1. A few weeks ago, I had attended a friend’s much awaited wedding ceremony. He is an Indian man who married a beautiful Indian doctor (lucky guy!) and the ceremony dinner was held at a prominent hotel in Petaling Jaya. I always get confused as to what would be appropriate to wear to these events because you can either be over dressed or too simple and not blend in with the desired pomp and grandeur your host would be expecting. Personally I don’t like to be overly dressed up.
2. Finally I decided that it would be safe and proper to don a suit and off I went to the wedding with my wife. We were late because the card stated 7pm but how can we be there by 7pm when the “maghrib” prayer at that time was approximately 7.30pm! But luckily enough the ceremony had not really started yet when we arrived just around 8.15pm. I must note here that the guest of honour was one particular malay muslim deputy minister so I would imagine that he too would have been in the same predicament about arriving on time as required by the card. So the point I am trying to make here is that it should be common courtesy and practise to invite guests to any event (corporate or social) expecting them to arrive at 8pm the very least taking into serious consideration the muslim “maghrib” prayer time which ranges from as early 7pm to as late as 7.30pm plus minus depending on the time of year. This should not be seen as compliance to any islamic rule but merely an act of goodwill and tolerance to accommodate the muslim guests that one would definitely have in one’s guest list. However, if there are no muslim guests then I guess any time is appropriate and up to the host’s choice. But I have not found a social ceremony (unless it is a religious affair) where we don’t see a nice racial mix of guests. This is what our country is blessed with. Such goodwill is indeed a sign of unity among the races and the same consideration should also be given by the malays or the chinese vice-versa to the best of our ability to accommodate our guests.
4. So in my nice dark suit and all, I literally waltzed in the hall and much to my surprise, I found that most of the guests that night be it the minority malays, the majority chinese and indians were dressed in batik! Yes the men (at least 80% of them) were so naturally dressed in batik as though it was the dress code! funny enough batik was NOT the dress code for the night so this made me think… hmmm, such a simple unplanned “unity” led me to believe that if we let nature takes its course without force or propaganda, the natural instinct would ultimately work towards a comfortable zone common to and for all. Batik was a unifying factor that night and I felt very happy to see people from all racial background and even walks of life don the batik as a sign of unity and acceptable decorum. It is after all comfortable and most importantly elegant enough to add the desired class and grandeur to any event. It did not matter if one guest was wearing a jalan masjid india rayon material batik while another donned an award winning piala endon exclusive batik in silk because the hall looked beautiful that night with all the colors and designs. Needless to say, the predominantly indian crowd had their ladies in colorful sarees that night. I almost did not see the bridegroom in his boring black tux!
5. I think the government can look at little things to foster and demonstrate unity. It is always nice to be hopeful and draw up big policy plans on racial polarization strategies bla bla bla but sometimes it is the little things that can be easily adopted and be the unifying factor for all the races to come together. Batik is one small example and I personally think it is a terrible waste of good sense to not promote batik as a MALAYSIAN iconic dress be it for local use or international branding. Yes I know that batik is already a widely accepted dress code for special events but what about batik for everyday use professionally and socially? We keep talking about batik as a malaysian “thing” but efforts are not fully committed to make it part of malaysian “life”.
6. Batik should be our national dress code. Let it be a shirt, sarong, skirt, blouse or dress, the batik can symbolize a malaysian identity that unifies all citizens onto a common platform. After all, batik is beautiful art! Imagine a saree or cheongsam in a relevant batik print? This is where we can distinct between “batik kebangsaan” and “pakaian resmi kebangsaan” where the former describes my notion of batik in almost everything on a daily affair for government or private sector use while the latter dictates that for official functions relating to government protocol, the palace etc it would be required to don the invidual race national costume ie the baju kain and baju melayu, songket etc.
7. But when I say batik, I don’t just mean the grand silk boutique type designs which must cost so much! We should find ways to commercialize batik “designs” and not so much the batik “medium” so that it’s application can be varied and adopted as an affordable means of national clothing. We can have batik in all sorts of fabric and permutations and its design identity can also be altered to adopt key significant and iconic culture symbols of all races in Malaysia. Although batik was traditionally malay culture but today, modern batik designs are acceptable to all. But NO we don’t want designers in selfish pursuits of winning awards to lose themselves and create suits in batik for example! This is not the point I am getting at.
8. I would even go one step further and propose that school children wear comfortable cotton batik uniforms and this is a great display of all arts, heritage, culture and unity into one. It is important that the new “unity relations” ministry chart their plans in the schools. Unity begins at home and in schools. Commercially and professionally, especially with service oriented government and private sector interface, batik can be used as the service image of Malaysia. We are colorful people with colorful cultures so why spoil it with a boring shirt and tie? It is not our national identity.
