Ethnic belonging among Bugis Malays in Johor, Malaysia: grounding the present in the past
Abstract
This article examines how narratives of the past contribute to the ethnic identity of Malays of Bugis descent in the state of Johor. For centuries a Bugis community made up of migrants from South Sulawesi and their descendants has existed in the Malay Peninsula and Riau Archipelago. The post-colonial state of Malaysia supports a discourse of Malayness that subsumes different ethnic sentiments, but within that identity the Bugis community remains conscious of their Bugis roots. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in a Bugis kampung in Johor, this study discusses how different perceptions of a common past create a shared sense of belonging.
Summary
This article investigates how Bugis Malays in the state of Johor sustain a distinct sub-ethnic identity within the homogenised category of “Malay” that the post-colonial Malaysian state endorses. The central problem is the tension between the state’s pan-Malay racial framework — which subsumes diverse origins under a single ethnic label — and the persistence of Bugis ethnic sentiment among descendants of migrants from South Sulawesi. The author argues that Bugis identity is mediated through narratives of the past, specifically the story of five aristocratic Bugis brothers who played a foundational role in the Johor Sultanate and family migration accounts, and that these narratives function differently depending on whether individuals claim noble or non-noble descent.
Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in a Bugis kampung in Pontian, Johor, the study reveals that the act of selective remembering and forgetting is central to identity construction. Noble Bugis preserve detailed genealogical and migration narratives transmitted orally across generations, while non-nobles exhibit what Carsten terms “genealogical amnesia” regarding their own family histories but remain attached to the communal story of the five brothers and to contemporary community ties. The article positions Bugis identity not as a rejection of Malayness but as a diversification of it, showing how individuals construct an “alternative Malayness” that goes beyond official narratives without generating resentment toward the state’s racial classification.
The author further situates the Johor case within a broader comparison with Bugis communities in East Malaysia, where Bugis identity is more salient due to the absence of a dominant Malay majority and the continuous influx of Bugis Indonesians. In the Peninsula, by contrast, the strong ideology of nation-building and the colonial legacy of the rural Malay as the archetypal subject temper the visibility of sub-ethnic identities, making the Bugis of Kampung Uleng a case study in how ethnic persistence operates under conditions of state-driven homogenisation.
Key Findings
- Approximately 500,000 Bugis Malays reside throughout Malaysia, with around 200,000 in Johor; the post-colonial state does not enumerate separate Malay sub-ethnicities, making precise figures unavailable (p. 80).
- The 1911 census recorded 3,779 Bugis immigrants at Kukup; by 1921 this had nearly doubled to 5,500. The first Bugis settlement at Kukup was opened after Syed Mohammed bin Ahmed Alsagoff received a land concession from Sultan Abu Bakar of Johor in the 1880s (pp. 80–81).
- The five Bugis brothers (Daeng Marewah, Daeng Parani, Daeng Celak, Daeng Kemasi, Daeng Menambun) assisted Sultan Sulaiman in removing Raja Kechik of Siak; Daeng Marewah was subsequently granted the title Sultan Alauddin Shah as vice king (p. 85).
- Wellen (2014) documents that in 1716 Daeng Marewah sought Dutch support against Raja Kechik — a request the Dutch refused — complicating the anti-colonial hero narrative that dominates Bugis folk memory (p. 86).
- The 2015 Kembara Mahkota (annual royal tour) in Johor featured a theatrical performance depicting the five Bugis nobles as local heroes; a 2017 Singapore exhibition, “Siri na Pesse: Navigating Bugis Identities,” similarly glorified them as warriors against Dutch colonialism (p. 86).
- Of the 60 informants interviewed, 12 identified as being of noble origin; the distinction between noble and non-noble status was found to be the primary axis along which narratives of belonging were produced and articulated (p. 81).
Conclusion
The author’s definitive historical takeaway is that Bugis Malays in rural Johor sustain their ethnic identity by layering Bugis-specific historical narratives onto, rather than against, the state’s Malay racial category. The selective production of memory — communal remembrance of the five brothers combined with individual genealogical amnesia among non-nobles — functions as a mechanism of boundary maintenance that creates a meaningful distinction between Bugis and generic Malay identity. This process allows the community to assert a proud heritage and a sense of rootedness in the Malay Peninsula long before the modern nation-state existed, without challenging the political framework of Malay supremacy.
Context
- Fieldwork was conducted from July 2015 to July 2016 in a Bugis kampung (pseudonym “Uleng”) in the sub-district of Benut, Pontian, Johor, involving 60 informants interviewed via open-ended questionnaires accompanied by participant observation (p. 81).
- Historiographically, the article contributes to the “Other Malays” scholarship (Kahn, Gabriel, Miyazaki, Nakamura) that challenges the homogeneity of the Malay category, and engages with Carsten’s and Pelras’s work on genealogical amnesia and selective memory in Southeast Asian migrant communities.