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BECOMING EUROPEANIZED “NATIVE” IN ANDREA HIRATA’S THE LASKAR PELANGI QUARTET
A THESIS
Presented as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Magister Humaniora (M. Hum) Degree in English Language Studies
Anjar Dwi Astuti Student Number: 106332022
THE GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2015
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BECOMING EUROPEANIZED “NATIVE” IN ANDREA HIRATA’S THE LASKAR PELANGI QUARTET
by Anjar Dwi Astuti Student Number: 106332022
Approved by
Novita Dewi, M.S., M.A (Hons)., Ph.D Advisor Yogyakarta, February 6th 2015
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A THESIS
BECOMING EUROPEANIZED “NATIVE” IN ANDREA HIRATA’S THE LASKAR PELANGI QUARTET
Presented by Anjar Dwi Astuti Student Number: 106332022
Defended before the Thesis Committee and Declared Acceptable
THESIS COMMITTEE
Chairperson : Novita Dewi, M.S., M.A (Hons).,Ph.D Secretary : Paulus Sarwoto, M.A.,Ph.D. Members : 1. Sri Mulyani, M.A.,Ph.D 2. Dr. Mutiara Andalas, SJ.,S.TD
Yogyakarta, 23rd February 2015 The Graduate Program Director Sanata Dharma University
Prof. Dr. Augustinus Supratiknya
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STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY
This is to certify that all ideas, phrases, sentences, unless otherwise stated, are the ideas, phrases, and sentences of the thesis writer. The writer understands the full consequences including degree cancellation if she took somebody else’s ideas, phrases, or sentences without proper references.
Yogyakarta, February 23th, 2015
Anjar Dwi Astuti
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LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertandatangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma:
Nama : Anjar Dwi Astuti NIM : 106332022
Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:
BECOMING EUROPEANIZED “NATIVE” IN ANDREA HIRATA’S THE LASKAR PELANGI QUARTET beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.
Demikian pernyataan ini yang saya buat dengan sebenarnya.
Dibuat di Yogyakarta Pada Tanggal: 23 Februari 2015
Yang menyatakan
Anjar Dwi Astuti
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This thesis will not be accomplished without the support of kind and thoughtful persons. My sincere appreciation goes to my advisor, Novita Dewi, M.S., M.A. (Hons), Ph.D who always gives me encouragement to the process of exploring and writing my thesis. Experience of being her student was a powerful and meaningful learning for me. My appreciation goes to Father Dr. Mutiara Andalas, S.J., S.TD and Paulus Sarwoto, M.A., Ph.D as my reviewers and examiners. I also express my gratitude to Sri Mulyani, M.A., Ph.D for being one of my examiners. I thanked them for spending time to read, give critical review and important suggestions for the progress of my thesis. I also would like to express my gratitude to all brilliant lecturers in English Language Studies who had taught me and shared their knowledge and intellectual thought, and also gave me enlightenment on English language as knowledge. They were all inspirational persons who were always open for help and had willingness to share their academic thought. I also thank all administration staff and other functionaries of Sanata Dharma University for kindly providing services and help during my study. My deep gratitude also goes to my beloved husband, Arief Fatkur Rahman. He always encourages me with his complete support, patience, love and understanding. Then, my supportive family: my beloved parents, my siblings, my nieces and nephews, and other relatives who supported and prayed for me. I would like to express my deepest thanks to my friend Yuliana Tri Nirmayanti for giving me invaluable feedback. She sincerely supported me and also became courageous friend to hearten me in the midst of stressful moments. I also thank Istanti Hermagustiana and Sirojuddin Arief for giving me critical suggestions and encouragement. I happily express my sincere gratitude to my beloved friends in English Language Studies who kindly support and encourage me to finish my study: Lelly, as the proof reader, who is sincerely checking my thesis, Orpa and Mbak Umi who always cheer me up everytime I need someone to talk to, Rusdi as my
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constant companion, Dede, Devy, Erni, Bu Erna, Dame, Pak Tangguh and other who directly and indirectly engaged and inspired me with their thoughtful ideas and knowledge. I also express my gratitude for Eager Beaver community and those who donated contributions to this study and cannot be acknowledged specifically here. Lastly, I deliver my eternal gratitude to Alloh SWT for the entire miracle and favor that has given to me. Through His blessing, I can keep trying, learning, loving and living.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE ...... i ADVISOR’S APPROVAL ...... ii THESIS COMMITTEE’S APPROVAL ...... iii STATEMENT OF WORK ORIGINALITY...... iv LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI ...... v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ...... viii ABSTRACT ...... x ABSTRAK ...... xi
