the Sunday of 27 March, 1927 was to give support to the Singapura Malays and Eunos...
Pekerjaan Kalam: Communicating literatures across the Archipelago
THE nation’s leading periodical on Literature is being distributed gratis beginning some years ago. Dewan Sastera is not sold in the market. It is placed...
The Maoris: Resisting the Pakeha, Discovering Maoriness in the Whenua
IN March 2014, I presented a paper titled “Early European/Pakeha Discourses on Melayu-Polynesian Identity”. It was at Waitangi, at the Bay of Islands, some 230...
Spanish Journalism and Media in the Malay Archipelago: The Press in early Philippines
THE narrative of colonial presence in the Malay Archipelago has largely forgotten the Spaniards. We remember Dutch and British newspapers, publishing and printing activities in...
The Kadazandusun and Fuad Stephens: Journalism and the creation of an Identity
ON 30 June 1960, the North Borneo News and The Sabah Times (NBNST) published an article titled "Dusun or Kadazan". It was penned by Donald...
Maps, Renderings, Images: The Malay World before Photography
EQYPTIAN / Greek astronomer, mathematician and geographer, Claudius Ptolemy calls the Malay Peninsula the Chersonesus Aurea (‘The Golden Peninsula’). The Indians refer to it as...
Al-Imam and Japan: Syed Shaykh al-Hady’s Cry to the Malays
IT was Japan, with her symbol of the Rising Sun, that gave impetus to the publication of reformist periodical Al-Imam (1906-1908) in the Malay journalism...
The Siamese Farang: Quest for Siwilai and Identity
THE Thais, like some ethnicities in the world, experience problems of self and identity. One is how the foreign Other defines Thai and Thainess. That...
Penang Free School White Shirts: The National Consciousness of Datuk Dr. Abdul Wahab Ariff
THE Pulau Pinang or Tanjong Malays are usually not remembered for their nationalism. Some weeks ago, a state government agency contacted me asking for names...