MODERN PHENOMENA

The closest meaning of the word serumpun would be of the same stock. The word used to reflect the closeness of the two mainstay of the Malay Nusantara (archipelago) - Indonesia and Persekutuan Tanah Melayu or modern day Malaya.

However being serumpun failed to stop hostilities between the two nations in 1962. Indonesia under the president Sukarno started the Konfrantasi (confrontation) to Ganyang Malaysia (crush Malaysia), oppose the formation of the Federation of Malaysia which brought North Borneo (today Sabah), Sarawak, and Singapore together with Malaya into the fold.

The Konfrantasi ended ini 1966 with victory very much favoring Malaysia. There was also a lot of political upheavals in Indonesia which led to the change in the leadership of the republic which contributed to the end of hostilities.

There is more to the Konfrantasi but that is another story.

Suffice to stay, since the hostilities ended, Malaysia-Indonesia relations improved by and by despite hiccups every now and then but none even reach even a fraction of the hostilities during the Konfrantasi.

However, in many instances during these hiccups, some of the Indonesian seemed prone to use the Ganyang Malaysia battle-cry, much to the chagrin of many Malaysian who felt that there was no necessity to invoke those terms which were part of the legacy of the Konfratasi.

Now, it is in fact something to be expected to be shouted by some quarters in Indonesia when upset with Malaysia over issues involving Indonesians, apart from the burning and desecration of the Malaysia flag.

The latest spat which was sparked by accusation that Malaysia had "claimed" the Balinese Pendet dance had let to the invoking of the Ganyang Malaysia and the predictable burning and desecration of the Malaysia flag.

And all these grasdtanding by Indonesian were done despite a detailed explaination by the Malaysian authorities to explain the misunderstanding had been caused by the Singapore-based Discovery Channel which aired several episodes or series of Enigmatic Malaysia, a tourism promotion documentary.

Discovery Channel producers had apologized for making the Pendet dance as Malaysia's, withdrew the episode and replace it with another.

To further prove that Malaysia was very careful about its legacy, it was pointed out that in one of the episode (produced by a local Malaysian company) which highlighted the Malaysian Batek, the producers ensured that it was clearly explained that the Malaysian Batik originated from Indonesia.

Basically, the mistake on the Pendet dance was made by foreign production and had been admitted to, apology extended and the particular documentary withdrawn.

On the part of Malaysia, it was pointed out that its people would go to whatever length to ensure that any shared legacy with Indonesia would be explained in details to avoid incurring wrath with Indonesia.

But these are still not good enough.

A group calling themselves Relawan Ganyang Malaysia is registering volunteers in Indonesia to support the cause to crush Malaysia and reportedly university students are signing up by the droves.

Then, there is also another group which is roaming the streets of Jakarta carrying bamboo spikes and stopping cars to check if there were Malaysian whom they would demand to leave Indonesia.

Then there were calls for the severing of diplomatic ties between the two countries. The only silver lining thus far to the crisis is that the Indonesian authorities and leadership have brushed aside all the saber rattling, declaring as perpetrated by those on the peripherals and did not reflect the sentiments of the majority of the Indonesians.

Be as it may, the saber rattling and the measures taken to prove how serious they were about taking on Malaysia is very disturbing even if pursued by a minority. Their numbers may be small but their "voices" and action are loud for the whole world to hear and see.

It may seem to be quite harsh albeit ridiculous on the part of the Indonesians to react so strongly over an issue of misleading representation of a cultural heritage.

Actually, the latest protest against Malaysia is the strongest after a series of hostiles expression which involved issues of abused Indonesian maid by Malaysian Chinese employer, dispute over oil-rich territory in Ambalat and also two other accusation of theft of Indonesia's legacy - the popular folk song Rasa Sayang (which was used by Malaysia in another tourism promotion) and Malaysia's national anthem Negaraku (which Indonesians claimed to have been adapted from their song Terang Bulan).

Two of the issues - the abuse of maids had seen Malaysian Chinese employers jailed and fined stiffly while the Ambalat dispute is being attended through discussion and negotiation between authorities from both nations.