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study ...... 1 B. Research Questions ...... 8 C. Scope of the Study...... 9 D. Significance of the Study ...... 9 E. Research Method ...... 11 F. Definition of Terms ...... 12
CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW A. A Glimpse of The Laskar Pelangi Quartet ...... 15 1. The Bestsellers ...... 15 2. The English Translated Versions ...... 16 3. The Term “Native” ...... 21 B. Previous Study ...... 24 C. Review of Related Theories...... 28 1. Modern Colonialism ...... 29 2. Colonial Discourse ...... 31 a. Orientalism ...... 32 b. Colonialist Ideology ...... 32 c. Othering ...... 33 d. Hybridity ...... 34 3. Decolonizing the Mind ...... 34 D. Theoretical Framework ...... 35
CHAPTER III: POTRAYAL OF INEQUALITY IN THE LASKAR PELANGI QUARTET A. Economic Restructure ...... 37 B. Constructing the Attitude of the Natives ...... 47 1. The Settlement Area ...... 48 2. The Table Manners ...... 49 3. The Daily Life ...... 51 4. The Education Accessibility ...... 52 Conclusion ...... 60
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CHAPTER IV: COLONIALIST IDEOLOGY IN THE LASKAR PELANGI QUARTET A. Superiority Versus Inferiority ...... 62 B. Europeanized “Native” ...... 71 1. Impression and Adoration ...... 71 2. Pursuing Education ...... 73 3. The Journey Aftermath ...... 85 Conclusion ...... 91
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION ...... 93
BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 99 APPENDIXES ...... 103
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ABSTRACT
Anjar Dwi Astuti. 2015. Becoming Europeanized “Native” in Andrea Hirata’s The Laskar Pelangi Quartet. Yogyakarta: English Language Studies, Graduate Program, Sanata Dharma University.
Indonesia had ever been colonized by the Dutch. However, the effects of colonialism do not easily end up along with the Indonesian formal independence. The colonizers’ values have been imparted to the colonized intentionally or unintentionally. Colonialism gives effects and influences the colonized attitudes on perceiving themselves and their relationship to others as captured in The Laskar Pelangi Quartet that consists of four novels: Laskar Pelangi (2006), Sang Pemimpi (2006), Edensor (2007) and Maryamah Karpov: Mimpi-mimpi Lintang (2008) as well as the English version: The Rainbow Troops (2009) and Edensor (2011). Thus, the study aims to reveal how The Laskar Pelangi Quartet reinforces the colonizers’ values, as well as the ongoing effects of colonialism through colonial discourse implanted in the quartet. Modern colonialism theory is used to identify the kind of inequality that is produced by modern colonialism through restructuring the economy and constructing the attitudes of the natives. This theory is supported by the theory of colonial discourse which is used to analyze European thinking with its power to construct the natives’ identity and culture. To sharpen the colonial domination towards the natives’ culture, theory on how colonialism imposed its control and colonialist ideology is used. The natives’ culture refers to Thiong’o’s term is the ways in which people perceive themselves as individuals and their relation to others. Therefore, two questions are formulated. The first is how the main character in The Laskar Pelangi Quartet portrays inequality in relation to modern colonialism practice. Then, the second is how The Laskar Pelangi Quartet as a phenomenal novel in Indonesia reveals colonialist ideology. Through the analysis, the first finding is, inequality is portrayed through the economic imbalance as the consequence of restructuring the economy of the colonized. Inequality is represented in class system to strengthen the gap between the colonizers as the highest class and the colonized as the lowest class. Class system also influences the natives’ attitudes as the lowest class on confronting the different lifestyle. The second finding is that the quartet reveals colonialist ideology which is manifested in two ways: firstly, through the main character’s othering process and secondly, his absolute pole on stating his Europeanized “native”. He resists the natives’ tradition because it does not support his intention to gain better future and life that can be proud of. Then, to confront with the inferior characteristics of the natives, he takes Europe with its superiority as his absolute pole. As a result, he is becoming Europeanized “native” after pursuing education and experiencing abroad. To infer, The Laskar Pelangi Quartet applies colonial discourse to reinforce the colonizers’ values.
