(23 December 1998 ) A Malaysian Journal: Jackie / Ramadan Merlihat Malaysia (Observing Malaysia) vol. 11 Ramadan [ (C) Copyright 1998, J. Snell, San Jose State University & Universiti ] [ Putra Malaysia. A series of notes on living and working in Malaysia, ] [ during my Fulbright Fellowship near Kuala Lumpur. Copies may be ] [ freely distributed, but must retain this preamble. To (un)subscribe, ] [ send a note to Jackie ] Dear Friends, Sat. 19 Dec.: It is the beginning of Ramadan, and I haven't said much about Malaysia's version of Islam. I sit at my dining table, writing this on my laptop, with CNN on in the background, reporting the US/British bombing of Iraq. No locals have mentioned the bombing to me, probably because I am American, and they are very polite. I'm not certain that is the reason, though, as the Anwar trial still gets virtually all above the fold coverage, even since the bombing started, and generally seems to be a bigger topic of conversation than anything else. Of course the Anwar situation always brings up the Clinton situation. I sometimes think Mahathir is just a couple of months behind on reading the Monica Lewinsky reports and copying every political move, except bigger of course. Malaysia now has the tallest building in the world, the biggest ..., and instead of a little blue dress, a mattress. A couple days this week we have been treated to front page pictures/headlines of officials removing stained mattresses purportedly as evidence against Anwar. The morning call to prayer is just coming on in Iraq, via CNN. I don't know whether Americans feel the full emotional impact of this contrast, we are generally so remote from Islam, but I know this has to be playing very poorly in the Muslim world. I've been trying to imagine how Americans would feel if we were being bombed on our way to church on Sunday morning. Or even watching Mexicans being bombed on their way to church. I've been trying to imagine how the Iraqi's feel, and decided the juxtaposition (not the bombing) may be less dramatic for them than for those of us watching on CNN. After all, the bombing starts at dark and just continues, so the call to prayer may just serve as a signal that the bombing is almost over for the day. On the other hand, being bombed while you are praying has to have a different emotional impact than being bombed at other times. I don't have a feel for what a person's relationship to Allah is for Muslims. I'm certain there are cultural differences among Muslim nations. Before I came here, I primarily associated Islam w/Saudi Arabia and Louis Farakan. The largest population of Muslims, though, is Indonesian, and most of Indonesian Muslims are Malay culturally. (Some of the inland indigenous peoples were converted to Christianity rather than Islam, and Bali is still Hindu, which is what most of the area was before Islam took over 800-1200 years ago). Indonesian Malays are a bit different from Malaysian Malays, but much more similar than to Saudi Muslims. The women wearing scarves and long sleeves around here gives the place a more restricted atmosphere than, say, even Sarawak, which is mostly Christian. On the other hand, the "feel" is nothing like Morocco, where I spent nearly 2 months, nearly 25 years ago. And Morocco has the reputation of being the most westernized (liberalized) of the north African countries. In Morocco the men and women do not mix. While the customs here in MY involve more separation of the sexes than in the US, there is far more mixing, and the feeling to me is far more sensual than in Morocco. In Morocco the women cover their faces as well as their hair and the robes are heavy and in drab, solid colors. In Malaysia, most, but far from all, Muslim women wear scarves. None cover their faces. We very occasionally see a woman with her face covered, clearly a visitor from some other country. While the women wear long skirts (sarongs) with long blouses with long sleeves (baju kurung), both are made from the thinnest possible silk in the brightest possible colors. If I, or even Dave, smiles at a stranger, s/he gives back a radiant smile. Strangers on the street are likely to help us maneuver into a tight parking spot, or give us directions if we just look lost. In Morocco, men especially were very interested in talking to us, and I met quite a few friendly people. But the women wouldn't even try to talk to me unless I was alone, but that rarely happened because the men would harass me if I were alone (not with my boyfriend at that time). In Morocco only men are found in the tea houses (& European females), and women party separately from men. Here, there is a tendency for men and women to sit at different tables at social functions, but it isn't strict, and as far as I can tell, they attend the same functions. Dave and I were invited to a conference dinner some time go. It was an agricultural conference that we had nothing to do with, but there is a tendency to invite foreigners to all sorts of things. This was held at the campus golf course (golf is VERY popular here). Most of the attendees were either Thai or Indonesian. The Thais are Buddhist, the Indonesians are Muslim. One of the traditions of this conference is for the participants to entertain each other after dinner, singing or playing instruments. Women, in their colorful silk dresses and scarves were just as expected, and just as comfortable or uncomfortable, performing in front of a mixed audience, as the men. Dave and I were both struck by the Muslim women singing and swaying to the music, not exactly dancing, but definitely performing and being slightly seductive, in front of a mixed audience. One evening recently my American neighbor gave a little tea party (dinner actually) in celebration of another neighbor's publication of a book. People at the party were mainly other people living in our apartment building, most of whom are also connected to the Modern Languages Faculty, and a few of their students from Modern Languages who came early and helped prepare the buffet table. The editor/author who we were honoring is Bangladeshi Muslim, another neighbor family at the party is Iranian Muslim, another is a single woman, head of their department and a Malay Muslim, an Indian MD and her son, and the students were about evenly divided, a few each of Hindu, Muslim, and one Chinese (I didn't ask him whether he was Buddhist, many are either Christian - but he didn't have an Anglicized name - or practice traditional "ancestor worship"). There was no alcohol at this party, but people started getting sort of giddy and making double entendre