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Another creative expression of being Malay other than being Muslim, is the mastery of the Malay
language. It the Malay language that makes the Malay civilization sustainable. The Malay women of
gentle (superior) birth are powers of intelligent conversation, quick-witted, and strong sense of humour,
reads literature and uses allegorical language to convey meaning and have their own modes of speech to
telling secrets. They have own writing system, written language and communication such as epistolary
communications.
The Malays and the Jungle people co-exist with each other, where the Jungle people are
consulted to avoid the Jungle people’s poisonous blowpipes, however, the Jungle people make
themselves useful to the Malay people and are often abused. Concurrently, according to Frank
Swettenham (1893), the Malays are too weak to handle the Chinese. Frank Swettenham had given some
interpretation in accordance to his worldview, however, due to the colonial worldview views differing
races as inferior with the yardstick of colonial capitalism, therefore the Malays are given images impinged
upon of them that is not of their true identity. For example, according to Frank Swettenham (22 August
1875) a Malay is resentful but in actuality, when the dignity of the Malay is abused and he or she is
treated unfairly, one seeks justice. xxxix
Among the distinguishing special characteristic of creativity of the Malay people are the Malay
Sultanate and the Malay Language especially as an effort to sustain the civilization and local wisdom of
the Malays. Therefore, the creativity and sustainability of local wisdom of the Malays showcases the high
level of intelligence and cognition their culture and the Swettenham Paper is an effort to sustain it.
It has been analysed that the worth of the Swettenham Papers lies in its records of the Malay life
th
in the 19 century in the Malay Peninsular which is rich in political, economic, and social history,
therefore, it is incumbent to properly preserve this collection of primary sources for the preservation and
sustainability of the Malay identity along with the creative aspects of the Malay life. For the alignment
for the betterment of preservation of these literary sources, it is highly suggested that all labels of
documents are rectified.

Conclusion.
Among the importance of the Swettenham Papers is it being a collection of records for cultural
sustainability and preservation of local Malay creativity.

The way Frank Swettenham understands the Malay society and its elements are due to the
colonial worldview. According to Professor Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas (2011), the Europeans
historians of the Malay Archipelago are praiseworthy in their scholarship yet the interpretation is not in
accordance to the proper worldview, though they indeed may be right in some of their assumptions and
presuppositions and in some of the answers to the questions we must raise. But in some they are
positively wrong. Frank Swettenham falls into this category as his efforts are praiseworthy yet due to not
employing the proper worldview, his interpretations may vary. He interprets his data in accordance to his
xl
colonial worldview and Protestant Christian Graeco-Roman worldview. An element discovered in the
thoughts of Frank Swettenham is his incredulity of Islam being the foundation to the Malay culture,
instead it is portrayed as something foreign and incomprehensible. However, according to Ernest Chew
and H.S. Barlow, Frank Swettenham’s accounts are not to be fully trusted as they have conducted
thorough research on him.

Therefore, the records of creativity and sustainability in the Malay culture are best to be
interpreted using the framework of local wisdom, with the application of De-Westernisation which is the
Islamization of Contemporary Knowledge. This is mainly to the fact that the Malays are part of the

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