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ABSTRAK Anjar Dwi Astuti. 2015. Becoming Europeanized “Native” in Andrea Hirata’s The Laskar Pelangi Quartet. Yogyakarta: English Language Studies, Graduate Program, Sanata Dharma University. Indonesia pernah dijajah oleh Belanda dan efek kolonialisme tidak berakhir seiring dengan kemerdekaan Indonesia. Nilai-nilai kolonialisme telah tertanamkan dalam diri kaum terjajah baik secara sengaja maupun tidak sengaja. Hal tersebut mempengaruhi perilaku kaum terjajah untuk memahami diri mereka sendiri dan hubungan mereka dengan orang lain. Seperti terpaparkan dalam Tetralogi Laskar Pelangi yang terdir dari empat novel: Laskar Pelangi (2006), Sang Pemimpi (2006), Edensor (2007) dan Maryamah Karpov: Mimpi-mimpi Lintang (2008). Dilengkapi dengan versi bahasa Inggris dari tetralogi tersebut, The Rainbow Troops (2009) dan Edensor (2011). Oleh karena itu penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengungkap bagaimana Tetralogi Laskar Pelangi menguatkan nilai-nilai kolonialisme dan juga menyingkap efek kolonialisme yang masih berkelanjutan melalui wacana kolonial yang ada di dalam tetralogi tersebut. Teori kolonialisme modern digunakan untuk mengidentifikasi ketimpangan yang muncul sebagai akibat dari praktek kolonialisme modern melalui restrukturisasi ekonomi dan pembentukan perilaku pribumi. Teori tersebut dilengkapi dengan teori wacana kolonial untuk menganalisa pemikiran Eropa dan kekuatannya untuk membentuk identitas dan budaya pribumi. Untuk mengupas dominasi kolonial, teori tentang bagaimana kolonialisme memaksakan pengaruhnya dan teori ideologi kolonialis digunakan dalam penelitian ini. Istilah budaya mengacu pada Thiong’o, sebagai alat untuk mendefinisikan identitas. Ada dua permasalahan dalam penelitian ini. Pertama, bagaimana karakter utama dalam Tetralogi Laskar Pelangi menggambarkan ketimpangan dalam kaitannya dengan praktek kolonialisme modern. Kedua, bagaimana Tetralogi Laskar Pelangi sebagai novel yang fenomenal di Indonesia menyerukan ideologi kolonialis. Berdasarkan analisis, penemuan pertama menunjukkan bahwa ketimpangan digambarkan melalui kesenjangan ekonomi sebagai konsekuensi dari restrukturisasi ekonomi pribumi. Ketimpangan tersebut direpresentasikan dalam sistem kelas untuk memperkuat jarak antara penjajah sebagai kelas atas dan kaum terjajah sebagai kelas rendah. Sistem kelas juga mempengaruhi sikap kaum pribumi dalam melihat diri mereka sendiri dan hubungan mereka dengan orang lain. Penemuan kedua adalah Tetralogi Laskar Pelangi menyerukan ideologi kolonialis melalui dua cara: pertama, melalui proses othering atau pembedaan yang dilakukan oleh karakter utama dan kedua, kiblat yang dipakai oleh karakter utama untuk menyatakan dirinya sebagai seorang pribumi yang Eropa. Dia mengabaikan tradisi lokal karena dianggap tidak mendukung cita-citanya untuk meraih masa depan yang lebih baik dan bisa dibanggakan. Kemudian, untuk berkonfrontasi dengan karakter inferior sebagai pribumi, dia menjadikan Eropa dengan keunggulannya sebagai kiblat. Akibatnya, dia menjadi seorang pribumi yang Eropa setelah mengenyam pendidikan formal dan berpetualang ke luar negeri. Singkat kata, Tetralogi Laskar Pelangi memanfaatkan wacana kolonial untuk memperkuat nilai-nilai kolonialisme.
