Cross Boundaries

Mandailing migration to Malaysia, Past & Present
By Abdur-Razzaq Lubis

The Straits of Malacca have never been a formidable barrier to human movement from Sumatra to the peninsular and vice versa. They are only wide south of Singapore, and the weather in the Straits is never very stormy and the currents not severe although there are some shoals off the west coast of the peninsular. Therefore it is possible to get across by hoping from island to island. In recent times there have been cross-Straits ferries from Belawan (Medan) to Penang, from Dumai in East Sumatra to Malacca on the west coast of West Malaysia.

The most important occurance of Mandailing migration from the Mandailing homeland in Sumatra to the west coast of the peninsular was during the Paderi/Padri wars (1816-1833) when the Dutch was asked by Mandailing rajas for help against the Paderis and sent troops into the interior. The socio-economic, political, ecological, environmental and spiritual disruption caused by the war no doubt stimulated movements of people within and without Mandailing, and the exodus of Mandailing migration to the peninsular, started in this period. The phenomenon was called 'Pai Kolang', and it is still very much within living memory of 'Ompu Kolang', family members. The association with Kelang (Kolang in Mandailing) has very much to do with the 'Porang Kolang'.

When hostilities ceased, the Dutch, who had fought with the Mandailings against the Paderis, took over the administration and economic development of Mandailing. The Dutch began a new phase in the process of colonization by setting up administrative posts, collecting houses for local products, including demands for labour and the production of more cash crops. They built a road to Natal on the southwest side of Sumatra in an effort to make the Mandailings turn their trading partners on the Straits of Malacca and narrowing their options. But this policy of economic containment could not work as the Mandailing areas was economically upset by the war and some parts of it had already reached their human carrying capacity.

The author, Pande Maradjar of the article on 'Perpindahan Orang Mandailing', which was published by MANDAILING newspaper in 1923, made a distinction between the migration of the Mandailings during the Padri war and in the wake of the war as that of the movement of Mandailings in that period (early twentieth century). He was of the view that: 'bahwa orang Mandailing itoe boekanlah merantau seperti sekarang tetapi berpindah negeri, sebab digoda kesoesahan dll., boekanlah maksoed marekaitoe merantau mentjari oeang keperloean tanah ajernja, hanjalah mentjari kesenangan hidoepnja sadja'.

In fact, according to another account, the Mandailings first migrated to the peninsular before moving to the east coast of Sumatra. 'Kira-kira dalam tahoen 1875, disitoelah moelai terboeka tanah Deli, sebagai tanah perantauan bagi bangsa Mandailing, karena waktoe-itoelah moelai orang-orang Mandailing datang satoe datang doea ke-Deli, merantau mentjahari kehidoepan. Sebeloemnja itoe, adalah jang terkenal tanah tempat mereka itoe merantau, ialah negeri Kelang dan seloeroeh tanah simenandjoeng Melaka.

Bertambah lama bertamah banjak orang-orang dari Mandailing pergi ketanah Deli, karena mata pentjaharian banjak sedang oeang poen moedah dinegeri ini'.

A build up of migration to the peninsular began and by the 1860s, the Mandailings were a recognizable social group there engaging in mining, trading, mercenary activities, and economic and political mediation. The arrival of the Mandailings in a chain migration caused shock waves and changed the political and socio-economic landscape of the peninsular, the effect of which can be felt in the new millenium.

In the peninsular, the Mandailings were embroiled in the Rawa War of 1848; the Pahang War (1857-63); the Selangor War better known to the Mandailings as 'Porang Kolang' (1867-73) and the Perak War (1875-6). As a result, the Mandailings gain a notorious reputation as trouble makers, rebels and insurgents, who are feared and held with suspicion becoming a stigma inherited by the Mandailing, like a badge, to this day.

In a clear reference to the 'Porang Kolang', Pande Maradjar, wrote that: 'Tidak berapa lama sesoedah mareka disana (peninsular), maka timboellah perang di negeri perantauan itoe (perang Kelang), hingga orang Mandailing itoe dan Rao kebanjakan lari meninggalkan negeri itoe. Kemanakah marekaitoe lari?

Boekanlah mareka ke Deli, melainkan ke Asahan, dan berdiamlah marekaitoe di bahwa pernaoengan Jang di-Pertoean Asahan dan setengah diantara mareka kembali ketanah ayernja, karena marekaitoe telah mengetahoei djalan jang lebih dekat, koenoen chabarnja hanja seboelan di perdjalanan. Maka banjaklah orang Mandailing itoe jang berpindah ke Asahan, dan dewasa itoe toeroetlah orang Padang Lawas merantau ke Asahan.'

