NATIONAL CULTURE REGIONAL CULTURAL PEAKS
Ki Hajar Dewantoro's conception of National Culture that national culture is the pinnacle
of regional culture, meaning that national culture consists of elements of regional culture, as
long as regional culture is not controversial, sooner or later nationally it will be accepted. It is
clear that national culture is very colored by regional cultures. However, in terms of the plurality
of national cultural elements, the competition between these elements is very fierce.
Competition in the sense of wanting to stand out more than other elements so that it can color
the national cultural mosaic, ultimately giving rise to a conflict between cultures. The
manifestation of this competition as it has happened recently, although it can be interpreted in
other ways, is usually marked by the temporary emergence of those who try to re-show certain
regional cultures in a frenzied manner, this is not only reflected in cultural activities that are
limited to dance and music, but has also seeped into ceremonial activities, such as weddings,
celebrations, pregnancy, and so on.
The dominance of one culture over another is a reality. However, this is a natural problem.
Because it contains the understanding that there is a culture of one great ethnic group that is
accepted by other tribes. In a pluralistic society, such a reality is often considered a form of
domination. Such a reality, of course, is not a complicated problem, but what arises as a big
problem is whether this domination is carried out by the owner of a large culture or not. For
Indonesia, this is not the case. Because what happens is a process of cultural diffusion, where
the process cannot be avoided by people who were born and raised not in their home area.
Indeed, in such conditions, the problem can also be interpreted differently. For example, the
emergence of the issue of jawanization. Because, to prevent such issues, it is necessary to have
cultural counseling or intercultural communication (Dr. Nico S. Kalungi, teaching staff of the
Faculty of Letters UI Panji Magazine No. 456. Year XXVI. January 21, 1985, p. 15). A similar opinion
was said by Dr. Budhisantoso, Director of History and Traditional Values, especially the opinion
that Indonesian culture is dominated by Javanese culture. Such a tendency occurs because of
subjectivity that only sees the elements of birth, a culture. For example, the value of good
manners, this is a value that is not only possessed by Javanese people. It's just that maybe the
way to make it happen is different.
Efforts that are being made now to develop regional culture, the Directorate of History
and Traditional Values, is conducting an inventory of cultural strength. This is done solely to see
the strengths or essence of regional culture. The activity was carried out mainly through folk
tales, legends, myths, and so on. Demikilah activities are considered important, the materials
contain hidden messages that actually contain the values, norms or outlook on life of a society.
From these activities, there needs to be a screening effort, where only relevant values are offered
to the community. There needs to be a forum for regional and national cultural development. For
example, the Javanology project, as long as it is not an institution that imposes a certain culture,
then it is permissible for that institution to run. It just needs to be balanced with other projects.
For example: Batakology, Sundanology and so on or Indonesianology projects that develop
regional cultures. But now what is important is how a dynamic attitude emerges among the wider
community to develop regional cultures.
INDONESIA'S NATIONAL INTEGRATION Diversity is fun, said the Ancient Romans. In the
same spirit the French exclaimed: Live the difference! Differences are indeed pleasant when
there are seeds of meeting in differences. Differences will be damaging if the seeds of conflict
are seeds. inflamed. Everything is not impossible for Indonesia, which consists of 300 ethnic
groups with hundreds of regions, five official religions and dozens of ethnic religions and beliefs.
