MALAY WORLD - The History of Champa Malays

THE HISTORY OF CHAMPA MALAYS

The states of Champa Malays flourished between the third and fifteen century. They were politically strong and influential, and as it was with the entire Malay Archipelago the rulers were greatly influenced by the teachings of Hinduism and Buddhism. The ruling system was monarchic in nature, with its godly elements being idolized by the people.

They were scattered in different states of Champa, which is now the middle and southern part of Vietnam. Various artifact materials and historical monuments still exist to this day. These remainders and writings reflect the capabilities of Cham people in generating highly abstract and philosophical thinking. This makes the Cham culture quite distinct from other big powers like Vietnam, Khmer in Cambodia, Siam and China.

The 12^th century witnessed the beginning of rivalry between the kingdoms of Champa, Khmer, Siam and Vietnam. Champa was not a strong state. More over it was occupied by monarch families that often quarrelled with one another. In some circumstances, a powerful king could use his force to attack other powerful states. For instance the Cham navy attacked the government of Vietnam in 1371.

One hundred years later, the Vietnam fleet attacked Vijaya, the capital city of Cham. The Cham king was killed along with a huge number of its people. The incident started a mass migration of Cham people to Cambodia and other Malay archipelago. Between 1834 and 1835, Cham states were gradually conquered by Vietnam.

The Arrival of Islam in Champa

Different approaches in practising Islam between the ruling class and civilians can still be seen to this day. For instance the Or Ressei Village, approximately 50 km from Phnom Penh is a descendant of the King of Champa. The people’s practice of Islam is greatly influenced by Hinduism. On the other hand the majority of the Cham race practises the teaching of Imam Syafie (Ahli Sunnah Wal Jamaah), similar to the Islamic practice in Malaysia.

The process of ‘Islamising’ the nation increased rapidly when the Khmer King, Ponhea Chan claimed the throne with the help from Muslims in the year 1642. He took the name Ibrahim after embracing Islam. His enemies became more resistant towards him. With the help of the King of Vietnam, he was defeated, imprisoned and died in Hue, Vietnam in 1650.

In the year 1691-1697 Vietnam took over the ports of Cham and migration increased to its peak in the year 1790 when the Cham’s King, Ca Po Ci Bri lead his followers into Cambodia. They built a large mosque, Noor Alihsan in Chrang Chamraes on the edge of Phnom Penh.

A Brief History of Cambodia

In the first sixty years of the 19^th century, Cambodia was the main target for power expansion between two large powers -- Siam and Vietnam. The palace of the Champa King became a place full of political dynamics. It had to either maintain, develop or isolate the influence of one of these great powers. Emperor of Vietnam cynically said, "Cambodia is one of the sovereign and servant to the two (Vietnam and Siam)."

The power to administer and transfer of people in the north-west province of Cambodia were absorbed into the Siam government; while people in the Kampuchea Krom of the south were living under the rules of Vietnam government.

With the lack of a strong central government, small local governments bloomed and strove for their own power. The people then became important only for one thing -tax revenue.

French involvement began in 1863 when the King of Cambodia, Norodom signed a peace treaty with the French government through timber and mineral concessions. To stay in power, in 1884 King Norodom signed an agreement that contains the following clause:

'The Royal Highness King of Cambodia accepts all changes in administration, legislation, commerce and finance decisions by the France government in the future. This agreement is to ensure that the French can carry its responsibility to provide safety for Cambodia.

The French Colony continued until Cambodia achieved independence in 1953. The ruling system in Cambodia was then hugely influenced by Raja Sihanouk.

Indo-Cina at the time was not at peace due to the direct involvement of the three big powers- America, Russia and China. Cambodia’s harmony was also dependant on the political waves that was happening. Internal war happened in 1970 when General Lon Nol seized power with assistance from America, while Sihanouk was given assistance from China. It was the start of disaster for the Cambodian people, not excluding the Muslims of Malay-Champa.

The peace treaty in French in the year 1991 gave new opportunity to Cambodia. Liberal-Democratic ruling along with the monarchic system witness the emergence of three big political groups- Cambodian People’s Party headed by HunSen, FUNCIPEC headed by Putera Ranarridh and Sam Rainsy Party.

Currently the Malay-Champa is estimated to be around 500,000 from 13 millions of the total population. Although the number is comparably small, the Malay-Champa community is important in determining election’s outcome. The Cambodian People’s Party at present holds 73 chairs in parliament, FUNCIPEC 26 and Sam Rainsy Party 24 chairs. From these numbers 11 chairs in parliament are represented by Muslims. The Cambodia Constitution has ruled that a government can only be formed with the support of 2/3 of the parliament.

The last Cambodian election was held in July 2008.

Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing of the Malay-Cham in Cambodia 1975-79

International Convention of Genocide 1948 defined genocide as 'the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group'.

This happened during the Communist Pol-Pot regime in Cambodia in the year 1975-79. The Malay-Cham who were all Muslims, spoke the Cham language and hold their own tradition and culture became the victim of mass murder. Since 1974 a lot of Islamic Scholars were killed. When Phnom Penh, the capital of city of Cambodia falls into the communist hand in 1975, the whole Mufti of Cambodia council members were detained, imprisoned and later killed. Imam Abdullah bin Idris, then the Mufti of Cambodia were syahid too.

The ethnic cleansing policy was materialized in several steps:

The first step was through insulting the identity of the Malay-Cham. Cham men who stubbornly wore turban, velvet cap, or fez would be killed. The same goes for those women who wanted to wear scarf and loose cloth like the baju kurung. Everybody was forced to wear black and the Malay-Cham language was totally banned.

The second step is by prohibiting the practice of religious acts. Prayer, fasting, reading the Quran was among the deeds that were banned. Mosque or surau were either abolished or became a storage place for food and things. Eating pork was also used to test the faith of Cham people in joining the communist cause. There were two small Islamic villages in Kahpol and Svey Kliang who declared jihad. They rather die than to join the communist cause.

Lastly, forced-movement was implemented. The Cham community from the same village would be separated and sent to different places far from each other.

These three approaches caused a lot of life.

The communist spirit within Pol Pot, as well as the pride of the Khmer race; similar to that during Angkor Wat period could not accept the Cham race in the Cambodian land. The murder policy that started from the east of Sungai Mekong started from the year 1978. However God’s mercy is always prevalent to those who are patience. Vietnam came to rescue with a huge army and defeated the Pol Pot reign on January 7th 1979.

The Pol Pot era killed 90,000 or 36% of the Muslim population between 1975 - 1979 in Cambodia. This statistic is higher than the average 21% of the total population who were killed as well. This amounts to 1.67 millions of the total population of 7.89 million in the year 1975.