On the same war, Isma'il bin Hadji 'Abdoellah 'Oemar Effendi who wrote, 'Melawat Ke Melaka 1920 dan 1921', an account of his visit to Malaya, that: 'Datanglah masanja negeri Selangoer berperang dengan Tengkoe Koedin dari negeri Kedah. Karena tiada terlawan oleh laskar Tengkoe Koedin, maka dimintanja bantoean kepada Inggeris dinegeri Singapoera. Oleh karena itoe terserahlah negeri Selangoer kedalam tangan Inggeris dan anak dagang, jang dengan soenggoeh hati soedah mempertahankan negeri itoe dari rampasan Tengkoe Koedin, pergilah mentjari negeri jang lain. Maka berangkatlah mereka itoe kenegeri Perak. Maka semendja tahoen 1874 moelailah orang-orang dagang kenegeri Perak mentjahari kehidoepannja'.

'Orang dagang' here refers to the Mandailings and in all probability their allies, the people of Rao, called Rawa in Malaysia. The Chinese Hakka, the Mandailings partners in business and in war, also followed the footsteps of their Mandailings' warlord when they fled Selangor for Perak. The distribution of the Mandailing community in the west coast states of the peninsular can be traced back to their dispersion as a result the series of wars that they were a party to.

What is most striking about the Mandailing migration in the 19th century, were largely led by the Namora Natoras (Yang Dimuliakan; Yang Dituakan). Of them were Raja Asal, Raja Bilah, Raja Barnang, Sutan Puasa, Raja Othman, Raja Ira, Samaripun, Imam Perang Barungun, Imam Perang Seri (Sori) Handalan, Panglima Raja, Panglima Muda Sagara, Panglima Muda, Imam Perang Malim, Imam Perang Jabaringkin, Imam Perang Jabarumun, and countless more. Many of the Mandailings in Malaysia today are descended from these earlier migrants; the author being one.

In keeping with the tradition in Sumatra, not a few of the founders of Mandailing settlements were members of the raja elite, who leads a band of his followers to a new site. When he does so he takes the customary law (adat Dalian Na Tolu) with him, and in this way, the new settlement is symbolically, politically and by kinship tied to the old. In this way too, the mother-child village complexes are created. Because of this connection, it has enable many 'Malaysian' Mandailings to make a cultural pilgrimage to their ancestral village back in Sumatra, and this went on from the 19th century to today. This flow was only interrupted by WWII, the Independence Revolution, the Social Revolution and Konfrantasi.

By the 1940s, Mandailing migrants to Malaya as Malaysia was then called, were political refugees seeking asylum from Dutch intelligence. Notable amongst them were Kamaluddin Nasution, originally from Huta Pungkut, Mandailing Julu, who was involved with the Sumpah Pemuda, that initiated the struggle for Indonesian independence. Like many Mandailings before him, who concealed their identity by changing their names and dropping their clan names to avoid detection by the victors in the wars of the 19th century, Kamaluddin Nasution too changed his name to Abdul Rahman Abdul Rahim.

Mandailing migrants still make their way to West Malaysia to this day, some sponsored by their Malaysian relatives, and settled in 'traditional' Mandailing migrant states such as Perak and Selangor. They make their keep as jamu sellers, textile traders, butchers, etc., unlike their other 'Indonesian' counterparts who come as contract workers and home-maids.

But unlike their predecessors who 'merantau whole clans at the same time, under united command' - the classic pattern of Mandailing migration - many of today's Mandailing migrants are individuals as must have been the case with some earlier Mandailing migrants. This migrants, some of whom married local woman, having no allegiance to their raja and mother-village, threw the adat out of the window and eventually lose their cultural identity.

'Melayu-isation' of the Nusantaran people in Malaysia, and 'Indonesianisation' through the nation-building by means of national education, national culture and national census, the Mandailings like other citizens in the ubiquitous global village is being consumed by global culture dictated by media barons, promoters of the One World State. The Mandailings will be reduced to an information/historical data unless they examined their past and take lessons from it, and transformed the best of it for the challenging future.

Indeed the issue of our time is the very survival of the human race and communal ties, now made detrimental by financed ecological disaster. The realisation of the individual consciousness can only begin with a confirmation of his place with his people, his language and his culture. This is the path that the Mandailings must take if they are to survive as a people in this age and time.

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