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Around 2006, I read an article in a daily newspaper about a best-selling novelist Andrea Hirata whose works have made me become increasingly curious to read all his works. Moreover, the news about the number of copies sold and the education issues for the poor in his novels made him more popular. Hirata’s most well-known novel is Laskar Pelangi (2006) that has reportedly inspired and influenced readers. 1 Furthermore, after being translated into English as The
Rainbow Troops (2009) and into other foreign languages, the book has entered international market and received several awards such as ITB Buch Award (2013) in Berlin2 and New York Book Festival (2013).3 Hirata who previously works in
PT Telkom Indonesia (The State Telecommunication Company) before the success of his first novel Laskar Pelangi (2006) that has made him one of the famous Indonesian writers, soon becomes the guest on several talk shows and forums discussing Indonesian literature.
Writing the sequels of Laskar Pelangi to make them a quartet, Hirata states that the novel is his memoirs.4 As mentioned in the acknowledgements to his second novel Sang Pemimpi (2006), the story begins with Laskar Pelangi, when Ikal as the main character, is at the first grade of elementary school until the third grade of junior high school. The second novel tells about the struggle of the
1See Nurhady Sirimorok, Laskar Pemimpi: Andrea Hirata, Pembacanya dan Modernisasi Indonesia (Yogyakarta: Insist Press, 2008) pp. 1-61 2Tim Berita Antara, Novel “Laskar Pelangi” Raih Penghargaan ITB Buch Award di Berlin. 12 Maret 2013
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characters at the senior high school as teenagers, who dare to dream and how the power of dream helps them gaining unpredictable achievements. Then, Edensor and Maryamah Karpov: Mimpi-mimpi Lintang are the last two novels in the The
Laskar Pelangi Quartet which become his personal art projects for his hometown,
Belitung. For Maryamah Karpov: Mimpi-mimpi Lintang, this novel is particularly about his appreciation for women.5
My interest in exploring Laskar Pelangi (2006) as a quartet with the other three novels: Sang Pemimpi (2006), Edensor (2007) and Maryamah Karpov:
Mimpi-mimpi Lintang (2008) rather than as a single novel lies on the argument that Andrea Hirata putatively explores some education issues in his works.
Showing that quartet comprise of three novels as continuation of the first novel, he shows upgrading of the characters’ education level. The time setting supports mainly the main character’s journey and at the same time shows the issue of education remains the concern of the The Laskar Pelangi Quartet.
Hirata also explains that Laskar Pelangi is a memoir written in an attempt to balance and associate personal issues with more global ones concerning government policies on education, natural resources management, and human rights. In addition, he mentions about the discrimination held by a state-owned tin company in Belitung that has ignored the wellbeing of the natives.6 However, I am interested to explore deeper the four novels from postcolonial perspective, to observe the extent to which education for the natives remains his biggest concern.
5See Andrea Hirata, Sang Pemimpi (Yogyakarta: Bentang Pustaka, 2006) pp. 274-277 6See Hirata, Translating Laskar Pelangi Into The Rainbow Troops. 3 September 2010.
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Hirata’s first novel Laskar Pelangi (2006) or The Rainbow Troops (2009) tells about the life of Belitung people who live side by side with the tin mining company staffs. Being the legacy of the Dutch colonial government, the company continues to maintain colonialist mentality in the management system. Most of the natives or Belitungese works in the company as a coolie with the lowest position and salary. Ikal as the main character, is the son of a coolie. Here, Hirata portrays the gap between the natives and the company staffs based on their economic condition. The lowest class is the natives who live in poverty, whereas the company people who live in prosperity are the highest class. By contrasting the life of the natives and the company people, Ikal observes the inequality that brings him to find the way to confront his poor condition. He follows the step of the company people to gain better life by taking up higher education, since the company people are the only role model he is familiar with.
The sequel Sang Pemimpi (2006) or the forthcoming English version The
Dreamer portrays Ikal as a teenager who struggles to harbor his ambitious dream in raising his social rank and setting himself free from the poverty trap. Following the figure of well-educated company people who graduate from favourite educational institutions in Java and worldwide, he enrols on a prestigious State
Senior High School in Belitung. Being influenced by Mr. Balia, his teacher, who motivates his students by taking European people and culture as the best example,
Ikal attempts to reach his dream by studying in Europe. He believes that Europe is the place where the world famous scientists study as to change civilization.
