The case of Indonesia–Malaya cultural traffic, particularly in
literature, however, tends to show the opposite direction. Rather
than being the importer, Indonesia was the exporter of literary
works and ideas to Malaya without, to a great extent, necessarily
being aware of it, for it was the latter that took initiatives to search
for inspiration from the former. In short, Indonesia became the
‘Mecca’ for the writers of Malaya, especially the Malay writers, both
in the given period and even earlier.