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.