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Time for Indonesia to share its rich heritage with the world

Despite sharing many cultural affinities, Indonesia and Malaysia have had a checkered relationship over the past 50 years. From the 1960s warlike Konfrontasi to the more recent squabbles over alleged attempts by Malaysia to “appropriate” heritage assets indigenous to Indonesia, the two cousin states are perennially engaged in a love-hate relationship.

Children performing pencak silat, a traditional form of Indonesian martial arts, in Java. The chairman of an Indonesian group last month expressed concern that pencak silat might be ‘claimed’ by other countries. REUTERS

Children performing pencak silat, a traditional form of Indonesian martial arts, in Java. The chairman of an Indonesian group last month expressed concern that pencak silat might be ‘claimed’ by other countries. REUTERS

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Despite sharing many cultural affinities, Indonesia and Malaysia have had a checkered relationship over the past 50 years. From the 1960s warlike Konfrontasi to the more recent squabbles over alleged attempts by Malaysia to “appropriate” heritage assets indigenous to Indonesia, the two cousin states are perennially engaged in a love-hate relationship.

But underneath the tensions, there are lessons Jakarta can learn, and these may help explain why Indonesia’s soft power is not yet at the level it ought to be.

To start with, Indonesia’s paranoia with the hijacking of its culture by neighbouring countries puts it at a disadvantage when it comes to cultivating soft power. At a seminar in Bandung last month, for example, the chairman of the Indonesian Pencak Silat Communities (Maspi), Mr Asep Gurwawan, expressed his concern that pencak silat, a traditional form of Indonesian martial arts, might be “claimed” by other countries. “Different schools of Indonesian-style pencak silat are practised throughout the Malay sphere, in countries such as Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore. That is why it is important that the (Indonesian) government officially recognise it as our national heritage before other nations beat us to it.”

Though Mr Asep diplomatically listed three neighbouring countries in his statement, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that he meant Malaysia. In 2012, the then Deputy Minister of Education and Culture, Ms Wiendu Nuryanti, openly said that Malaysia had “claimed” at least seven heritage assets from Indonesia since 2007.

Historically, Malaysia has been one of Indonesia’s unwitting thorns in the side ever since it had the misfortune of being declared a “threat” to Indonesia’s national integrity and a scion of imperialism by President Sukarno at the country’s birth.

At a recent Australian Institute of International Affairs (AIIA) conference in Canberra, themed 1965 And The Indonesian Coup: 50 Years On, historian Frank Palmos, who was based in Jakarta in that year as a correspondent, showcased a photo he took, depicting an effigy of Malaysia’s first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, being skewered as part of an Indonesian village’s “art installation” in celebration of Independence Day and Sukarno’s “Nasakom” ideology.

Given the degree of popular enmity even then, it is perhaps no wonder that Malaysia as Indonesia’s “latent” enemy lives on in the national subconscious. It does not help that Putrajaya’s economic rise so far has been more dramatic than Jakarta’s own, especially since Indonesians were weaned on the notion that it is, by right of history, South-east Asia’s “big brother”.

To add insult to injury, it has also had to contend with the fact that millions of its unskilled labourers have chosen to do menial work in Malaysia. The subsequent tales of abuse and hardship that its migrant workers suffer at the hands of Malaysians seem to compound its shame at having a formerly “upstart” neighbour lord it over Indonesia in such a contemptuous manner.

CULTURAL LINKS

However, it is hardly rational to resent Malaysians for adopting Indonesia’s cultural heritage. Are Indonesians to baulk at the fact that Malaysians take to so many Indonesian dishes with relish? Are they wrong to preserve heritage assets now taken for granted in Indonesia? They must not forget that millions of Malaysians today can trace their ancestry back to Indonesia.

The cultural links between the two nations are undeniable. The royal family of the Malaysian state of Johor, for instance, is a great patron of keroncong, a 16th-century musical melange of Indonesian and Portuguese influences. As a result, there is great appreciation for the genre in Johor, with public events such as the 2011 Pesta Keroncong Johor finding considerable support from both the government and public alike.

In contrast, the “old-fashioned” keroncong is viewed by the majority of Indonesian youths with bemusement and dismissed as music for the older generation. And yet if Johor were ever perceived to “claim” keroncong as its own, many Indonesians would unfailingly become indignant.

It is precisely this instinctive paranoia in sharing its heritage freely, even with its closest neighbours, which inevitably stunts the potential growth of Indonesian soft power regionally and globally. Soft power, according to political scientist Joseph Nye who coined the term in 1980s, depends on a country’s culture, political values and foreign policies and whether they find acceptance outside its borders.

The Global Soft Power 30 report published by consultancy and public relations firm Portland in July ranks the United Kingdom as No 1 globally in its projection of soft power, followed by Germany and the United States. As the world’s fourth-most-populous nation and its third-largest democracy, Indonesia should have made the list but it did not, even losing out to Singapore, ranked 21st, while China is perched at 30.

It is evident Indonesia is not punching above its weight in terms of soft power. However, it is difficult to imagine how Indonesians can project its culture when it regularly takes umbrage at its neighbours’ supposed “theft” of its heritage.

In Indonesia’s fears and insecurity lie its Achilles Heel.

Jakarta is reluctant to share its culture because it is not confident enough the world will recognise it as its own. And yet without sharing it, no such recognition will ever take place. It is time Indonesia let go of its fears and let the world be exposed to its rich heritage.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Johannes Nugroho is a writer and businessman from Surabaya.

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