Culture and Privilege in Capitalist Asia - Jurusan Antropologi ...

92 FROM ORANG KAYA BARU TO MELAYU BARA
‘achievement-based’ non-feudal class of Malay elites during and after colonial rule–
first as civil servants and later as Members of Parliament and State Legislative
Councils–threatened the ‘ascribed’ traditional Malay feudal class. On the one
hand, the latter do not really wish to absorb these ‘new men’ into their ranks, and
thereby lose the symbolic standing of their position. On the other hand, they fully
realise that for the Malay polity to function in the most harmonious fashion
possible, as well as for sheer practical reasons, the persistence of rigid caste-like
social distinctions could be detrimental to their position. Hence, a compromise has
been worked out. A system of honours, after the traditional model, was instituted,
through which the Sultans–as ‘the Fount of Nobility’–create life-Datos and other
‘Awards’ granted to ‘deserving’ civil servants, politicians and other private
individuals (Abdul Kahar Bador 1973: 148—9). Many of these individuals are very
rich entrepreneurs, including non-Malays who willingly accept the Malay titles.
For each of the life-Datos awarded, there are specific, often very long, titles,
some of which begin with Orang Kaya (lit. rich person) or Orang Besar (lit. big
person). Some, such as Orang Kaya Maharajalela Pahlawan or Orang Besar
Mahligai Alam, are not dissimilar–at least in naming style and grandeur–to those
already used to designate ascribed traditional aristocrats. Such titles also appear in
the numerous texts of Malay hikayats (classical literature texts), some of which
have been used as textbooks for government secondary-school examinations.
Numerous parts of these hikayats have been incorporated into folk and oral
literature or staged in the various traditional Malay performing arts, such as
bangsawan, Mak Yong, wayang kulit, randai and the like (Sweeney 1987).
Therefore, the term Orang Kaya is one of the most popular titles known to the
Malay and non-Malay public at all levels of society. According to one ‘theory’, the
adoption of this term in popular colloquial and written forms, along with that of
Orang Besar, was basically to denote new wealthy social groups within the
community. They largely consisted of the rakyat biasa, or commoners, rather than
the aristocrats, but were given a quasi-royal title, something not uncommon in the
1950s. The emphasis in this particular usage is on the phrase Orang Kaya, which
has its roots in the existing feudal order, implying honour, status and dignity, thus
providing a social levelling effect on those commoners referred to as OKB. By
implication, the silent opposing term, Orang Kaya Lama, or ‘old rich person’, is
generally understood as referring to those belonging to the aristocratic class.
A second ‘theory’ seems to suggest that the term Orang Kaya came into use in
daily conversation, in both a positive and negative sense, as part of gossip or
rumour-mongering. Here it is commonly used as an expression of envy or jealousy
directed at individuals who belong to the same class (usually peasants or workers),
but who have recently become wealthy and who often unashamedly flaunt their
new-found riches. What makes such behaviour ‘irritating’ to friends and foes in the
same class is what they see as its sheer ‘outlandishness’ or ‘ridiculousness’.
Sometimes such behaviour is simply perceived as ‘odd’, for example when people
buy electrically powered refrigerators in a village without electricity and use them
instead as cupboards in which to keep clothes (Shamsul 1986:64). Thus, according