Parenting practice of Sabah and Sarawak

Parenting practice of Sabah and Sarawak

Discipline

In Sabah and Sarawak, the natives have their own distinct traditions and cultures which equally places the utmost importance of paying respect to the elders, parents, siblings, relatives, friends and visitors both domestic and from abroad as well as in other culture. (Hajji Zainol Abideen,2009). In those days, a family will follow decisions which made by fathers when involving and interacting with children. Fathers will set rules for their children such as how to behave when greet people but these rules had change.  Nowadays, a mother will do everything including decision that involving and interacting with children. Father will follow mother’s instruction but in Sabah and Sarawak, father and mother have equal responsibility of childcare.( Wider,2014) . Now all the culture also follows these rules. Discipline will change to become stricter than before. Mother will make sure children must reach home before 10pm. In addition, mother will cane their children if their children been naughty. But for Sabah and Sarawak, parents will be not as strict as parents in urban country because the lifestyles they live are different.( Krishnan,2012)

Education

Children in Sabah and Sarawak are often separated from their parents from as young as seven to attend school in a nearby village. By the time they are 13, they would be living miles away in town for their secondary education. Some parents of aboriginal people in Sabah and Sarawak will send their children to school to give their teacher to educate them because they do not know how to write or read and they do not want their children to follow their steps due to today’s world.( Griffin,2002). In addition, other than holidays, they may never return to live with their parents in the village again. This was posed a serious challenge for children to leave the house at the early age. They will live in a boarding school and only went home once a year. This can make them to cope and they were also fortunate social problems.  Some children do not want to go to school because of the distance of school and their home and they do not want to interact with other children. (Hong, 2013)

Goals

Every parent wants to see their children success especially in their studies so that they will have a better life in future. The major goals were to examine gender of parent and gender of child differences in involvement in childcare activities. Normally parents will set goals for their children such as study hard, stay healthy and so on. ( The State of the World’s Children,2011)

Socialization

Usually parents of a young man arrange a marriage with the parents of a young woman. For a Muslim in Malay culture, the spouse must also be Muslim; thus, individuals, especially men, often convert to Islam in order to marry a Muslim. Interethnic group marriages are not uncommon. There is considerable minor variation in marriage ceremonies from group to group and within ethnic groups. ( Maxwell,1998)

References

Griffin, (2002) Education in Indigenous, Nomadic and Travelling Communities https://books.google.com.my/books?id=4gK2AwAAQBAJ&pg=PT107&dq=education+to+aboriginal+people+in+sabah&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=education%20to%20aboriginal%20people%20in%20sabah&f=false

Haji  Zainol Abideen( 2009) Spare the rod and spoil the child? Malaysian Parental Disciplining Dilemma http://mahaguru58.blogspot.my/2015/02/spare-rod-and-spoil-child-malaysian.html

 

Krishnan( 2012) Child Rights Coalition Malaysia

 http://www.unicef.org/malaysia/Report_on_Childrens_Rights_.pdf

Hong( 2013) Leaving home, age seven

http://www.businesscircle.com.my/leaving-home-age-seven

The State of the World’s Children (2011) Early Years

http://www.unicef.org/malaysia/children_earlyyears.html

Wider ( 2014) Seminar Kebangsaan Integriti Keluarga

http://www.ums.edu.my/fpp/images/download/proseding_skik2014/Walton_Wider.pdf

Parenting Practices of Orang Asli culture

Parenting Practices of Orang Asli culture

"Orang Asli" means "original people" or "first people. They live on the Peninsular of Malaysia. Most of them still live in the rain forest or jungle, hunt with blowpipes for birds and little monkeys. Some live along or near the coast. Only a few of them also live in urban areas and are engaged in both waged and salaries jobs. They have their own language and culture, and perceives itself and different from the others. (Ben van Wijnen, 2015)

Orang Asli which transliterates as 'original peoples' or first peoples. 

Socialization

Most of the Orang Asli married when still young age. A men who is aged 18 years old is the most appropriate age for getting married. When women were aged 16 years and shall be not more than age men. Marriage is done by parent prospective bride. There are also among the Orang Asli who were engaged at an early age. Normally, men and women have relationships such as brother or cousin or second cousin has the same ethnic groups. It is not an offense if the prospective groom to marry a woman from another tribe. The wife must enter the husband’s ethnic groups. (Joraiha Zakaria, Loh Hoay Ping, 2009)

Orang Asli wedding ceremony

Traditional dances of Orang Asli are strongly rooted in their spiritual beliefs. Dances are commonly used by witch-doctors as rituals to communicate with the spirit world. Orang Asli parents teach their children traditional dances such as Genggulang of the Mahmeri tribe, Berjerom of the Jah-Hut tribe and Sewang of the Semai and Temiar tribes. (Official Website of Tourism Malaysia, 2015)

Sewang dance of the Semai and Temiar Tribes.

Discipline

According to an Orang Asli teacher, Jenita Engi said that Orang Asli children are difficult to teach and discipline. Besides that, Batin Ek Cantan said that the punishment and disciplinary methods meted out on the children were unfair and not understood by the Orang Asli children. Since most of their parents are illiterate, they sent their children to the school and hoped the teacher will take their job seriously and discipline their children. (Center for Orang Asli Concerns, 2015) Discipline is seen as another problem as Orang Asli children are used to the freedoms of the forest. The children are not physically disciplined by their parents and tend to reach badly when smacked by teachers. The children may stop going to school (Spice Martin, 2008) For example, there are cases that deaths of five Orang Asli children in Gua Musang, Kelantan. The children ran away from their schools because of fearing disciplinary action (Lim Huey Teng, 2015).