Edensor (2007) the third novel translated into English with the same title tells about Ikal as a young native Indonesian who succeeds in exploring and
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studying in Europe. His single-minded dream comes true. Ikal meets people from different countries and interacts with them as students and also friends. He proves his teacher’s statement about the superiority of Europe through its people and culture. However, at the same time, he realizes the inferiority of the Belitung’s natives along with his acknowledgment of the European superiority.
The last novel Maryamah Karpov: Mimpi-mimpi Lintang (2008) or the forthcoming English version Strange Rhythm, is about the ending of Ikal’s journey. After pursuing education and experiencing life abroad, he returns to his hometown. Confidently he performs himself as a Europeanized “native”.
Physically, he is a Belitungese, but his attitudes have been influenced by the
European values. He attempts to adopt European ideas after his journey on shaping his life mosaics through studying and experiencing life outside Belitung.
Thus, by reading The Laskar Pelangi as a quartet, it can be seen that each novel captures the influence of colonialism. The tin mining company in Belitung becomes the extension of colonial rule. After the Dutch expulsion from Belitung, the Indonesian government takes over the company. However, under the different ruler, the discrimination held by the state-owned tin company keeps continuing.
The wellbeing of the natives is still being ignored:
That great natural resource was exploited by a company called PN Timah, PN stands for Perusahaan Negeri, or state-owned company, Timah means tin. PN operated 16 dredges. … The enterprise absorbed almost the entire island’s workforce. It was a pulsing vein with a complete power monopoly over the whole island of Belitong.7 The Indonesian government took over PN from the colonial Dutch. And not only were the assets seized, but also the feudalistic mentality. Even after Indonesia gained its freedom, PN’s treatment of its native employees remained very discriminatory. The treatment differed based on caste-like groups. (TRT: 32)
7Andrea Hirata, The Rainbow Troops (Yogyakarta: Bentang Pustaka) p. 31; All subsequent references to this work, abbreviated TRT, will be used in this thesis with pagination only.
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The feudalistic mentality, as the legacy of the Dutch colonization, is captured on the company’s treatment that discriminates the native employees based on caste- like groups.
Colonialism is not only about occupying a country’s region. In its development, colonialism is also an exploitation of the natural and human resources of the country that being invaded. In relation to European colonialism,
Ania Loomba in Colonialism/Postcolonialism (2005) presents a categorization of colonialism based on Marxist thinking: earlier colonialisms were pre-capitalist and modern colonialism was established alongside capitalism in Western Europe.8
Therefore, the exploitation of the natural and human resources had been done through restructuring the economies of the colonized that produced economic imbalance. The economic imbalance was necessary for the growth of European capitalism and industry. Furthermore, the exploitation as the way to restructure the economy is also spilled over into the issue of oppression that relates to class or other structures of oppression.
The setting of time of The Laskar Pelangi Quartet is after the Dutch colonization. However, the tin mining company is the extension of colonial rule that restructure the workings of class and ideology among the Belitungese. This raises a question on how colonial rule affects the colonized. For that reason, postcolonial perspective is used in this study to explore further the colonizers’ values implanted in The Laskar Pelangi Quartet through colonial discourse.
Since, postcolonialism is not simply after colonialism, but as Loomba contends,
“…more flexibly as the contestation of colonial domination and the legacies of
8Ania Loomba, Colonialism/Postcolonialism, Second Edition (London: Routledge, 2005) p. 9
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colonialism” 9 that keep continuing to affect the ex-colonized after the colonization era.
