Betawi try to regain identity
Betawi try to regain identity
Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The band played a melancholic stream of keroncong (Portuguese
influenced Malay music) music and a Betawi leader began, shakily
at first, to sing a few lines of the well-loved ballad Aryati.
The audience laughed and applauded and the singer sang on more
confidently.
Laughter and genial banter marked the gathering of Betawi
leaders on Friday night at Setu Babakan Lake, the center of the
Betawi cultural village in Srengseng Sawah subdistrict in South
Jakarta.
Organized by the Betawi Culture Foundation (LKB), no less than
Jakarta Deputy Governor Fauzi Bowo lent his voice to the event,
which was organized to give Betawi leaders some respite from
their hectic daily routine, and to break the tension that is
building up over preparations for the upcoming Jakarta
gubernatorial election in 2007.
"Betawi people are by nature boisterous, open and friendly
people," LKB secretary-general Ahmad Syarofi, also known as
Yoppi, told The Jakarta Post.
He said that while the foundation had so far focused on the
arts side of the Betawi tradition -- including the organizing of
the cultural festival Gebyar Budaya Betawi 2005, the Jakarta
Abang None pageant and Betawi Cultural Week -- it will give more
attention to nurturing the positive aspects of Betawi culture
beginning next year.
Positive Betawi traits that the foundation wanted to highlight
more in the future include their egalitarian nature.
"Betawi people are egalitarian by nature, they consider
everybody equal. There's no class distinction, meaning we have no
kings and our language has no hierarchy," Yoppi said, adding that
Betawi people only look up to those who are highly religious.
"Just like Islamic teachings, Betawi people don't judge people
by color, race or creed, but by religious devotion, and we
particularly look up to teachers of the Koran," he said.
Although they are known to be loud, the Betawi are also
generally honest and peaceful.
"There's never been a case where Betawi people incite
violence, they are never provocateurs," Yoppi said, explaining
that if a Betawi was involved in a violence it was usually in
reaction to others.
Having emerged from a melting pot of race, ethnic groups and
cultures in the 19th century, the Betawi are usually friendly
toward new people and sometimes naively open.
Fiercely religious, many Betawi parents prefer putting their
children through religious schools rather than a public school,
and as a consequence they are often thought to be uneducated.
But thanks to the popularity of Betawi entertainment on
national television, the Betawi people have regained their pride.
"The younger people especially are now fiercely protective of
their culture, it was never so in the past but now people are
proud to be Betawi," Yoppi said.
The impression that Betawi people are uneducated is also being
determinedly changed and it is now no longer strange for a young
Betawi man or woman to have a university degree.
"It's now the belief that success in this world is equally
important as success in the afterlife, and parents now also view
public school education as necessary," Yoppi said.