Hilang Bahasa, lenyaplah bangsa..

Ungkapan ini kadang-kadang tak ada kebenarannya. Ini kerana ada bangsa yg sudah hilang (pupus) tapi bahasanya masih ada. Bangsa yg dimaksudkan ialah bangsa SamSam.

Ketika ini tidak wujud lagi bangsa SamSam kerana mereka telah Memelayukan diri mereka. Menjadi lumrah di Malaysia ini, sesiapa sahaja yg jadi Islam outomatik akan jadi Melayu termasuk org2 Siam/Thai yg masuk Islam. Mana ada org Siam yg masih kekal nama Siam bila masuk Islam? Semuanya dah tukar jadi Arifin, Husin, Harun dll nama Melayu.

Berbalik pada bangsa SamSam, mrk adalah keturunan hasil bersemenda semendi antara org Melayu dgn Siam. Berdasarkan slang percakapan bahasa Siam Samsam mrk dipercayai mrk ini adalah berasal keturunan dari Setul, Thailand. (dahulu, Setul adalah Jajahan Kedah)...

..., it is very difficult to generalize on the ethnicity of Muslims in Satun. As a historic borderland region, Satun’s Muslim community had frequent interaction with Thai and Malay communities for more than 700 years. As a result, the ethnicity of Satun Muslims is almost certainly a mixture of Thai and Malay characteristics, and therefore cannot be easily classified in either group. Second, a theory of ethnicity based mostly on language use is an inadequate definition, as communities have been known to adopt new languages in only a few decades. In the case of Satun, the Muslim community spoke almost entirely the Kedah Malay dialect before the introduction of Thai-language schools in 1910. Third, it is not clear that ethnicity plays a major role in determining individual identity for residents of Satun. Religion clearly plays an important role, and group consciousness is primarily centered on religious affiliation. However, within the Muslim community, there is very little sense of whether they are “ethnically Malay” or “ethnically Thai.” -Thomas I. Parks ,Maintaining Peace in a Neighborhood Torn by Separatism:
The Case of Satun Province in Southern Thailand
,Southeast Asia Studies
Johns Hopkins University
School for Advanced International Studies
Washington, DC

Berkaitan SamSam, Thomas menyebut:

..Thai-speakers lived primarily in the provincial capital, and probably had minimal interaction with Malay-speaking Muslims in rural areas. The “Sam-Sam” people, a Thai-speaking minority population that practiced Islam, could be found in isolated pockets of Satun, Kedah, and Perlis..

(jadi, jgnlah nak mengamuk dan marah kpd Kuroda pasal sebut SamSam ni..ramai pengkaji tahu tentang kewujudan bangsa ini dan menyebut dlm hasil kajian mrk. Namun disebabkan sumbangan bangsa ini atau penonjolan dlm hal-hal tertentu agak terhad atau tidak ada langsung, maka kewujudan bangsa ini kurang diberi perhatian)

Sayang sekali, kerana teramat ingin nak jadi Melayu, mrk sanggup pupuskan bangsa keturunan sendiri padahal Islam tidak semestinya Melayu.

Perihal Samsam ini ada byk disebut dlm catatan-catatan sejarah. Dlm jurnal Classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition ada tersebut SamSam dlm perihal menceritakan tentang populasi Kedah:

...POPULATION (KEDAH)population is estimated at 220,000, of whom about 100,000 are
Malays, 50,000 Siamese and Samsams and 70,000
Chinese and Madrassis (Klings) . There are three towns of importance . Alor
Star, ....

Dalam Jurnal History and Politics
of the Muslims in Thailand pula
Thanet Aphornsuvan dari THAMMASAT UNIVERSITY menyebut tentang dua kelompok Islam di Thailand terbahagi dua iaitu kelompok yg sudah beranggapan bahawa mrk adalah org Thai dan satu kelompok lagi yg menganggap mrk bukan org Thai. Dlm menyebut kelompok yg sudah berasimilasi Thai, Thanet Aphornsuvan menjelaskan:

..For comparative purpose, we could divide the Muslim community in Thailand into
two broad groups; one is an “assimilated” group and the other is an “unassimilated” group. Assimilated group means the group that displays a high degree of cultural similarity with the ethnic Thai-Buddhists save in the area of religious practices and customs. This group includes a whole diversity of ethnic groups such as the Muslim Siamese, the Haw Chinese, the Bengalis, the Arabs, the Iranians, the Chams, the Javanese, the Minangkabaus, the Baweans, the Pathans, the Punjabis and the Samsams....