To link the colonialism and colonial discourse, postcolonial studies becomes the way to be placed within two contexts. The first is the history of decolonization itself and second is the revolution, within “Western” intellectual tradition.10 The first context is related to intellectuals and activists who fight against colonial rule with its continuing legacy on the process of making their voices heard and second context is the revolution inside the “Western” intellectual thinking on the definitions of race, culture, language and class. 11 Hence, colonialism becomes the vehicle for language on articulating experience, on showing how ideologies work, how human subjectivities are formed, and on constructing or defining the meaning of culture. Then, colonial discourse shows how language is used in particular way to maintain colonialist thinking. Thus, The
Laskar Pelangi Quartet as an Indonesian literature can prove the traces of colonization in Indonesia and its influence towards Indonesian literary texts. This research aims at raising readers’ awareness as to see whether the quartet affirms or challenges the colonialist values.
Meanwhile, Sugirtharajah states that there are two aspects in postcolonialism. The first is to analyze the diverse strategies by which the colonizers constructed images of the colonized, and second is to study how the colonized themselves made use of and went beyond many of those strategies in order to articulate their identity, self-worth and empowermen. 12 Therefore, postcolonialism in this study is considered appriopriate to find the colonialist
9Loomba, p. 16 10See Loomba, p. 22-23 11Ibid. 12R.S. Sugirtharajah, The Postcolonial Biblical Reader (UK: Blackwell Publishing, 2006) p. 7
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values through colonial discourse that the colonizers have produced. To construct the image of the colonized through colonial discourse is one of the colonizers’ strategies to maintain their colonialist values towards the colonized.
Furthermore, postcolonialism as the contestation of colonial domination and the legacies of colonialism13 can be seen as a theoretical attempt to engage the colonial aftermath whereby the contemporary resistance to colonialism and to dominant colonizers’ culture included. Through colonial discourse that the colonizers have produced, they maintain their domination towards the colonized.
Then, education as a means to strengthen the colonialist control becomes the powerful discourse for imparting and maintaining the colonizers’ values towards the colonized.
In brief, colonial discourse joins power and knowledge together as the colonizers’ way to maintain their domination over the colonized. Those who have power can control knowledge through what is known and the way it is known.
Therefore, postcolonialism is considered appropriate to uncover the ongoing effects of colonialism towards the colonized on constructing their image and articulating their “self” which is influenced by the colonizers in The Laskar
Pelangi Quartet.
When Laskar Pelangi is read as a quartet rather than a single novel, the issue of education is no longer dominant. Through postcolonial perspective, the education issue is completed with the issue of colonialism, which shows the ongoing effects of colonialism in The Laskar Pelangi Quartet. Education is observed as the colonialist’s tool to maintain and impart the colonizers’ values to the colonized.
13Loomba, p. 16
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This study begins with the portrayal of inequality, which is seen as the effects of exploitation on natural and human resources that have been done by modern colonialism practice. Inequality becomes the main character’s way to define Belitung society and his identity as a Belitungese. It is also a trigger to improve his “self”. Thus, education becomes his choice as a ladder to enhance his social rank and to construct his identity. However, through colonial discourse, education is seen as a potential discourse that legally imparts the colonizers’ values to the colonized. Education becomes the way to maintain their values and to control the society. For that reason, colonialist ideology is explored to examine how the main character is described to harbor colonialist thinking by affirming the colonizers’ values.
Thus, this study hopes to show an undisclosed issue inspite of The Laskar
Pelangi Quartet’s popularity by using the postcolonial perspective. It is expected to enable readers to be more critical and aware of the issue that the writer brings through the story. Specifically, it aims to reveal how The Laskar Pelangi Quartet reinforces the colonizers’ values and shows the ongoing effects of colonialism.
B. Research Questions
Based on the explanation above, the hypothesis holds that The Laskar
Pelangi Quartet reinforces the colonizers’ values through the main character’s view and attitude, as well as reveals the ongoing effects of colonialism. Therefore, two questions are formulated:
1. How does the main character in The Laskar Pelangi Quartet portray
inequality in relation to modern colonialism practice?
2. How does The Laskar Pelangi Quartet reveal colonialist ideology?
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C. Scope of the Study
The focus of this study is to explore the quartet, i.e. Laskar Pelangi
(2006), Sang Pemimpi (2006), Edensor (2007) and Maryamah Karpov: Mimpi- mimpi Lintang (2008) as well as the two English versions The Rainbow Troops
(2009) and Edensor (2011). This study excavates colonial discourse implanted in the main character’s view and attitude in his attempt to portray and confront with his social class, and as a Belitungese for becoming a Europeanized “native”.