But the problem is how to maintain unity and not destroy diversity? Or conversely, how to
acknowledge differences and not sacrifice harmony? Unity can be enforced to the extreme point
that uniformity will occur. But uniformity does not solve the problem. The problem can only be
solved if the deepest roots are found in perceptions and attitudes between tribes, between
religions and cultures. Forty years have passed since a number of scholars gathered on Jalan
Penggangsaan Timur 56, Jakarta to come together, on behalf of the Indonesian people, to declare
the independence of the Republic of Indonesia. Their announcement, signed by Sukarno and
Mohammad Hatta, was widespread in the Indonesian archipelago and caused many to express
their support for this brief but very important announcement, which was later expressed at the
expense of defending the independence of the new Indonesian nation against the former colonial
attempt to return to power in the Indonesian archipelago. In fact, fifty-seven years have passed
since a number of young people, a number of young scholars gathered at Jalan Kramat 106,
Jakarta, to jointly declare their decision which reads
This decision was read on the last day of the Second Youth Congress which took place on
October 27-28, 1928. And as an important decision, this is known as the Youth Pledge. This
decision was greatly influenced by the continued development of Indonesian society, and
instead became the main guideline in the effort to fight for the independence of the inhabitants
of the Dutch East Indies colony and then the effort to unite the citizens of the Republic of
Indonesia. However, the unity of the population who according to the applicable law is a citizen
of the Republic of Indonesia - national integration is still a problem. Of course, most people are
not aware that national integration is a problem. Of course, many people are not willing to accept
the fact that there is still a problem of national integration that has not been fully resolved. Of
course, there are also quite a lot of people who firmly deny that the Indonesian nation, the
Indonesian nation, faces the problem of national integration and instead accuses those who
point to the reality in question as troublemakers, traitors. Let us pay attention to how the problem
of national integration in our archipelago manifests itself so that together we can try to overcome
the problems that actually determine the future of our nation and country. It should be explained
that it is not only our country that faces the problem of national integration but also various new
countries, countries established after the end of World War II, because the inhabitants of the
territories of the countries concerned are not really a society that has been a unit for a very long
time. The population of Guinea consists of Fulani, Malinbe, and
Milk, each of which inhabits the area of origin is seri. Residents of Burma, Korea, and Shin,
and a number of other ethnic groups. Many Koreans, who have their own areas of residence, still
refuse to be considered Burmese in a new, more comprehensive sense that includes not only,
the Burmese ethnicity. India, a former British colony, failed to maintain its unity when it gained
independence in 1947 resulting in the formation of two independent states, the Republic of India
and the Dominion of Pakistan with the regions and people of Jumina and Kashmir as disputed
issues. The state of Pakistan, which is divided into two territories separated from the other by
Indian territory and since 1956 has been an Islamic Republic, was unable to maintain its unity
when the population of the Eastern region rebelled, separated from Pakistan and established the
state of Bangladesh in 1971. However, not only new countries, former colonies can free
themselves, realizing a population that actually consists of more than one population unit, but
also a number of old countries, such as Britain, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland,
Yugoslavia, Muangthai, and so on. These old countries are also Bhineka countries, so they also
face the problem of national integration. Countries such as the United States, Canada and
Australia are diverse countries with national integration problems that are very different in nature
compared to the national integration problems faced by new countries, such as Nigeria and
Burma; or Indian countries, such as Belgium and Spain. Countries like the United States,
Canada, and Australia are countries. integration, so that, except for the indigenous people whose
number is not so large compared to the number of people or groups of the immigrant population,
each
Various Colors of the Indonesian Nation Regarding the issue of various colors, our
country's ethnic groups are one level more advanced than other countries that also have tribal
populations, pluralistic nations such as India, Burma, the Philippines and even Sri Lanka. This is
because we already have a national language so that we only need to develop a national culture,
which on the contrary the process can be greatly assisted by the state of existence of a national
language. Fortunately, the relationship between tribes, nations and groups in our society is not
as bad as in some other countries with a pluralistic society, but there is a latent potential for
conflict because the problem of tension between tribes and groups cannot be ignored. In the
colonial era, the conflict seemed to exist only once and only based on customary hostilities
between ethnic groups or sub-ethnic groups that could easily be overcome with the authority of
the central government. However, the limited nature of the conflict between ethnic groups and
groups is due to the fact that each ethnic group has indeed accepted its position and is only
oriented towards the authority of the foreign government, also because the scope of our lives at
that time was still very limited and also because of the opportunity for us to going from one region
to another in Indonesia is still very limited.
After the foreign authority is gone, we must orient each other towards each other and we
must try to be able to cooperate and unite in the society of this Indonesian state. The process of
developing harmonious relationships between different ethnic groups and groups is not easy, it
takes time and according to logic it takes another generation, before we dare to say that the
potential for conflict has disappeared completely. Because the process of harmonious relations
between ethnic groups and groups in our country at this time is still in the midst of its
development, we need to know a little about the aspects and theories of the inter-ethnic relations
of nations and groups, so that we can analyze and participate in fostering that process. The
aspects that we must pay attention to in terms of analyzing ethnic and group relations are: a.
