Family name important to ethnic groups<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Government regulations banning the public from using their
\nfamily names on their birth certificates must be suspended
\nimmediately as it could affect a community's cultural system,
\npublic figures from the Batak and Manadonese communities say.<\/p>\n
Leo Panggabean, a Batak public figure from Bekasi, West Java,
\nand Victor Rompas, a public figure from the Manado community from
\nNorth Sulawesi, said in Jakarta last Friday that surnames played
\nan important role in their cultures.<\/p>\n
\"A marga (family name) is very important for Batak as it used
\nto reveal relationships between individual members of the
\ncommunity. Therefore, I object to the regulations banning people
\nfrom using their surnames on their birth certificates,\"
\nPanggabean told The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
A Batak marga, usually, has a record of its ancestry from
\ngeneration to generation by tracing the offspring through their
\nsurnames.<\/p>\n
He said that the Batak cultural system banned people from
\nmarrying if they had the same surname. \"A man with the surname of
\nPanggabean is not allowed to marry a woman with the family name
\nof Panggabean. Should the couple insist on getting married they
\nwould be expelled from the community,\" he said.<\/p>\n
He said that the Batak cultural system could only function if
\nthe Batak people could maintain the use of their family names. \"I
\ncannot imagine what will happen if the Batak people have no
\nsurnames. If that happens then, I believe, our cultural system
\nwill perish,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Victor said that although the use of the family name for the
\nManado people was not as strict as for the Batak community, the
\nmarga still influenced the everyday practices of Manado culture.<\/p>\n
He said for example that Manado banned a marriage of a couple
\nwho had the same surname.<\/p>\n
He said, however, that the main issue here was that people
\nshould be free to use their surnames as it was their right. The
\ngovernment should not interfere with a person's choice as to
\nwhether to write their children's surnames on their birth
\ncertificate or not, he said.<\/p>\n
\"It should be the right of the families to decide whether they
\nuse their family names or not. And it's certainly not for the
\ngovernment to decide,\" said the 83-year-old native of Manado.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/family-name-important-to-ethnic-groups-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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