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• Title: Understanding the Cham Identity in Mainland Southeast Asia: Contending Views.
• Author : SOJOURN: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia
• Release Date : January 01, 2006
• Genre: Social Science,Books,Nonfiction,
• Pages : * pages
• Size : 233 KB

Description

Introduction I had a chance encounter with a Cham man on a boat trip from Chau Doc (Vietnam) to Phnom Penh. His name was Iskandar and a native from Kompong Cham, Cambodia. On the journey, the passengers (most of them were from Western countries) had to surrender their passports to him as he was in charge of showing them to the Cambodian customs. Taking particular interest in the name written in my passport, he looked at me curiously. This gave me an opportunity to observe him. At first glance, I could not tell whether he was Khmer or Cham but he was definitely not ethnic Kinh. (1) Suddenly, he said "Assalamualaikum" the standard Muslim greeting that means "Peace be unto you". Automatically, I replied in the affirmative "Waalaikumsalam". He smiled and to my great surprise, began conversing with me in Malay and Cham. The conversation turned out to be rather friendly and he spoke excellent Malay. I learnt that he had worked for the boat company for a few years and was paid very well. He learnt Malay in Vietnam, from classes run by the Malaysian government in Saigon and managed to work for some years in Malaysia. What was most impressive was that he could speak Vietnamese, Khmer and Malay and such knowledge made him a "valued employee" as he could communicate and more importantly negotiate with the customs officials on both sides of the border. He said that the Vietnamese guides in the company would rather not deal with the Cambodian officials, as "troubles would arise". Therefore Cham workers were sought after because they were "tolerated more" by the Cambodian officials at the river checks. Iskandar then roped in his friends from the village to work with him. He would return to work in Malaysia or Indonesia if the opportunity arose but to do that he must establish good relations with a certain mosque in Cambodia where the Imam disseminates information on the working opportunities for Chams.

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