jokes. I was quite surprised, in fact, it was quite like a party where people are drinking wine. None of the women wore head scarves, not even the Iranian woman who is always wearing one when I see her going to work. The Iranian family has 2 daughters, 8 and 14 yrs old. They were both dressed in quite foxy little dresses that their aunt had brought from Florida. The older one was quite out-going, and doing quite well speaking English even though she has been studying it only since they arrived, about 5 months ago (boy do I wish my Bahasa were developing that fast!). Malay boys and girls are not usually outgoing with adults, they are taught to be "malu" which is usually translated as "shy", but I think maybe "humble" is closer to the real meaning. Yes, women are less represented in upper level jobs here than in the US. But it is much more like the US than you would imagine. You may have seen the trade minister on TV during APEC, a woman. We have quite a few women department heads on campus, though certainly the Vice Chancellor is a man. During Desert Storm (not a mistake, I mean 9 years ago), I think we women in the western world were shocked to learn that women in Saudi Arabia are not allowed to drive. One of the funniest sights to me here in Malaysia is seeing these very slight, very feminine, young women, wrapped in silk, and wearing a motorcycle helmet over their scarves. Cars are expensive here, it is much more common to travel by small motorcycle, and the women drive them, not just ride on the back. Monday 21 December Back to the subject of Ramadan. Before I came I knew that Ramadan meant a month of fasting, but I knew nothing else. Well, not quite true, my parents lived in Iran for a few years before the revolution, and I had heard them talk about Iranians flogging themselves in the streets and working up a religious frenzy, or some such language they used. It is not like that here. Though I understand the Hindus have religious day coming up soon that involves piercing of body parts. Ramadan is a very strict fast, not even water is allowed from sun-up 'til sundown, and a tithe of 250 RM is required for each family member. There are official places set up to take the tithes, not necessarily Mosques, and committees to decide which orphans and such get the money. We started Ramadan a day later than Iraq did. The beginning depends on one (or in some countries a committee) of religious men sighting the moon at the right stage. I think the month begins on the new moon, but if it's cloudy it can start up to a few days later, whenever the actual sighting takes place. There was an article in the paper recently about a move to have it begin by astronomical calculation rather than actual sightings. It seems to bother some people that the worldwide community of Islam does not observe Ramadan together, but others, of course, are bothered by giving up the traditional sightings. The end of the fast, Hari Raya, is also determined by sighting the moon in the proper phase, so even the length of the fast can vary by a couple of days. I asked my colleagues whether it could be 32 days long, if it's cloudy. They laughed and said "NO, you're not looking if you haven't seen it by the 30th day!" The newspapers publish the official time to break the fast each day. The list of times takes up about a column, and except for the 2 states on Borneo the times only vary by about 4 minutes. It is traditional to break the fast with an odd number of dates, and some kuih (small cakes and savories). Asiah, my Bahasa teacher, is very thin, and only eats one date. Then they do the usual small prayer for the evening (the 4th prayer of the day), then they have the real dinner. Asiah says she just has a plate of rice, but others tell me they really make up for lost time. Then they go to the Mosque for special Ramadan prayers. Muslim prayers involve going through a series of positions, beginning standing and ending touching the forehead to the ground. The Ramadan prayer can add up to 20 extra of these exercises (8 is the minimum extra ones required), and an article in the paper claims this helps to counteract the feasting at the end of the day. It said the average Muslim expends 200 calories on the Terawih, equivalent to an hour walking around the golf course! They go to the Mosque w/family, usually, but not every single day of the month. There are lots of family and other get-togethers for large evening meals, and more street vendors pop-up everywhere. The Straights Times recently published how many new hawker licenses were issued in each area, and said that in the interest of entrepreneurship in hard economic times most of them will be made permanent rather than just for Ramadan. Each of the municipalities in the KL area seems to have issued 500 to 1000 extra hawker permits. One of my colleagues claims Malaysians continue feasting for a month after the fasting ends, but not the rest of the Muslim world, only Malaysians. Certain foods are associated with Ramadan, though they are around at other times, I guess like turkey for us. The women get up very early in the morning to cook a large breakfast which must be eaten before daylight. On the day before Ramadan we had an office potluck, and I got to ask lots of questions about Ramadan. Everyone seems to agree that fasting is good for you, it is healthy and develops discipline, they say, and a few people talk about appreciating that many people only get one meal a day all year long. There is a long article in today's newspaper about how many Indonesians are malnourished or eating 3rd grade rice since the troubles. On the other hand another expat reported to me that the car accident rate doubles during Ramadan, and every one readily admits that not much work gets done. P.S. My spell checker is really American. It wants to change "Ramadan" to "Ramada", but knew how to spell Farrakhan! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Jackie Snell 6/ 98 - 3/ 99: jaq@admin.upm.edu.my University Business Centre Off: +60(3)9485-649 4th Floor Admin. Bldg. Fax: +60(3)9433-513 Universiti Putra Malaysia Mobile: +60(19)9457-239 43400 Serdang, Selangor MALAYSIA Dave's Mobile: +60(19)3299-445 Marketing Department After 3/99: snell_j@cob.sjsu.edu San Jose State University Off: +1(408)924 3484 One Washington Square Fax: +1(408)924 3445 San Jose, CA 95192-0069 USA =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Dave Crocker Tel: +60 (19) 3299 445 Post Office Box 296, U.P.M. Serdang, Selangor 43400 MALAYSIA Brandenburg Consulting Tel: +1 (408) 246 8253 Fax: +1(408)273 6464 675 Spruce Dr., Sunnyvale, CA 94086 USA