From The Messy Desk

Since my last note made before Hari Raya, there is still not much to tell about this blog except a little change made on our Interaktif page which eventually has turned to became some sort of web portal for our recognized Family Blogs. By having this page transformed into it's origin purpose, now you can easily get yourselves well-informed whenever a family blog being up-dated or, you can even visit any of these blogs simply by a few clicks.

For those who are interested in Melayu Sultanate Histories, particularly that related to Tanjong Pura - or eastern parts of Sumatera island in general, we have presented a serial papers (12 chapters) written exclusively by Tuanku Luckman Sinar Basyarsyah II on our Sejarah page. Should you feel like spending some time to have good reading here, a little advise may be helpful is try to read the chapters orderly (read also my comment on the preliminary paper).

Another progress I found interesting is the "under construction" windows on our Keluarga page. With the long distance's helps from our two dear brothers; H. Zulkifli Zahari & HM. Saihan we are currently working on a little effort to connect everyone of us with our respectfully ancestor's pedigrees on www.geni.com through this special page. Hopefully this will work well and naturally, help us to understand the family relationship between each others more better from time to time (read also my comment that helps you to optimize these windows).

We have worked also on our Family Guestbook through which we expect to be able to share anything, we mean anything at all, between all family members and guests, of course, without any hesitation.

No new family news beside those which most probably you've already noticed from Air Dicincang Tak Akan Putus Blog, or perhaps, from our family wall on facebook.com. Therefore, in order to keep providing brief pictures about this family - especially to our new visitors, a couple of "related to the family matters" news are still remain on our Berita page.

Last but not least, in conjunction to this progress we did also change our Keluarga Besar Bani Haji Rais's icon on facebook.com to a simple one and wondered what you all will say about that.

Looking forward to have heard from you soon.
In the meantime, thank you again for visiting our family blogs.

Best regards,
Abang Nonki.

These people - and many more, are somehow related

News of the week

I guess, many of you were disappointed for having this page remains unchanged for quite some time. I bet you too, would agree with the rest of our visitors to let someone simply change the title of this News of the week with something like, say, News of the decade.

Our dear brother Zulkifli Zahari wrote me once that it seems to him that I spend more times on facebook rather than taking good care of this page or keeping myself well-informed about so many progresses on our Geni. And you know what? I guess he made his point alright. Therefore, once again I owe you apologies, folks!

Speaking of which, I noticed that recently many of our family members are getting themselves (including myself) connected to each others on facebook - either through "Abang Zul's" friend suggestions or by own initiatives, but funny! Most of us are completely confused about the "pangkat" that supposed to be recognized within our family relationship. It's fun though, but as suggested by Abang Zul from time to time, it has always been advisable to check it out through our family tree on Geni or else, let's also check it out through our own page namely Keluarga Besar Bani Haji Rais on facebook.

Last but not least, SELAMAT MENJALANKAN IBADAH PUASA RAMADHAN everyone! May this Ramadan bring in you the most brightest and choicest happiness and love you have ever wished for.

Salam,
Abang Nonki

Malay Nation and a piece of lidi

A friend sent me this article which he got from his circle on facebook.com. I found it interesting and therefore would like very much to share it with you.

By: Tengku Ryo Riezqan
Do we realize that the yellow sticky rice and coconut mixture with the brown sugar which the Malay used to call "inti" that we probably are still eating and enjoying now (as we sitting in the event of syukuran, akikah, tepung tawar, or pinangan etc. that epresents part of Malay culture) also being enjoyed in Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore or other countries that have a strong Malay culture?

The sweat comes out of the scalp and face are because we eat roti jala and kari kambing are also being experienced by someone in Riau, Palembang, Jambi, Pontianak, Medan, or other areas that have Malay's taste whereever you look at.

Nak Kemane Pa'cik? Ape hal ni? Ape nak buat tu?, are sound strange indeed not in all the said regions or countries. Not to mention the very similar songket, teluk belanga, peci hitam, tudung kepala, baju kurung and so forth, which could be seen when there are traditional parties in progress (since blue jeans and t-shirts are more day to day's wear now). But, yet those outfits are for sure still there, well-kept in the cupboard and always ready for use.

Their wisdoms, wise saying, advices, pantun, jokes, and caci maki, can never be covered or hidden behind their current trend in fashions.

Their tongue can not be fooled between gudeg's taste with lomak curry or tea tubruk's with tea tarik or the familiar sounds in their ears and feelings between classical orchestra with the sound of cheers strings made by pak Nurdin while meronggeng with typical drum's beats and tone of akordeon whisper, or just mothers'hum with any Malay's tunes while sitting their babies are likely more touching rather than twisted voice of Celine Dion or Krisdayanti sonority.

All these are already there in our blood flows even before we were born as a Malay, something that we can not do about or choose, it is our genetics. It is our soul and selves, it is our calyx, the sense of identity and nationality of being a Malay.

However, it is not the case of a study or fact that we can proklaim as an excess over another nations or tribes, but that is the color of our people which we should grateful for instead. Only this "resam" apparently was not strong enough to unite us as one nation since territorial limits of a small area to the limits of a country makes us aparts. Although both have same cultural aspects at the same time, but one region or country always feel better than the others. We may be in different professions, education, standard of living, legal or political environmental and other physical conditions that we must follow the go. But do we realize that actually there are more facts which can not be limited just by those atributes?

As they said "If the Malay are like flowers withering themselves not because of being burnt by sun or pulled out from the ground but because they sincerelly bend," then a harmonious social interaction will be there, a philosophy that respects the award of nature and its contents without any limit .

Malay is a large nation (?) in terms of geographical and population that can not be denied. There are more than three countries in this region where the States have a great group of population who claimed themselves as Malay people, and some countries even have stake of Malay culture and history. However, it is only in quantity while from quality and entities, can we call these simply as band of a great Malay nation?

The facts that geographically, total population, culture and ideology have made - and certainly still can make - Malay people became a big and strong nation had already been well-noticed by other nations since centuries ago, especially by those who had been dealing with the region's authorities where Malay people were the mayor population. So, various strategic sparatisms were systematically planted within our way of viewing the Malay brotherhood and nationalism, natural resources, humanism, knowledge, science and nation's ethics which in fact, so rich, until they turned to became so blur then gradually hidden from our sight.

Read the poetic lyrics from the era of Sultan Badarudinsyah or even from a long time prior to this date which most probably were not documented in our countries, also the Gurindam Dua Belas by Raja Ali Haji from Penyengat, or the famous quotes from Hang Tuah "Tak Kan Melayu Hilang Di Bumi". Aren't they better thought to study rather than phylosophies of Socrates or Plato that we apply into our current laws and political views?

As the Malay saying, "Di mana bumi dipijak di situ langit dijunjung", do we - as one who are standing on the Malay earth right now - also appreciate its unlimited sky and adopt its phylosophies to become our ways of thinking and behave?

Malay tribe could wipe out strife, economic backwardness and political thorns so we wont be stucked by them and never get dusty or muddy while grappling with our daily life's demands.

To understand that the word "Malay" is not just an explanation of an identity but is a philosophy that will never finished dug out, will certainly enable us to gain back our great Malay nation glory. However, it's all impossible to happen if we stand still like a piece of lidi.

(Sungai Rokan, Rantau Bais, March 2007. Tengku Ryo Riezqan - Indonesian)