All quiet on the Indonesian cultural front

JAKARTA (JP): As I watched the shadow puppets prance and contort their stiff arms on television one night, I wished that I understood kromo inggil, the high Javanese language used in the performance.

With no subtitles displayed on the screen, I wondered just how many people would be able to follow the cryptic story slowly unfolding before me. It would probably be the very small percentage of the older Javanese fans accustomed to communicating in the notoriously difficult classical language.

Such beautiful works of art appear to be vibrant, but without a text they might very well be as lifeless as a silent movie of the 1920s.

Javanese culture is often dubbed the dominant culture in Indonesia, and it is easy to overlook the fact that a large percentage of Indonesians do not speak Javanese or understand its culture. Maybe they do want to learn and know more, yet the language barrier shown in the shadow puppet example could easily scare away potential enthusiasts.

Many people feel the younger generation of Indonesians is lacking in their cultural awareness, idolizing Madonna and Val Kilmer more than Siti Nurbaya or Ande-Ande Lumut. Of course, modernization is importing pop culture, but we need to remember the importance of preserving our own culture.

As an Indonesian who has lived most of her life abroad, it is sad to think I gained appreciation of my Javanese and West Sumatran cultural heritage overseas. I watched my first shadow puppet performance in the United States (with subtext of course), and enjoyed every moment.

The years I spent in Jakarta as a young teenager, I often felt the invasion of Western pop culture did not permit much growth of appreciation for the domestic culture among kids of my generation. Children who seem too conscious of their ethnic backgrounds were teased and branded as too Javanese, too much the orang daerah, the country bumpkin.

Most movies are imported from the United States today. People flock to see Jim Carrey who is not ashamed to embarrass himself, and is in fact paid millions of dollars to look like a complete goofball on screen. Or people line up to watch houses being blown to pieces in Twister.

Most local TV series depict the ostentatious lifestyles of the wealthy and privileged, mostly young teenagers who drive to school in BMWs, frequent dance clubs and expensive restaurants, forever clad in designer clothes.

When the Melrose Place and Beverly Hills 90210 craze swept the nation, the public, particularly teenagers and college kids, started to believe that kids in the United States share the same lavish lifestyles as the characters in the two television series created by Aaron Spelling, the soap opera tycoon also responsible for Dallas and Dynasty.

These unfortunate victims of consumerism feel compelled to dress and imitate the lifestyles of Kelly, Donna and Dylan from Beverly Hills. Girls rush to hair salons, desperate to get Kelly's short, oh-so-cool haircut; suddenly, Jenny Garth look- alikes are walking the city's shopping malls.

Little do they realize that kids in the United States do not go to school dressed looking like those characters on the series, and actually appear normal. In Jakarta, even 12-year-olds can be seen tottering in their high platform shoes, tight short skirts, sculptured eyebrows, heavy makeup and pedicured toenails.

Among the young generation, everything Western is cool and everything ethnic is out. I recall a time when I visited Bali, and went to purchase an ethnic pillowcase from Sumba in Legian. When I made my selection, the merchant stared at me with raised eyebrows. "That's funny," he said. "Normally, it's the foreigners who buy such ethnic things."

It is sad that I found my real identity abroad and not in my own country. I learned to speak and understand ngoko (the everyday Javanese language) after one of my father's close relatives sent me books on how to speak Javanese. I also learned to appreciate the arts and understand the Mahabharata from books written by foreigners.

Does it have to be this way? We should feel proud of our own cultural heritage, and also have the desire and curiosity to learn about other ethnic groups in Indonesia. By learning, we understand each other better.

But it all could, and should, start with something as simple as subtitles for televised shadow puppet performances, so people who want to learn and appreciate can do so with ease.

-- Irawati Wisnumurti