Educational

There are many Orang Asli children don’t have the opportunity to go to school as there are none nearby and making many of them are illiterate. (Lim Huey Teng, 2015). Although there are much effort has been made to enable Orang Asli to acquire education at all levels, the task of providing a formal education for Orang Asli has faced difficulty as Orang Asli community have a low level of awareness of the importance of formal education. Thus, their parents do not give priority to the education of their children. (Arumugam A/L Raman, Allison Lee Gin Wah, Amareson A/L Manusamy, 2009). The children who come from interior villages which have no schools, which had forced their parents to send them to the nearest residential schools despite their young age. (The Malaysian Insider, 2015). Due to their culture that stresses the importance of learning, the Orang Asli people are represented in the educational professions, with many of them being teachers, scholars and doctors.

Life

Children are taught to use blowpipe to hunt small animals such as monkey and squirrels. Their villages hut are simple which is with palm-thatched shelters. A hut lives one for each family group or with several family groups are usually staying together. (Han Travel Sdn Bhd, 2012)

The blowpipe that used by Orang Asli to hunt animals.

Orang Asli’s proud of their culture, customs and beliefs that the community does not have to worry about matters of economy. This is because children were bought up to sustain their life without being dependent on money. Their customs teach children to respect the balance in nature where they want development in their villages but if it separates us from their history and culture, they do not want to become like city folk. (John Ahni Schertow, 2007)

The boys leave home at the age of 7 and live in a surau which is a prayer house & community centre to learn religious and cultural teachings and they only return home during long school holiday (Asian Inspiration, 2015) 

Goals

Orang Asli did not expect much on their children. Some of the children does not achieve better academic as the Orang Asli children did not get much help from parents in their studies at home. This is because almost all the parents are ignorant and illiterate. They are unable to teach, coach, and guide their children even in the basic skills of reading and writing. Besides that, Orang Asli parents are always away from house as they hunt and gather food from the jungle to feed the family. Thus, children’s academic is not given priority. In fact, parents do not show concern or take interest on children’s studies. For instance, when asked what they hoped their children after schooling, many answered they hoped their children could play football well. (Arumugam A/L Raman, Allison Lee Gin Wah, Amareson A/L Manusamy, 2009)


Reference

Lim Huey Teng. Suhakam: Stop violating Orang Asli right to education. Malaysiakini. Oct15, 2015. https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/315819#ixzz3tdbCtG7e  

The Malaysian Insider. Protect Orang Asli Children. Suhakam tells Putrajaya. Oct15, 2015. http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/protect-orang-asli-children-suhakam-tells-putrajaya 

Asian Inspirations. 10 interesting cultural facts about Orang Asli. 2015. https://asianinspirations.com.au/asian-culture/10-interesting-cultural-facts-about-orang-asli/#sthash.1HCGpDGa.dpuf 

John Ahni Schertow. Development, Law and The Traditional Life of the Orang Asli. Nov 12, 2007. https://intercontinentalcry.org/development-law-and-the-traditional-life-of-the-orang-asli/ 

Center for Orang Asli Concerns. Education for the Orang Asli, the community way. Nov 2, 2015. http://www.coac.org.my/main.php?section=news&article_id=211 

Martin Spice. Land and freedom at issue. May 12, 2008. https://www.tes.com/article.aspx?storycode=30980 

Han Travel Sdn Bhd. Orang Asli Village. Nov, 2012. http://han-travel.com/places/orang-asli-village.html 

Joraiha Zakaria, Loh Hoay Ping. Wedding ceremony in Malaysia: Orang Asli Wedding. 2009. http://ethnicabudaya.blogspot.my/2010/03/orang-asli-wedding.html (Accessed Dec 7, 2015)

Official Website of Tourism Malaysia. Music and Dance. 2015 http://www.tourism.gov.my/en/us/about-malaysia/culture-n-heritage/music-and-dance  

Ben van Wijnen. The Malaysia Site: Orang Asli. 2015 http://www.malaysiasite.nl/orangeng.htm 

Conclusion

Conclusion

It is cannot denied that Malaysia is a multicultural society. We can see that there are differences parenting practices of different culture such as Malay, Chinese, Indian, Sabah and Sarawak and Aboriginal people.

In malays, they are emphasizing love-oriented techniques when disciplining their children, giving encouragement in their children’s studies and malay child is growing up emotionally secure but also independent. 

For Chinese, the parents bring pressure and expectations high on their children as they focus significant amounts of money upon their children when the children succeed in academics and other areas.

Whereas for Indians, parents are strict with children behavior when communicate with elder and whole family is involved in rearing of children.

For Sabah and Sarawak, the family is patriarchal family where the father made the decision for his family. Although Sabah and Sarawak parents are not as strict as parents in urban country but they will send their children to school at an early age especially for aboriginal people that some of the parents are not able to discipline so they send them to school to give their teacher to educate them.

Orang Asli parents are proud with their beliefs and culture, so that they did not expect much on the children. They teach their children to sustain their life without being dependent on money.

In conclusion, although parents from different culture have different styles to practice their children but they have same motive to see their children success in their future. So, whatever the parents decide for their children will give a great impact on their children’s lives and behavior. No matter what is the our culture, we will love and take care of our children from being hurt.