Sources of conflict; b. Potential for tolerance; c. Attitudes and views of nations or groups towards
tribes or groups d. The level of society where the relationship and association between nations
or groups takes place. There are at least five sources of conflict between ethnic groups or groups
in general in a developing country such as Indonesia, namely: a. Conflicts can occur if citizens
from two ethnic groups compete for the same livelihood. b. Conflicts can also occur if citizens
from one tribe try to impose their cultural elements on citizens of another tribe.
Conflicts that are the same in nature, but more fanatical in their form, can occur if citizens
of one tribe impose their religious concepts on citizens of other tribes of different religions. d.
Conflicts will often occur if one tribe tries to dominate another nation paltitatively. e. The
potential for latent customary conflicts in relations between tribes and nations that have been
hostile to each other in a customary way. (Prof. Dr. Koentjaraningrat, Man and Culture in
Indonesia Jakarta: Jembatan Publisher, 1983, p. 378). The potential for unity or at least for
cooperation certainly exists in every relationship between ethnic groups and groups. The
potential is twofold: a. Citizens of two different nations can cooperate socio-economically, if they
can each have different and complementary livelihood fields. In this state of mutual need, a
relationship will develop that in anthropology is often called a symbiotic relationship. In this
case, the attitude of citizens of one nation towards another is imbued with an atmosphere of
tolerance b. Citizens of two different tribes can also coexist without conflict, if there is an
orientation towards a third group that can neutralize the relationship between the two tribes. In
Indonesia, for example, the tendency of some people from the Peranakan Chinese group in the
colonial era, to orient themselves to Dutch culture by educating their children in Dutch schools
by speaking Dutch in their family environment, and so on. On the contrary, they thus distance
themselves from native Indonesians.
The attitude and views of a nation or group towards a fellow nation or group can be further
detailed into the attitude between two commensurate tribes, the attitude of a dominant nation
towards a minority nation and vice versa the attitude of a minority nation towards a dominant
nation. Finally, the level of society where the relationship between the tribes takes place, can be
at the level of rural communities, the level of urban communities or at the national level.
Conflicts between ethnic groups and groups of various colors, if they explode, can disturb the
calm we need to build, but as mentioned above the various colors, the tribes and groups can also
cause obstacles to development because of the difficulty of formulating a uniform policy, and
because of the difficulty of communicating with the various colors of the people who have
languages. different cultural value systems and aspirations. It is clear that a large, multicolored
country is much more difficult to manage than a small, uniform country, and that no one will deny
it; But after all, the fact is that many people who have the authority to determine wisdom in our
country still make it easy, even deny the existence of potential problems, conflicts because of
the relationship between tribes and between groups by allowing it. Even though the problem will
not disappear by itself, if we do not do politics or try to deny it. We can only avoid this problem,
precisely if we accept the various ethnic colors in our country as a fact that must be studied in
depth. This is so that a
Majority-Minority In Indonesia can be distinguished between two categories of majority-
minority problems: a. The problems of the majority-minorities that are characteristic of a
developing country are the majority of rural people and the minority of urban people, the majority
of uneducated people and the minority of educated people, the majority of poor people and the
minority of rich people. b. The problem of majority-minority is closely related to the composition
of the population, namely in the plurality of society. This is due to the diversity of ethnicities (there
are approximately 300 ethnic groups in Indonesia) and by religious diversity (there are 5 officially
recognized religions: Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Buddhism and Hinduism). There is a key
difference between these two categories. The first category is more flexible in nature, there is a
possibility of moving groups from one group to another, from villages to cities, from uneducated
groups to educated groups even from poor to rich. The second category is more rigid: A person
who is born a member of a particular ethnic group, it is often very difficult not to say that it is
impossible to move to another group and be truly accepted into a new group. Here it is necessary
to make another distinction between the categories of majority-minority problems. In the first
category, inequality stems from the fact that minorities who live in urban areas, who are
educated and able to have all the advantages and are therefore in a position to control the
distribution and allocation of resources in society. In the second category, inequality stems from
the fact that members of certain ethnic groups and religious groups are more likely to develop
than others, because they are more dynamic, more creative and more resourceful. These two
categories of problems are closely related. Conflict in one situation will be a source of conflict in
another, because in a pluralistic society there is a tendency for certain ethnic groups to be
identified with prosperous groups, urban groups or economically strong groups, and thus with
wealthy groups. (Mely G. Tan, The Majority-Minority Problem in Indonesia Prisma no 8 August
1976, p. 24) According to Sudomo, Admiral TNI, formerly as the Chief of Staff of the Kopkamtib
(now the Minister of Manpower of the Republic of Indonesia) loyalty to the tribe is natural as a
product of history, which is actually a further development of loyalty to the family, based on
kinship relationships or genealogical relationships as well as effective attitudes such as love and
affection and this is group feeling. Since we proclaimed independence deliberately and
systematically, we have cultivated and developed national loyalty, which must underpin our
national life. In the context of Indonesia's nation building, we still recognize the existence of tribal
and group life. The symbol of our country shows diversity but also depicts diversity.