However, Malaysians are disputing the Indonesian interpretation on the history of the legacy of the two songs and propose that intellectual discourse on the issue would have been much prudent rather than resorting to threats and grandstanding.


One thing which the Indonesians should probably take into consideration before embarking on any public denouncement of Malaysia being "thieves" of their legacy is the very fact of the concept of Nusantara and serumpun.

Firstly, Nusantara meant that Malaysia and Indonesia were both part of the Malay world hence the culture and heritage would have been intertwined.

Secondly, serumpun means that the indigenous people of these two nations are the same and the cross boundaries migration since the day of yore would have seen not only wealth and skills being brought by the migrants but everything of their lifestyles be it cultures, customs, language, food, belief, values and even idiosyncrasies.

In the days of yore too, boundaries never divided the people of Nusantara. The two people are a modern sovereign state concept.

As such, despite the Nusantara being broken up with clear boundaries, the legacy of the people cannot be severed and demarcated as the boundaries.

In Malaysia, there are still group knitted together based on their Indonesian origins from Javanese, Banjaris, Achenese to the Minangs and so forth.

They still practice much of what they brought three or four generation ago though some had adopted what can be described as distinctly Malaysian.

Otherwise, much of what is in Malaysia is very much of what is in Indonesia, a legacy inherited from the Nusantara.

The uptight and angry Indonesians will have to understand this firs.t Then maybe they'd appreciate serumpun.

The decision took place more than half a dozen years ago. But it remains a "textbook example" of how even the brightest executive can make a horrendous decision blunder.

It was autumn 1994. The organization was Intel, the world's largest computer chip maker. And the executive in question was it co-founder and CEO at the time, Andrew Grove. A year earlier, Intel had introduced the powerful Pentium chip. It had quickly become the brains in more than 4 million personal computer.

In late October 1994, a professor in Virginia discovered a flaw in the Pentium chip. In division problems invloving very large numbers, the solution was incorrect. When trade publication wrote an article on the chip's flaw on November 7, Intel admitted that it found the flaw four month earlier and had corrected it. A small but vocal group of customer and computer industry advocates was not happy with that response. They wanted Intel to replace all the flaw chips. Grove and his executive team approached the issue the way they attacked all large challenges - as an engineering problem. They broke it down into smaller parts, analyzed it rationally, and came to a conclusion. The company announced on November 14 that it had decided it would refuse to guarantee replacement chip for all costumer. It would replace faulty Pentium chips, but only if computer owner could demonstrate that they really needed an extra margin of accuracy. The company argued that most users would encounter an inaccurate answer just once in 27,000 years. Grove considered the issue closed.

But the consumer were angry. They didn't want a flawed product. Tens of thousands of people who had bought computer with the Pentium chip wanted a replacement regardless of whether they did complex calculation. Under pressure, Grove again met his senior executive group to analyze the problem. After round-the-clock meetings, they decided to hold their ground. They described the flaw as "minor." Grove insist that the odds were 9 billion to 1 aggainst the Pentium chip causing a mathematical error. But Intel's stance only escalated criticism. Finally, after Intel's marketing director spent the better part of a Sunday afternoon hammering into Grove's head that his decision was wrong, Grove change his ming. On December 21, 1994, Intel abruptly anounced that it would replace all flawed Pentium chip for free, no questions asked. The company spent $475 million replacing those faulty chips. The damage to the company's reputation was undoubtedly a lot greater. Looking back, grove describes his decision not to replace the flawed chips as "an enormous mistake."

How could Grove have made such a blunder? The answer is that he responded to the problem like the engineer he is, he treated the flaw as technical problem, not a consumer problem. From a technical standpoint, logic and reason would argue that there was no need to replace all flawed chips since the flaw affected so few users. What Grove failed to grasp was that people who bought the flawed chip felt taken advantage of. They had paid for a perfect chip and didn't get one. Grove position came across as condescending and arrogant. In this instance, the engineering mentality that Grove so successfully brought to technical problems did him in.