A Betawi son traces history

A Betawi son traces history

Anton Kurnia, Contributor, Jakarta

Babad Tanah Betawi (History of Betawi Land);
By Ridwan Saidi;
Gria Media Prima;
First printing, May 2002;
viii + 160 pp

In June of this year, Jakarta celebrated its 475th anniversary.
At the moment, Jakarta is busy electing its new governor for the
next five-year period.

Following the implementation of regional autonomy and an
accompanying growth in regional spirit, there are also strong
voices demanding that the governor of Jakarta should be one that
was born and bred here. As a result, everything concerning the
identity of the Betawi as an indigenous population of Jakarta has
come to the fore.

Ridwan Saidi, who is Betawi and a former chairman of the
Islamic Students Association (HMI), is widely known as a
community figure and he tries to put down on paper a testimony --
or more precisely, an indictment -- regarding the confusion
surrounding the history of the Betawi in this book.

He tries to trace a period 3,500 years ago through various
historical data and literature. The result is an interesting
book, which can be used as a reference source on the history of
the Betawi.

In the introduction, he writes that one of his reasons for
writing this book is his disappointment over what the so-called
Betawi history experts have written. These experts have derived
their information from Dutch sources only. That's why in their
writings it looks as if the history of the Betawi began in 1619,
when the Dutch East Indies Trading Company (VOC) conquered
Jayakarta.

In Saidi's opinion, these experts have confused the naming of
Jayakarta with Batavia by the Dutch as the beginning of the
emergence of the Betawi. Saidi maintains that the ancestors of
the Betawi populated Nusa Kalapa -- now known as Jakarta -- since
the ancient times (neolithic age) about 3,500 years ago. His
argument is based on an archaeological fact, namely the discovery
of a stone ax originating from the neolithic age when an area in
Condet was excavated in the 1970s.

Then Saidi traces the lineage of the Betawi ethnic group back
to the end of the Padjadjaran kingdom in West Java. By then Nusa
Kalapa had grown into a port city. By the time Islam came to
Indonesia in the 15th century, it was also well accepted in Nusa
Kalapa. In the meantime, various internal conflicts impaired
Padjadjaran and the kingdom eventually collapsed without help.

In 1527, Fatahillah set up the Jayakarta sultanate in Nusa
Kalapa with the political support of Sunan Gunung Jati, who was
then controlling Cirebon. It is this year that is now observed as
Jakarta's anniversary.

Western imperialism with its "divide and rule" policy made
Jayakarta fall into the hands of the VOC. It was at this time
that Chinese and Arabic traders joined in the colorful tradition
of the Betawi, as is evident from their dress and traditional
rites.

Another issue that Saidi indicts in this book is the opinion
expressed by Dr. Lance Castle, an Indonesianist hailing from
Australia. Once he wrote that the Betawi were descended from
slaves that the Dutch took from Bali. One of them was Untung
Surapati, a rebellious slave who later became a symbol of the
struggle of the oppressed and was also considered a hero.

Castle, said Saidi, jumped to this conclusion too fast and
simplified the problem. Castle's opinion was based on a census
with the wrong data because it was not based on the government's
official figures. He took only the Dutch statistical data of
1673. At that time Betawi was confined only to Kali Besar. Then
he compared this data with the census in 1891 and another one in
1930. Castle could not understand why in 1930 there was a new
category, the Betawi ethnic group, and the category of slaves was
scrapped. In fact, he said, this category was removed following
the ban on slavery after 1891. Before 1930, Betawi ethnic groups,
virtually all native speakers, were simply ignored by the
colonial rule for political reasons.

The times have changed. The Betawi have been marginalized to
the edge of the city, driven away by newcomers from various parts
of the country. One of the reasons may be the Betawi's culture of
"not placing too much trust" in modern education. That's why they
cannot compete in various formal sectors. Not many indigenous
Betawi gain prominence in the intellectual arena. Of these few,
one is, of course, Ridwan Saidi. Another with some weight behind
him is former legislator Ichsanuddin Noorsy.

Therefore, it is a challenge for the Betawi to be able to
compete soundly with people of other ethnic groups in these
modern times. The Betawi need to engage themselves in this tough
competition and not hide their weaknesses by putting forward
irrelevant issues.