Bantul honors tradition in 173rd anniversary

Bantul honors tradition in 173rd anniversary

Slamet Susanto, Yogyakarta

Bantul regency has celebrated its 173rd anniversary in a somewhat
unusual manner.

In an official, solemn ceremony held on Wednesday at Trirenggo
Square, which is located right in front of the regent's official
residence, all the participants were dressed in traditional
Javanese costume -- attire usually reserved for special occasions
like wedding or other traditional ceremonies.

Yogyakarta Deputy Governor Sri Pakualam IX presided over the
event.

Female participants wore kebaya blouses and batik wraps,
complemented by Javanese-style hair buns, or konde, while the men
sported surjan or beskap shirts, blangkon caps, and batik
sarongs. Some also carried keris, Javanese double-bladed daggers,
on their backs as accessories.

And that was not all. Javanese traditional gending, songs
played by a gamelan orchestra, accompanied the whole event, which
was conducted entirely in Javanese, including the official
address by the inspector of the ceremony.

Various traditional performances were staged, like jathilan (a
dance on a horse-shaped bamboo plaitwork in which the artists
usually dance themselves into a trance), campursari (a musical
hybrid of Javanese and dangdut, or local pop music), rebana
(tambourine music), and many other traditional forms of
entertainment.

"We deliberately chose to stage a traditional Javanese event
in a bid to preserve the culture we have inherited from our
ancestors," Bantul Regent Idham Samawi told The Jakarta Post
after the ceremony.

Although Bantul is 173 years old, 1986 marked the first time
its anniversary was celebrated officially by the regency
administration. The decision to designate July 20, 1831, as the
date on which Bantul was founded was made in 1985 following a
year-long study and a workshop involving historians and the
public.

The date, July 20, 1831, was the time when then Hamengkubuwono
IV of the Yogyakarta sultanate officially inaugurated the first
regent of Bantul, Kanjeng Raden Tumenggung Mangunegoro.

"Of course, there are some who don't accept the decision.
That's why the government welcomes any initiatives to reexamine
the matter," Idham said.

Regarding the current situation and future challenges, Idham
said that human resources problems were the most pressing ones
that the regency was facing at present. Of the 816,000 people
living in Bantul, according to Idham, 57 percent depended upon
the agricultural sector. Unfortunately, he said, Bantul had
limited agricultural land of only some 16,500 hectare.

"As a result, the farmers here has limited land on which to
plant crops, which is why it is difficult for them to fulfill
their basic needs, including health and education needs," Idham
explained.

When people were unable to send their children to school, he
said, it was clear that it would be difficult to produce high-
quality human resources. Poor human resources in turn would
result in the people remaining overly dependent on the
agricultural sector.

"Poverty is like a vicious circle. It's hard to break out of
it," he said.

In the light of this, the Bantul government had committed
itself to reducing the dependence of its people on the
agricultural sector to 21 percent within a period of between five
and ten years. In the last four years, for example, the local
government has tried its best in bring investors to the region.
As a result, some 20,000 workers had been provided with jobs in
the industrial sector.

The handicraft sector was also being targeted by the Bantul
government so as to increase employment. To develop this sector,
the local government had been providing workshops, soft loans,
and technical assistance to craftsmen.

Idham also said that the maritime sector was no less
promising. However, the lack of a good port in the region had
made people neglect this sector.

"We have conducted a feasibility study on the possibilities
for the construction of a port in Bantul and the study has
confirmed that it is feasible. Once it becomes a reality, I
believe it will be able to employ some 12 percent of the 57
percent currently dependent upon the agricultural sector," Idham
said.