Due to the advancement of communication technology, the rapid education and mass
communication and the expansion of urban life, the feeling of being a citizen of the nation will be
stronger than the feeling of being a citizen of an ethnic group. Loyalty to the nation will be
stronger, if the Indonesian nation is faced with competitive relations or conflicts with other
nations. The Pancasila democracy that we want to develop is a democracy that provides an
appropriate and decent place for ethnic groups and minority groups. We do not justify the
dominance of the majority, but on the other hand, we also do not want the minority dominance
of Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution to be used as a normative source from which we describe
the conceptions mentioned above. What is the problem of the majority and minorities in
Indonesia, one of the most striking is the problem caused by the existence of ethnic Chinese
minorities. However, this is also just one of the problems of the majority minority in Indonesia.
The classifications made by the colonial government in the past were: a. European group. b.
Foreign Eastern Group. c. Indigenous Groups. At this time it formally no longer exists, but its
essence is still running until now, even increasing. For example, now it is known as the rich and
poor, the ruler and the people. There is indeed a relationship between the classification made by
the Dutch, in the past, and the attitude of the Chinese people now, for example, can be seen in
the symptoms of the name change; They will take the names of the aristocrats. Likewise in
choosing religion. Surely Christianity or Catholicism is the choice he makes. It is not Islam that is
embraced by most of the natives. Because in the colonial era, Christianity and Catholicism were
synonymous with Europeans, while Islam was synonymous with inlanders or natives. It is indeed
difficult for people of Chinese descent to integrate themselves. This is due to their cultural
background. For example, in Chinese law it is known: although there are only a few drops of
Chinese blood, they
Inequality in the Development of Cultural Integration National Integration is a
transcultural problem. It is always present both in developed and developing countries.
Therefore, the problem is a challenge of the times that must be fought and handled by every
country and every citizen. The reasons for its existence are due to the process of community
development itself which is basically never compatible. The process of integration is the process
of merging and combining all the meshes of social systems that exist in the midst of society until
the realization of a system as an identity and a pattern of common orientation (By J. Goring,
Religious ambivalence, between Dominance and Tolerance, Prisma no 8 August 1976, Jakarta,
LP3ES, 1976). The basic condition for forming a harmonious integration starts from the concept
of balance, namely the balance between the development of physical and non-physical culture.
The imbalance in the course of development between the two, there will be a problem of two
clashes of different values in society. The more pluralistic a country's society, the more social
friction points there are. Our society is a pluralistic society with pluralistic demands. The
question of integration is a matter of human beings, human beings and their weltanschaunung,
their views and relationships with their fellow human beings. The main condition of national
integration is the existence of empathy in a person, namely his ability to put himself in the
situation of others because on this humanitarian or human basis, a sense of unity will grow, an
atmosphere of mutual respect and respect for each other's integrity will be created. This process
is closely related to the structure and growth of consciousness in a person; a process of
transformation from subjective consciousness to an objective one. An individual will only change
his view if he knows why he should change it and adapt to his environment.
