• Editorial
  Hajar Abdul Rahim
  

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• Reconstructing Chineseness: Chinese Media and Chinese Identity in Post-Reform Indonesia
  Setefanus Suprajitno
  
  Abstract: The fall of Suharto in 1998 brought winds of change to Indonesia, especially to policies concerning the Chinese. After being suppressed under the Suharto regime, Chinese Indonesians suddenly had an opportunity to express their cultural heritage in their own ethnic media, counter negative stereotypes and reconstruct an identity that had been virtually erased during the Suharto era. In this article, author examines the discursive practices Chinese Indonesians use to remould their ethnic identity through an analysis of the media strategies used to reinvigorate the Chinese Indonesian identity. It was found from the Chinese media, as exemplified in Qiandao Ribao, Guoji Ribao and Yindunixiya Shangbao, that the re-creation of the Chinese identity requires an understanding of what it was to be Chinese through the use of the symbols most salient to Chinese ethnicity. The media have been strongly geared towards the reconstruction and maintenance of a Chinese identity that sees Chinese Indonesians as an imagined community whose ethnicity is symbolically perceived and maintained through frequent exposure to the ethnic media. By being exposed to the ethnic media, Chinese Indonesian readers can feel a sense of ethnic belonging and identity through perceived affiliation and shared symbols. However, although they succeeded in bringing Chinese culture back to the Indonesian public sphere, the diversity in the Chinese community challenges the media efforts to construct a definitive Chinese identity.
  
  Keywords and phrases: Chineseness, Chinese Indonesian, identity, media, post-reform Indonesia

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• Perubahan dalam Ritual Siwang Kumpulan Bah Lut, Kampung Bukit Terang, Kampar, Perak
  Changes in Siwang Ritual of the Bah Lut Group at Kampung Bukit Terang, Kampar, Perak
  Norlida Mohd Jalaludin and Mohd Hassan Abdullah
  
  Abstract: Siwang ritual still continues to be practised among the Semai indigenous people at Kampung Bukit Terang, Kampar, Perak. This Semai legacy acquired by the people in this village is presently being practised through performances by the Bah Lut Group. Siwang Kebut and Siwang Asik are two varieties of the siwang ritual. Siwang Kebut is practised for healing purposes while Siwang Asik focuses on entertainment. At present, the siwang ritual evolves in accordance with the lifestyle of the people as well as other factors such as deforestation, technological development and government policies. This article discusses the changes in siwang ritual of the Bah Lut Group. Some aspects of the changes include their practice, functions, venue and time of the performance, accessories, costume and dance choreography. Nevertheless, the Bah Lut Group still upholds the source of the repertoire and musical instrument that is used in the siwang ritual. Observation method with series of interviews, video performance and photographs are used for data acquisition. Today, the Bah Lut Group actively performs the siwang ritual as a cultural performance in many government, corporate and even private functions. This documentation process is vital in sustaining and maintaining the treasures of the unique siwang ritual culture.
  
  Keywords and phrases: Semai, Siwang Kebut, Siwang Asik, evolution, siwang performance
  
  Abstrak: Ritual Siwang masih menjadi amalan komuniti Asli Semai di Kampung Bukit Terang, Kampar, Perak. Ritual yang diwarisi turun-temurun oleh Semai di perkampungan ini kini diamalkan melalui persembahan Kumpulan Bah Lut. Terdapat dua jenis siwang, iaitu Siwang Kebut dan Siwang Asik. Siwang Kebut diamalkan untuk mengubati penyakit manakala Siwang Asik pula adalah untuk tujuan hiburan. Amalan ritual siwang kini mengalami perubahan selaras dengan perubahan gaya hidup komuniti Semai di samping dipengaruhi faktor-faktor lain seperti pencerobohan dan kemusnahan hutan, pembangunan teknologi serta polisi kerajaan. Makalah ini membincangkan perubahan-perubahan dalam ritual siwang Kumpulan Bah Lut. Siwang mengalami perubahan dari aspek amalan, fungsi, tempat dan masa persembahan, perhiasan dan kostum serta koreografi tarian. Namun demikian, Kumpulan Bah Lut masih mengekalkan sumber repertoir dan alat muzik yang dimainkan dalam ritual siwang. Kaedah pemerhatian melalui beberapa siri temu bual, rakaman video persembahan dan gambar foto digunakan bagi mendapatkan data. Kini, Kumpulan Bah Lut aktif mempersembahkan ritual siwang sebagai persembahan budaya dalam majlis-majlis kerajaan, korporat, swasta atau perseorangan. Pendokumentasian ini sangat penting bagi memastikan keunikan ritual siwang berkenaan terus dipelihara dan disimpan sebagai khazanah budaya.
  
