Returning home: A reflection on the Malaysian practice of balik kampung

Abstract

This paper explores the Malaysian practice of balik kampung or return to hometown, as a category of domestic travel. Although this is an important social practice which is generally valorized by most Malaysians and is potentially an emergent element in national integration, there is scarcely any specific policy or research initiative that addresses this potential. At the global level, most if not all societies, experience this category of mobility both at the international and domestic levels. Yet in terms of research coverage this return-to-hometown phenomenon seems neglected. Through personal reflections and 'auto-ethnography' I shall first describe balik kampung as a social event, its significance and structural characteristics, before analyzing its evolution in terms of form, function and significance attached to the practice.

Population-level public mental health intervention via interdisciplinary COVID-19 health crisis communication: how can occupational therapists contribute?

“…My role as far as health strategy and operations was concerned would be to ensure the information dissemination teams were equipped to identify, practices related to the festival period concurrent with the MCO (Table 2). While participation and engagement in these festivals and related practices are occupations highly valued by Malaysians, a major aspect of these involves social gatherings and large congregations which increases infection risk (Chua, 2020a;Chua, 2020b;Din, 2017;He, 2016) and necessitates even stricter enforcement of movement control to the detriment of mental health and well-being. This presented a conundrum necessary for public health interventions in this time of crisis to address: what are we to do when measures to support good public health were contrary to what the public needed to maintain good mental health?…”

“…Consequently, the theme of 'care for one other, protect each other' remained consistently embedded across Rounds 4-10 of Letters to Malaysians with stronger emphasis in Round 8 released in conjunction with the Aidilfitri / Gawai / Kaamatan festival period (Table 1). This is because these festivals are particularly associated with the balik kampung social phenomenon typically involving travel from urban to rural areas (Din, 2017) which again presents infection risk.…”