This post was written regardless of any intention to be chauvinist neither to offend anyone nor anything. I wish I have made it clear from the beginning.
I have been living abroad for my studies, and generally speaking I can always talk about my experience living here in Malaysia, or talk about my life in a country where I was born and raised whenever people here are curious. After approximately 20 months—including the semester breaks lol—for being an Indonesian who studies abroad, I hope it is not too early to conclude that I feel like there is one particular element often used to highlight international students existence here, which is also exercised as a tool to tighten any foreign affairs matters during my study time. If the first word that pops in your mind is ‘culture’, I expect us to be in a same page.
Last Friday was the day when an organization I am currently involved in my campus conducted an even namely Festival of Indonesia. Yes, it does sound like an art and cultural exhibition held in a university that aims to promote cultural exchange among international students in my campus. And no, this post is not going to be an event review. Yet this post is about my reflection on how that event enlightened me to truly realize the meaning of term ‘culture’ and how the word may affect my personal understanding about holding one particular nationality.
Most universities that have numbers of international students who enroll there must possibly hold such cultural event to engage people’s understanding in general to live in cultural diversity. There have been a couple of events conducted in my campus that I still remember, such as African Night, Yemen Global Night, Global Fiesta, and last but not least is Festival of Indonesia (FOI) conducted by Indonesian Students Association.
Basically, FOI has successfully made me genuinely happy and ‘touched’ even though I was not the part of the committee team who worked really hard in succeeding this event. As FOI was opened with speeches from event director to representative from Indonesian embassy, the upcoming performances were mainly about Indonesian traditional dances from different cultural background. I was sitting and enjoying one of the dance performances, and an international student from Nigeria asked me where this dance came from and what ethnic group practiced it. I humbly said that the ongoing dance on the stage was originally from South Sumatra. And then he put that okay-now-I-get-it face and got back immersed in the performance. Just after a few seconds the music continued to play, I heard certain melodies familiar for my ears. Like, really familiar more than just to truly know that this was Indonesian culture. Then I got up from my seat and asked my friend who was the FOI committee,
“Hey, where does this dance come from? South Sumatra, right?” I did ask this with laughing voice because I just realized how unsure I was. “What?! It is Minangese dance, of course! Your Mother is originally from West Sumatra but you don’t even know?”
I went back to my seat which was near from the one who asked me about that dance and clarified the answer. I realized that I did not even know where some dances were originally from, even after Minangese dance was ended. That night I felt that my face probably turned red (luckily the room was dimly lit). I was so embarrassed even for myself .On the other hand, that moment had me thinking there had been numerous Indonesian arts and cultures that I still need to learn about, while term Bhinneka Tunggal Ika already played its role as national motto really well.
Just a sneak peek for this year's Festival of Indonesia. Thanking the pretty and awesome dancers to participate in this event by flying overseas from Depok to Sintok!
Ojan was even cuter than the dancers!!! Fyi some of the dancers were from Universitas Indonesia's dance group namely DENSITY. There was also some friends from Sulawesi Barat but I have no pictures of them.
The national motto Bhinneka Tunggal Ika in English means Unity in Diversity, which brings Indonesia to be well-known for its diverse society. And talking about diverse society, I am also going to share how matters regarding to Indonesia diverse society is often being questioned during my study abroad. One of the examples is the latest one, when I had oral exam face-to-face with my lecturer in his room, to be questioned concerning to our individual essay. Mine was about diverse society and ethnic conflict (please do not expect for any further discussion about this essay topic, I have had enough of theories and case studies huhu).
Before asking for my opinion, my lecturer shared some thoughts about this, “I went to Indonesia for several times, and to be honest I was so impressed how there were many ethnic groups but I couldn’t even differentiate any of them.” I nodded and fully concentrated, he continued. “For example, Chinese people talk Bahasa Indonesia really well. But in your essay you mention there are hundreds of indigenous languages spoken by certain ethnic groups.”
And he finally asked, “In your opinion, how is that possible?”
Long story short, I explained a little of my knowledge not only about the essay I had written but also about the real situation in my home country. Even though we are different in terms of cultural background, we communicate in the same way. Even though we believe in different norms and customs, we share a common understanding that we live in Bhinneka Tunggal Ika. Akin to my essay topic, there is no doubt that there are numbers of recorded ethnic conflicts in some areas. But to be frank, I have always been glad and relieved that people out there still see Indonesia as united diverse country, just for the way it is.
A different lecturer also discussed about a similar perspective during her lecture in a different subject, while she was explaining about Indonesian political history and its role in Southeast Asia. In the beginning of the lecture, she implied that Indonesians had a strong sense of being Indonesians, and that could be possibly seen most of the time. I was wondering in what aspect she personally or generally said that, and in what perspective other people would or would not agree with this idea.
I cannot find out the reason whether it is coincidence or what, but this semester I have done A LOT of assignments and discussions regarding to ethnic topic and its issues in many diverse countries. And as I do those deeds, I become even sure that culture is the almost-perfect and proficient chain to engage differences in diversity. That is why during FOI I felt delighted seeing models from international student representatives wearing Indonesian traditional clothes during fashion show session. It really felt that we were being under one roof seeing a world without borders.
Apologize for the bad phone camera-taken picture quality. Here's to fashion show exhibiting Indonesian traditional clothes represented by international student models in Universiti Utara Malaysia. Delighted and proud :)
My course-mate was one of the models I took some pictures with. Just realize there aren't many pictures with all of them and now I regret it...
Just like the post title, a question relating to “How does it feel to be Indonesian?” has been a trendy question for me. Out of so many moments, what I can remember the most is a long time ago when my sociology teacher in high school threw that question to the whole classroom. She was a teacher who was famously known to be all blak-blakan or forthright about anything she believed in, which then aimed to shape students’ critical way of thinking. Once upon a time she asked all students in the classroom,
“You may have loved Indonesia, but are you proud of being Indonesian?”
It takes a long time to understand what she meant by that, and it takes years to find my own personal answer. Regardless of its imperfections and unconcluded dark past or ongoing issues, I would proudly say that I am a proud Indonesian who cherishes unity in diversity and hopes the whole world will be on the same page too.