THE PERCEPTION AND PRESERVATION OF JAVANESE CULTURE IN MALAYSIA

This study analyses the presence of Javanese cultural roots in Malaysian culture. For the last ten years, both Indonesia and Malaysia have been the subject of a number of cultural claims and counter-claims. Their similar cultural heritages and practices were deemed to be the underlying factors that created tensions between the two countries. In response to these claims, this research aims to discover how such similarities are related to the evolution of perception and the act of preservation of the Javanese culture in Malaysia. This study adopts a historical approach using qualitative data obtained through interviews with both Indonesians and Malaysians who are Javanese descendants, quantitative data obtained through the distribution of questionnaires, and literature studies on archives, documents, newspapers, and books. The data were processed in accordance with the method of historical writing, utilising heuristics, criticism, interpretation, and historiography. This study concludes that the process of assimilation and adaptation adopted by the Javanese diaspora in Malaysia has shifted the public’s perceptions, and therefore affected the way the Malay community reacted to foreign cultural influences, to eventually preserve and assimilate with those influences. Thus, existing similarities between the two countries were further expanded to the regional community, where mass media could play a significant role in promoting a sense of regional brotherhood or function as a catalyst for counter-claims