New interpretation of Nyai Dasima, a Betawi story

New interpretation of Nyai Dasima, a Betawi story

By Yusuf Susilo Hartono

JAKARTA (JP): The choreographer of Eksotika Karmawibangga
Indonesia (EKI) Productions, Rusdi Rukmarata, is facing a
dilemma: "kill" Nyai Dasima or "let her live".

If he chooses the former, his version would be just like five
earlier versions of the story. If he opts for the latter, he will
be deviating from the standard plot that has prevailed for the
last 250 years.

"I'm confused now. Should I kill Dasima or let her live at the
end of the story," said Rusdi, now busy preparing for the
performance of Nyai Dasima as a musical drama with the very
metropolitan title Madam Dasima.

Dozens of EKI dancers and actors, including H. Sujiwo Tejo,
Rudi Wowor and Rusdi Rukmarata, will appear in the performance,
which will also be highlighted by the presence of famous singers
and TV stars like Vicky Burki, Indra Savera and Maharani.

Madame Dasima, rehearsals for which have to date been going on
for over a month, will be performed on June 27 and 28 at Graha
Bhakti Budaya in the Taman Ismail Marzuki (TIM) arts center in
Jakarta.

For the Betawi people -- the indigenous residents of Jakarta
-- Nyai Dasima is a very popular play. A folklore expert at the
University of Indonesia, Dr. James Dananjaya, said that this
legend, which is about Nyai Dasima as the mistress of a Dutch
gentleman, was often performed during the Japanese occupation,
which one performance lasting the entire night. Recently, as pop
culture sweeps across the country, the play has often appeared on
television in condensed form as a lenong performance or a film.

Also, state radio station RRI Jakarta uses the characters of
Dasima (appearing in the radio program as Mpok Dasime) and Samiun
(as Bang Samiun), as well as the sound made by his two-wheeled
buggy, in a program in which the two chat about all things
topical in the capital.

Two versions of Nyai Dasima were written during Dutch colonial
times. One was written by G. Frances (1896) in Batavia Malay and
was set in the year 1800. The second version was written in Dutch
by A. Th. Manusama (1926).

Other versions of the legend were written by SM Ardan (1965)
in the Betawi language, Chitra Dewi (1970) as a film script and
Ali Shahab (1995) as a TV serial.

Generally, these five versions end with the death of Nyai
Dasima.

Squeezed in Life

One of Indonesia's prominent feminists, Julia Suryakusuma, is
anxious to see Rusdi's version of Nyai Dasima. In the meantime,
she gave her opinion that Dasima should be allowed to live in
this new version.

Any reason for wanting Dasima to live? After two failed
marriages to two husbands from two different cultures and with
different values, the Dasima of the reform era and the
postmodernist age will not opt for suicide. "She will leave her
house to study at the university, graduate as a nuclear physicist
who will later gain recognition in her field without having to
depend on a man."

"As for Nancy, Dasima's daughter from her marriage with a
Dutch husband, she may turn out to be a TV star, or a star for a
soap commercial in which a Eurasian face is generally a
favorite," she said in a discussion on Nyai Dasima at TIM. Also
speaking were Firman Ihsan, a photographer, painter and lecturer
at the Jakarta Institute of Arts, and James Dananjaya, a
professor of anthropology at the University of Indonesia.

Julia was not joking. As a feminist, she was defending Dasima
in the present context, in addition to making up for her
disappointment over the five earlier versions of Nyai Dasima.

According to Julia, in the two versions of Nyai Dasima written
by male authors of the colonial elite, women are victimized to
produce a story illustrating colonial relations. The stress is on
race, not religion, in defining group identity.

The other three versions were written by indigenous writers:
SM Ardan and Ali Shahab, both men, and Citra Dewi, a woman
author. They depict the nyai (mistress) as a woman who, despite
being victimized, continues to maintain control over her life.
"Because the play is a melodrama, the female figure must die
tragically. This, however, happens among the indigenous and any
relationship with a Caucasian or a non-Indonesian will be
rejected," said Julia, who is married to actor Ami Prijono.

A nyai (as a character in the play), she said, is the
manifestation of a more extreme figure of a woman in a
relationship that favors men. This relationship has, since the
earliest of times, been in favor of men even if the men and the
women are from the same race. The mistress wishes for a better
future, but as circumstances do not allow this to happen she is
led to her tragic death.

In all versions, an Indonesian woman who agrees to be the
mistress of a Caucasian, she said, is depicted as someone with a
noble mind. She is calm, faithful and passive. She is invariably
suffering and victimized. She has become an ideal type (a
prototype) which emerges repeatedly in a literary tradition
beginning with the stories from the Ramayana.

From the viewpoint of a feminist, Julia sees this ideal type
repeated in stories about the Javanese palace. It also finds
expression in Dharma Wanita and the Family Welfare Movement
(PKK), which applied it as the idealization of obedience and
dependence. This graceful passivity can be contrasted with
Srikandi, a shadow puppet figure, and fighter Cut Nyak Dien.

"At present, the manifestation of the figure of Nyai Dasima
can be seen in the practice of contract-based marriage, a symbol
of an Indonesia being squeezed between the forces of
globalization and Western values and neoconservative Muslims in
their attempt to maintain an indigenous identity," said Julia,
the daughter of a diplomat who spent her childhood and much of
her adult years abroad.

Gray area

Another speaker at the discussion, Firman Ichsan, said as a
legend Nyai Dasima is a fiction dwelling on a long journey in
search of self-identity. Dasima is the personification of the
gray area itself in the sense that this figure represents the
search for self-identity, not only as a grand narrative but also
as a private person.

Nyai Dasima, as complicated love story, and later fictions in
the same vein like Salah Asuhan (Wrong Upbringing), he added,
always end with the death of one of the characters. This used to
be our characteristic way of finding a solution to the Western-
Eastern cultural conflict, he said, adding that this conflict
never left room for compromise. "Or in other words, when you
encounter foreign elements, you must take this option (death)."

Obviously, this solution calls for questioning at a time when
the nation is undergoing drastic changes, including the process
of democratization and globalization, a situation shared by other
nations. A solution like this cannot simply be accepted,
especially in light of the spirit of emancipation that RA
Kartini, a pioneer in the struggle for women emancipation in
Indonesia, fought for throughout her life, a spirit now finding
momentum.

Aware of all this, Rusdi Rukmarata, a Buddhist priest, appears
to be taking care to use a contemporary approach with Madame
Dasima. Rusdi, for example, organized the discussion involving
Julia, Firman and James Dananjaya to help him find a solution to
the problem of whether to "kill" Nyai Dasima or "let her live".