Jelaslah, bangsa SamSam ini bukan satu dongeng atau rekaan, tapi memang wujud. Bagaimana bangsa ini boleh lenyap?

Soalan ini dijawab oleh KURODA Keiko dari Kagoshima University dlm artikelnya yg berjudul THAI-SPEAKING MUSLIMS IN MALAYSIA AND MALAY-SPEAKING MUSLIMS IN SOUTHERN THAILAND

Berkaitan kepupusan bangsa SamSam, Kuroda menjelaskan:

...Some people had immigrated to Malaysia from Southern Thailand before the 18th century. Most of them were Thai-speaking Muslims known as the SamSams, whose cultural heritage was a unique mixture of the Siamese and Malay. However, during the establishment of the modern nation-state of Malaysia, most Sam Sams have chosen a Malay-Muslim identity and abandoned their own culture and customs, which had also included non-Islamic aspects. By 1992, almost all traces of their former culture had disappeared, except for the Thai language. Another Thai-speaking ethnic group in Malaysia are not Muslims, but Buddhist-Siamese. Being a minority, their political status is lower than that of the Chinese and Indians....

Berkaitan dgn bahasa Siam bangsa SamSam ini, amat mendukacitakan pengembangan bahasa Siam mrk terhenti sejak mrk tukar kulit jadi Melayu. Mrk hanya boleh cakap atau faham bahasa Siam yg berkaitan dgn hal lama-lama. Kalau hal-hal baru, mrk tak faham. Misalnya mrk tak akan faham tentang nama-nama moden misalnya nama resmi jawatan tertentu atau jabatan-jabatan tertentu. Kalau hal-hal rutin manusia spt makan, minum, tidur, jalan, lari, mrk boleh faham. Kalau benda lain-lain yg lebih moden, mrk akan mencampur adukkan dgn bahasa Melayu sbb ketika mrk mula menjadi Melayu, perkara atau benda-benda moden itu belum wujud lagi. Sebab itulah mrk menyebut kereta sbg "tuka" (motokar), motosikal mrk sebut "mutu", polis mrk sebut "mata".. tapi hairan juga sbb mrk sebut kasut sbg "kesut", adakah ketika mrk mula jadi Melayu, puak SamSam ini tak pernah kenal kasut ka, sampai tak reti nak sebut kasut dlm bahasa Siam.

Pelik..pelik...bangsa dah lenyap, tapi bahasa masih ada...(tapi bahasa tak lengkap). Bagai org yg sedang mabuk taik gigi sendiri mrk mula mengelabah mengatakan bahasa Thai bukan lagi bahasa Siam. Ini gara-gara mrk tersentak dgn perkataan-perkataan baru dlm bahasa Thai yg mrk tak faham. Mrk seolah-olah tidak tahu bahawa pengembangan atau pembaharuan bahasa itu memang perlu dlm sesuatu bangsa atau negara mengikut peredaran zaman kerana berbagai-bagai benda atau perkara baru yg timbul dan perlukan satu bahasa atau pengenalan utk menterjemahkannya. Mrk tidak bersendirian dlm menghadapi kemelut ini. Org Melayu Thailand juga tentu akan mengelabah puyuh kalau mendengar perkataan-perkataan baru dlm bahasa Malaysia spt Transit Aliran Ringan, Suruhanjaya Telekomunikasi dan Multimedia, Kastam dan Eksais DiRaja, Selembu, Edaran Otomobil Negara, Akademi Fantasia, Kesinambungan, Jana Kuasa, metropolitan, Menteri Kerja Raya, Sammy Veelu, Ayam Kambing Bag...dsb...tentu org Melayu Thailand kata: Bahasa Melayu Org Malaysia tidak sama dgn bahasa Melayu kita...