‘I kno you don’t hav a good culture as Indonesia, malay! but please, can you just stop stealing what Indonesia hav for once? (sic)’ goes a Twitter message referring to the case of the Malaysian tourism advert that used the Balinese Pendet dance in it.
‘Pendet is Made in Bali, Indonesia okay?? Please Malaysia, Don’t STEAL again Indonesia Culture!!’ goes another equally irate Twitter message.
The above examples are merely some of the more polite verbal rampage out of a deluge of vitriolic attack against Malaysia (also referred to as ‘Malingsia’, with ‘maling’ meaning ‘thief’) that have spammed the Twitter world this past week.
So much for peace and self-restraint during the fasting month. If any of those Twitterers were fasting in this holy month of Ramadhan, the amount of unholy badmouthing and animosity emanating from their being would undoubtedly invalidate their fast!
Granted that most of these online messages are verbal nonsense coming from a bunch of unruly and most likely young, mobile texters trying to outdo each other in online spitefulness, however, when a respected national university in Semarang, Central Java, decided to join the chorus of jingoism by no longer accepting Malaysian students to study at the university in the name of the country’s pride, then there really is a thin line between nationalism and plain knee-jerk stupidity.
To be sure there are plenty of long-running issues and deep-seated rancour between Indonesia and Malaysia, whether it’s about migrant workers, border issues, Manohara, stolen cultures and identities or some other sibling rivalry grievances, but some common decencies as human beings should still be upheld in how we treat our fellow humans.
Name-callings and trying to put the other party down might satisfy the ego but hardly elevates one’s standing or make us the better person. On the contrary it merely highlights our insecurity, ignorance and small-mindedness.
And it is unfortunate that advances in technology have facilitated not only the rapid spread of information and democratization of the media but also the dissemination of pettiness, prejudices and stupidities with the speed of a viral infection. Suddenly everybody has an opinion on everything, every little business becomes everybody’s business and every tiny slight a national insult.
It’s great when this rallying cry could be put to positive use such as in the incident in Canada where a boy was harassed by bullies for wearing pink on the first day at school. A couple of his male school friends who felt the need to do something about it went online to spread the word and very soon hundreds of school children went to school wearing pink to show their solidarity.
Not only did it effectively put an end to the bullying but it showed the power that online activism can do and also, in this case, highlighted the fine sensibilities those Canadian young people have.
They could have easily verbally abused the bullies or most likely for youths of their age, joined in an online harassment of the pink-wearing boy. Instead, in good spirits, they all embraced the cause and sported pink T-Shirts to school. Their action inspired the whole country.
In the case of the Pendet dance (to which suddenly everybody becomes attached and pin their identity on as if their life and honour is at stake) instead of berating Malaysia for stealing our culture, we should thank our neighbour for reminding us to appreciate more the riches that we have and to take better care of them.
Rather than keeping Malaysian students out, we should be inviting them in droves to show them how batik cloths are made, teach them how wayang puppets are played and how the herbal ‘jamu’ is concocted. We should even teach them the Pendet dance.
But we don’t. Because we ourselves don’t teach our children about our culture or show any interest and appreciation of it.
I don’t know of any national curriculum at schools that teach the children the myriad of different musical instruments this archipelago has, the different cultural dances and their origins, the folklore, the mythologies, the variety of indigenous tribes and their local wisdom, the origins of our own language.
I have never seen school children take gamelan lessons, learn how to carve a leather puppet or encouraged to appreciate the richness of their traditions and the diversity of their cultures.
I have read of a teacher of religion who held a hot match against her pupil’s cheek to teach her about how hot hell is, but I rarely hear of a teacher who inspires in her student a love for the gracefulness of a Jaipong dance or the sound of ‘angklung.’
Instead, we treat our cultures and traditions as perfunctory symbols invoked on Independence Day or commodities to be dusted, laid out and sold as souvenirs to entice tourists while we ourselves regard them with little value.
I’m sure most Indonesians until now know very little about the Pendet dance let alone learned the movements.
It is only when other people actually show an interest that we start making a song and dance out of it.
(Desi Anwar: First published in The Jakarta Globe)
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Khirul Hafiz
said:
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... Wow..I am Malaysian but still I don't know anything about this polemic until I accidentally found it on the Internet. I think no newspapers write about it here in Malaysia and It's like nothing happen. Just last month delegates fro Indonesia come here at my home town Melaka for the SOSEK MALINDO meetings and they don't talk anything about this Pendet Dance. Wow..Now I know it's a National Issue in Jakarta. |
Angah
said:
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... Desi, that is very nicely written! Sometimes, we all are much too gullible for our own good. I guess if the protesters are right, then bagpipes band should only be played by the Scot, the tango should only be performed by the Argentinian, football be played only by the English etc. |
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