  Kata kunci dan frasa: Semai, Siwang Kebut, Siwang Asik, perubahan, persembahan siwang

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• Carry a Torch for Your Enemy: Žižekian Study of Violence in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road
  Rameil Sayad Sangar, Hossein Sabouri and Lale Massiha
  
  Abstract: In Žižek’s belief, by the advent of capitalism in its global dimensions, violence took on different shapes and keeps on reshaping in various other forms. Things which decades ago were perceived as normal and nonviolent may render themselves today as harassment, violent and racist. For Žižek, “objective” violence within the system is the engine causing such violence. In a more challenging declaration, he contends that the global capitalist system is approaching an apocalyptic zero-point which will endanger environment and societies. This study aims to survey Žižek’s mentioned premise and also his theory of violence within Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic novel The Road. It will conclude by deducing that the world depicted in this novel could be regarded as a codicil to Žižek’s mentioned will. This deduction means that the way in which The Road features its dire reality, could be deemed a metaphor compatible with Žižek’s prognostication about the future of capitalism.
  
  Keywords and phrases: Slavoj Žižek, violence, objective violence, The Road, Cormac McCarthy

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• Raffles, the Naskah Kitab Hukum Manuscript and Social Engineering of the Inhabitants of Java in 1814
  Hazmirullah, Titin Nurhayati Ma’mun and Reiza D Dienaputra
  
  Abstract: The Naskah Kitab Hukum manuscript issued by Thomas Stamford Raffles in 1814 is one of the important manuscripts in the history of a judicial system in Indonesia. The manuscript was published because Raffles, upon his early days of duty, noticed that the existing judicial system in Java was complicated and confusing, constituted in the formalities of the Roman law. This article presents a study of how the Naskah Kitab Hukum became a means of social engineering of the inhabitants of Java through at least three ways: (1) legislation process before the issuing of regulation, (2) accommodating the social cohesion of Java inhabitants into the regulation and (3) domestication of English legal terms which were not familiar to the Java inhabitants.
  
  Keywords and phrases: Raffles, Naskah Kitab Hukum manuscript, social engineering, Java, history

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• South Korean Media Representation of Yemeni Refugees
  Raith Zeher Abid
  
  Abstract: This research examines how a handful of Yemeni refugees who arrived in South Korea are depicted in the online media news reports of the country. A total of 73 articles were collected from five different Korean English news outlets. The representation of social actor theory and conceptual metaphor theory were used in the analysis of the data. The outcomes of the analysis indicate that these Yemeni refugees are undesirably represented by the South Korean media. The continuance of such undesirable representation of these groups by the media, which is well-known for its influence on the public’s frame of thought, endangers their existence. It is hoped that the multi-layered analysis of discourse that this research offers will provide awareness to readers about the way blameless Yemenis are negatively rendered in the online media news reports of South Korea.
  
  Keywords and phrases: Critical Discourse Analysis, Yemeni refugees, South Korean media, social actor theory, metaphors

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• A Critique on the South Indian Labour Fund and the Malaysian Indian Plantation Workers
  Pushpavalli A Rengasamey and Sivachandralingam Sundara Raja
  
  Abstract:This article offers a new perspective on Indian labour in colonial and independent Malaysia through analysis of an important financial resource, the Tamil Immigration Fund (established in 1907) which was subsequently renamed as Indian Immigration Fund (1912) and South Indian Labour Fund (1958). Contrary to the stated objectives of the fund, the colonial government and the post-independence Malaysian government failed to utilise the fund for the benefit of the Indian plantation workers. Existing literature on the fund and Indian labour in Malaya have not emphasised the fact that the fund was never used for the benefit of the South Indian labourers. The fund passed through four important phases in its development across a time span of close to 100 years from 1907–1999. The fund evolved from its role in supplying transient Indian labour force in the colonial period to becoming an agency promoting the welfare of Indian workers and their dependents who adopted Malaya as their own country in the early post-independence era. Unfortunately, the fund was dissolved under the premiership of Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and taken over by the Malaysian Government on 18th November 1999.
  
  Keywords and phrases: South Indian labourers, plantations, welfare, South Indian Labour Fund, Malaya

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