Bugis in South Sulawesi

Bugis in South Sulawesi

This letter was intentionally delayed to sound neither political nor emotional. Djiwandono's article Not much credit is due Habibie's presidency published on May 26, 1999, indeed hurt the feelings of people of South Sulawesi, primarily those who read the paper. Tendentiously, he wrote that Habibie was a native of South Sulawesi and cynically added that as President, Habibie was surrounded by people who hailed from South Sulawesi. Ironically, however, he further elaborated that if there was some success to Habibie's government it was not thanks to Habibie, but to the Minister of Information, Yunus Yosfiah.

Soedjati Djiwandono seems to be lacking in sufficient knowledge of Indonesian history from the 10th century, not to mention history of the mass migration of Proto and Deutro Malay to this archipelago. Had he equipped himself with this knowledge, he would not have imposed his Dutch ethnologically oriented terms, rather than the more modern and sociologically coined ones in connection with the present Indonesian community.

I am pretty sure that Soedjati is a very productive as well as noted writer. But, if he does not mind, I would like to add to his vocabulary with some South Sulawesi cultural phenomena from the 14th century.

If the Javanese sophistical life had been more influenced by Sanskritism (Hinduism) from some time before the Majapahit era, then, on those grounds, the significance of South Sulawesi would have been developed much later and under more influence of Islamic culture. Javanese and South Sulawesi people still share the same element of linguistic phenomena of Proto Malay.

Coming back to our culture of independence, I can also tell you there is a tendency most migrants who have been born in South Sulawesi claim themselves as sociologically Bugis or Makassarese rather than ethnologically "native" Bugis or Makassarese. If you apply it to Habibie's case, I believe you will avoid the term "native" judging either from his name or from his genealogical history. There are so many Javanese descendants in South Sulawesi who always claim themselves to be Makassarese. They are the former mayor of Makassar Municipality, H. M. Yunus Daeng Mile, the famous Makassarese song composer and singer Hamzan Marliat, and also Murtini Slamet Daeng Te'ne, to mention a few of the thousands.

Your tendentious writing is indeed very vulnerable to our Indonesian unity. If you disagree with Habibie's policy, please do, but not just because he hails from South Sulawesi. Please give more description as well as analysis to your disagreement with his social, economic, technological, and such, view. Otherwise, you will be successful only in sowing hatred among the people of Indonesia in our modern era.

NURDIN YATIM

Ujungpandang, South Sulawesi