9. The Phillipines, Indonesia and even Thailand have a distinctive image to their national identity when it comes to clothing. It is a sign of heritage and unity. It shows the character of a nation in one unifying image. What else is unity in its purest and easiest identifiable form? I realized that our former first lady, Tun Dr. Siti Hasmah only wore batik in whatever event or functions that she attended publicly. I don’t remember her in anything else but batik so even if she did not wear batik 100% of the time, the perception is that she does. Perhaps for more formal events, the songket would have been of choice and this is appropriate. She was very proud of our batik because it is uniquely malaysian. It is these uniquely malaysian traits, events, rituals, products, habits, culture etc that would be the natural stimulus for natural unity integration across all racial platforms.
10. I think this is the right malaysian thing to do and if all of us do it, then this is one small but clear cut unity achievement we can strike off the 1Malaysia list…
shaik rizal sulaiman
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I was just thinking about batik the other day! Great minds think alike! I was reading all the remarks about our current PM’s wife in the internet the other day, when the late Datin Seri Endon came into my mind. I was trying to recall what true remarkable contributions that any of Malaysia’s first ladies have given to the society. Like the late DS Endon, she has done alot to promote batik internationally BUT not all Malaysians can afford the kind of batik promoted extensively by her. Her promotions were good but up to the point that many foreigners think that batik in Malaysia are quite expensive, not knowing that there are many cheap and very affordable batiks that are equally beautiful. Even me myself when someone mentioned Endon’s batik, me and my friends will say “…..ooooo cannot afford lah…mahal…”. Instead of creating the image that batik is the pride and joy of Malaysia, proudly worn by all Malaysians, it created the image that batik in Malaysia is like Chanel, Hermes, CD etc…expensive!
I think batik saris in chiffon, voile or silk will be really sensationa!
But school uniforms in batik will be hotch-potchy – considering that the concept of batik rests on design! I prefer to see schoolchildren in single colour tunics/ trousers with a light coloured top – “fashionicon” (fashion conservative that I am). Bless me! The word doubles up as fashion icon HA HA!
Batik doesn’t do too well internationally because of its fancy designs! The traditional colourful floral prints are just too tropical, torrid and florrid in the temperate lands. I just can’t imagine the English or French or Japanese wearing batik under their coats. Even the jazzy Arabs would fight shy of batik designs although they would bead/ beat to death any plain fabric!
Formal wear batik already is – for the men at least!
Government servants wear it to work on Friday and to all government functions that do not specify lounge suit or baju kebangsaan. Even private functions invite batik wear for men as it’s really confortable and versatile! You can’t force the ladies to be uniformed!
Batik as a tool for socio-political unity or cultural heteregeneity is a superficial idea! I don’t see how what you wear on the outside will unite minds and hearts on the inside! But you can certainly propose this to the new Minister of Information, Communications and Culture!
Then we’ll all run helter skelter to start a batik business!
thanks ninitalk.
Why is it when we think of batik, we always think of fancy designs only? there are also european designers like Jim Thompson and Milo who have transformed the batik concept beyond their traditional image and it is well accepted by the foreigners. As for school children, the tones need not be bright or colorful but subtle and busy enough so the dirt does not show! If the foreigners want to wear our batik it will be a bonus (I really can’t imagine the arab man and his batik outfit) but its important that we wear it as our own national identity not just for formal social events but more than that.
I guess the whole point of this article is not to promote batik per say but to raise a unifying point that seems to be working well. Yes what we wear on the outside does not unite the minds and hearts on the inside but it is a good start indeed. If there is something else that is uniquely malaysian then that can be the tool instead. A national identity common to all is a good start to unity relations but there is more of course!
I think cowboy has a point here. We never realized that these days even the chinese and indians and others wear batik also. In fact I also see the apek-apek towkay in the rural areas wear a batik shirt for special events so this is actually a success of batik and we should adopt it as a national identity beyond just us wearing it because we like it. This may be a simple and small idea but it is a good start as cowboy says because a unified image is already unity in the making. Well done cowboy, your articles always inspires me to think beyond my normal ways! I wish more malaysians are like you very constructive and not condemn only all the time!
This must be my first comment. Here or anywhere. I just wanna say that I have always enjoyed reading your articles. They are very well thought. Articulated. Polite. Makes so much sense (to me). I hope you will continue to share with all of us your good sense and kind logic. TQ for making my day, cowboy!
About respecting prayer times, you may also want to consider that in Indian customs auspicious time is important, thus the choosing the time of an event is not in the hands of the organiser.
We really need understanding of each others’ customs and traditions.