Youth Pledge Day and its meaning

Youth Pledge Day and its meaning

By Amir Sidharta

JAKARTA (JP): We Indonesians have been boasting about our vast
cultural diversity. Our national motto, Bhineka Tunggal Ika,
means, in essence, Unity in Diversity.

There are 580 dialects spoken by various peoples living in
this vast archipelago of 17,508 islands. It is perhaps the most
diverse nation in the world.

Last Wednesday, we commemorated the 70th anniversary of Youth
Pledge Day. On Oct. 28, 1928, youth organizations representing
various ethnic groups declared: Bertanah air satu, Tanah Air
Indonesia; berbangsa satu, bangsa Indonesia; berbahasa satu,
bahasa Indonesia. (One country, one nation, one language,
Indonesia).

While the pledge can be considered as a nationalist elan,
perhaps this year, it is more appropriate to consider the pledge
from the standpoint of cultural diversity.

Instead of capitalizing on the vast diversity we have been
boasting, the New Order government tended to take it for granted.
Instead of dealing with the "diversity" aspect of the nation, it
instead overemphasized the "unity" aspect.

This is clear every time we watch the evening news on the
state television station TVRI; they show their motto, Menjalin
Persatuan dan Kesatuan (To Establish Unification and Unity).

Persatuan and Kesatuan in this case, mean the same thing, so
it is not clear why this motto includes such a redundancy.

The New Order government certainly endorsed the notion of
Indonesia as a melting pot into which cultures must merge into
one. The government's standards for development were modeled
after development at the center, or in other words, development
in Java.

Their approach in addressing the problems of food in Irian
Jaya, for example, was to introduce rice cultivation on the
island, while the people of Irian Jaya preferred sweet potatoes
as their staple.

Government officials tried to encourage the men of Dani, who
have traditionally dress themselves with pride in penis sheaths,
to start wearing shirts and trousers.

Now, many of the Dani who wear western clothing have skin
diseases. Apparently, the Dani consider the rivers as a source of
life; so, traditionally they would not use the river for washing.
For this reason, they are not able to wash their clothes
regularly.

To ensure development in this remote region, the government
has tried to replace the wood and thatch huts -- round in plan --
in which the Dani have traditionally dwelled, with brick houses
-- square in plan -- which appear closer to what people live in
on Java.

The politics of centralism clearly derives from a notion of
ethnocentricity, in which one considers his own ethnic group as
superior to others.

While development on Java is the model for social and economic
development, the model for the progress in tourism seems to be
Bali.

There were reports that some Balinese have been transmigrated
to the islands of Belitung to ensure a culturally rich
development of tourism on the South Sumatran island.

It is clear from the few examples above, that the New Order
government has done little to address the issue of diversity.
Diversity is, instead, used to compartmentalize people into
categories predetermined by the New Order regime.

The New Order government encouraged stereotyping, as can be
seen in the portrayal of ethnic groups in the mass media,
particularly on television. There are also reports that the most
recent high school tests include some problems that further
enhance stereotyping.

The regime used its power to control its grip on society by
placing limits on the spectrum of diversity to allow. For
example, there are only five recognized religions, and
Confucianism is not recognized as an official belief, making it
extremely difficult for Confucianists to wed officially.

In terms of politics, every mass organization was required to
adopt Pancasila as its sole principle. There were only two
parties plus the Golongan Karya functional group that were
allowed to be politically active and take part in general
elections.

It was common for the government to only recognize the
professional organizations they endorsed. The Indonesian
Journalists' Association was the only recognized association of
journalists, while the Alliance of Independent Journalists was
banned.

Throughout the New Order period, Indonesia was exercising
"limited diversity", even though it has always boasted the
nation's vast cultural diversity.

This is certainly a far cry from Britain. As a country in
which minorities comprise only 5.5 percent of the total
population, it has placed serious attention on the issue of
cultural diversity. The Arts Council of England has prepared a
Cultural Diversity Action Plan. Perhaps it would be useful to
review this plan.

The key principle of diversity in this plan applies more
widely than the issues of ethnicity. It refers to the right to
cultural self-definition and the value given to the individual
voice, as endorsed in Unesco's Our Creative Diversity, which
states, "cultural freedom, by protecting alternative ways of
living, encourages experimentation, diversity, imagination and
creativity.

"Cultural freedom leaves us free to meet one of the most basic
needs, the need to define our own basic needs."

Unesco's document addresses the issue of equal accessibility.
The Action Plan of the Arts Council of England states that "the
issue at stake here is not one of problematic marginalized groups
but of structures and institutions that have a tendency --
whether from ignorance, hostility or apathy -- to marginalize
groups and individuals.

Barriers to access are historical and attitudinal, deeply
buried in the thinking and structure of organizations, they will
need continual revisiting as well as phased and targeted action.

The plan calls for the institution of full implementation of
equal opportunities, which can ensure the creation of "an
inclusive environment in which the creativity of all (whether
artists, audiences or managers) can flourish".

Today, it seems more and more appropriate to view Indonesia's
Youth Pledge Day in the context of cultural diversity,
particularly as the issues of federalism have started to be
reintroduced and discussed. More importantly, the issues of equal
opportunities need to be addressed immediately.

Some groups that have faced ethnic discrimination, sometimes
as a response marginalized groups themselves, inflict similar
measures of discrimination -- by which they themselves have been
discriminated -- toward other groups.

As a result, they become perceived as an exclusive group,
which further buries them within the stereotyped compartments.

Instead of resonating the idea of racial discrimination,
marginalized groups should, instead, spearhead a drive toward the
implementation of equal opportunities, which aims to abolish the
limitation of, or access to, or participation in, education,
employment, social, cultural or other activities on the basis of
age, color, disability, gender, marital status, national origin,
political persuasion, race, religion, sexual orientation or
veteran status.

The sooner the principles of equal opportunities are adopted,
the sooner people will realize how individuals of diverse
cultural backgrounds can contribute positively toward broader and
much more comprehensive insight into matters of concern, as well
as the flourishing of creativity.

That is what the Youth Pledge Day of 1928 may signify in the
future.