Anyone who insists the national languages of Republic of Indonesia and the Kingdom of Malaysia are identical can kiss my (censored). Well, I worked for three years in KL and thank God that news conferences, press releases, important speeches, statistics, Q+As are in English. There are similarities between the two languages of course, but they are so limited. I gave up reading Malay newspapers because the reports were difficult to understand. An Indonesian who is conversant with the English language will speak English with a Malaysian. So what about this early 20th century, silk ikat sarong? I have a few similar pieces in the collection and dealers told me the fine textiles were found and woven by the Malays in Riau province in Sumatra. Some researchers may say this type of cloth was made in the east coast of Malaysia. But why? Because they look similar? What I am trying to say is that I despise cultural generalisations because I come from an ethnically and culturally diverse country.