The Journal of the Siam Society Vol. LXIV, Part 1-2, 1976 - Khamkoo

William R. Roff, ed.
HE VIEWS 425
Kelantan: Religion, Society and Politics in a Malay
State (Oxford, Kuala Lumpur, 1974), p. 371, bibliography and index.
Kelantan is one of the least known and least understood states of
the Malay Peninsula. Often presented as a backwater and a stronghold
of all that is archaic and reactionary in the Malay cultural context,
Kelantan has rarely been treated from any viewpoint other than an
outside one, and more often than not, a hostile one.
The state is populated primarily by Malays, the vast majority of
whom have no historical recollection of outside origins. This is in
contrast to the West Coast of Malaysia where almost every other Malay
will inform you that he is not really a Malay, but a Bugis, or a Minangkabau
or a Javanese. Most Kelantanese are either traditional rice
farmers or fishermen, living in small villages at close to a subsistence
level. The changes of the past 150 years which have transformed the
rest of the Federation seem to have barely touched Kelantan. The state
has generally been isolated. As Professor Roff points out, as little as a
decade ago the 400 mile journey from Kuala Lumpur to Kota Baharu
required no less than 13 ferry crossings.
This isolation bas, however, been misunderstood. Kelantan
maintains one of the best established and most active Malay language
printing enterprises in the Federation. The Kelantanese are well known
as one of the most industrious groups of Malays in the country. Since
the beginning of this century communications between Kelantan and the
Muslim heartland of the Middle East have been surprisingly active. It
is thus of utmost importance that the role of Islarn in Kelantanese
society be understood. It is this presentation of Islam, in its various
historical, social and political manifestation that is the major contribution
of this book. It is also one of the first volumes in recent years to
treat Kelantan as an entity rather than an enigma.
The book is an anthology of twelve selections.
Four are primarily
historical, four are anthropological and the other four, all by
Kelantanese, deal with biography, religion and Malay periodicals. Since
five of the twelve contributors are Kelantanese and the Western scholars