Warta Jenaka and Wak Ketok: visualising the other in early Malay editorial cartoons

• Main Author: Mohd Noor Merican, Ahmad Murad
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Department of Media and Communication Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Malaya 2021
• Subjects: CB History of civilization; N379 Study of the history of art; NE Print media; P87 Communication. Mass media
• Online Access: http://irep.iium.edu.my/111390/8/111390_Warta%20Jenaka%20and%20Wak%20Ketok.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/111390/; https://jpmm.um.edu.my/index.php/JPMM/issue/view/1845; https://doi.org/10.22452/jpmm.vol22no2.3

This article defines Malay identity through their portrayal of the Malay Other – the Arabs, Indian Muslims and the Europeans. The Arabs and Peranakan Arabs were identified as foreigners in disguise, the Europeans colonisers as harbingers of modernity. From this perspective not much has been written, using editorial cartoons in Malaysia. This article then focuses on the depiction by the Malay of what constitutes the foreigner (and the West). The medium of the cartoon was a recent innovation in Malay-language newspapers, having first appeared in the first issue of Warta Jenaka a weekly pictorial newspaper on 7 September of 1936. This article surveys three major periodicals in the 1930s including that of Warta Ahadand Utusan Zaman in their construction of ambivalence toward colonialism and Western influence. These were the inter-war years. The periodicals capture Malay sentiments couched in humour and sarcasm ranging from the “proximate” culture of the Arabs to British or European notions of “race”, “modernity” and “progress.” It is cognizant of the colonial condition and the milieu and the inherent character of the Malay press, serving as instruments of criticism and satire. The visual “ethno-nationalistic” discourse is observed about the trajectory of “modernity” brought into Malay awareness during the period.