To limit the study, this research does not base its discussion on translation studies perspective, although postcolonial translation can be used to figure out the intention of the translation version. This study emphasizes the colonial discourse that is captured in the original and translated version through the main character’s view and attitude. Therefore, this study is the initial ground to dig out the influence of colonialism on the original and translation version based on postcolonial approach by examining the colonial discourse inscribed in The
Laskar Pelangi Quartet.
D. Significance of the Study
Literature as a text, speaks about many things that happen around human and life itself with which an appreciation towards society and life may emerge.
Regarding the condition of Indonesia that still deals with poverty problems and skepticism to various modes of government policy, the existence of The Laskar
Pelangi Quartet may signify that the life of the marginalized people hardly improves with the end of colonialism. However, the story seems to give easy solution to handle this underprivileged condition. It gives hope and alternative
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solution for Indonesian people to solve their poverty problems. This is indeed a suspicion.
Conversely, the quartet shows that the way the marginalized confronts with their marginality and overcome their underprivileged condition are by going to the “centre” as the place where the ideal role model is born. Then, pursuing education to Java and Europe becomes the way to unravel their marginality. Java is seen as the colonial extension for the marginalized. Furthermore, through education, the colonialist values, particularly European way of life, is assumed herein as being the normal, natural, or the universal guidance for becoming a fully human being. Therefore, reading The Laskar Pelangi Quartet with decolonizing the mind14 is attempted in this study. By decolonising the mind, it means to challenge the continuing and enduring influences of Eurocentrism as the colonialist values.
What raises my curiosity is that why do the natives articulate themselves by using the colonizer’s construction and confronting with their marginalized condition by following and taking the colonizers’ as their role model? The Laskar
Pelangi Quartet brings a hint message that the novels affirm the colonialist thinking as the best way to articulate an identity and the solution to improve the life of the ex-colonized. For that reason, to reveal the ongoing effects of colonialism, the postcolonial approach is used to examine colonial discourse implanted in the quartet.
14Decolonising the mind is a term from Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s book entitled Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature, 1994. Decolonising the mind shows the process of revealing colonialist power that is maintained through culture. Thiong’o states that the biggest weapon of imperialism today is the cultural bomb with its effect: “The effect of cultural bomb is to annihilate a people’s belief in their names, in their languages, in their environment, in their heritage of struggle, in their unity, in their capacities and ultimately in themselves” (p.3) Inferiority characteristics become the intended result, then colonialism acts as the savior with its colonialist values. Therefore, political independence does not mean that the colonized free from colonialist values since those persisted in many aspects, i.e political, economic and cultural of the colonized.
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It is important to deeply analyze The Laskar Pelangi Quartet alongside their English versions to sharpen people’s awareness as to appreciate Indonesian literature. Moreover, understanding the works in both languages The Laskar
Pelangi Quartet will be meaningful for the English Studies Program because the inclusion of Indonesian literature will enrich the existing studies.
E. Research Method
This study employs library research. The primary data are The Laskar
Pelangi Quartet which consists of Laskar Pelangi (2006), Sang Pemimpi (2006),
Edensor (2007), Maryamah Karpov: Mimpi-mimpi Lintang (2008) and the
English versions The Rainbow Troops (2009) and Edensor (2011). The secondary data are taken from books, articles and journals discussing and analyzing Andrea
Hirata’s works.
Postcolonial approach is used in this study for several reasons. First, it helps to explore the colonizers’ values implanted in The Laskar Pelangi Quartet.
Second, it helps finding out the way the quartet affirms the colonialist values.
Third, postcolonial approach enlightens the ongoing effects of colonialism through colonial discourse as a system of statement and knowledge that maintain the colonizers’ domination over the colonized. It observes that colonialism is not only about occupying other countries, but it also influences the economic, social and cultural states of the colonized country. Therefore, although colonization has ended, its effects are still continuing.
Tyson mentions two ways to interpret a literary work, i.e. reading “with the grain” and “against the grain”.15 Reading a literary work “with the grain”
15Lois Tyson, Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide, Second Edition (New York: RoutledgeTaylor&Francis Group, 2006) pp.7-8.
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means that readers interpret the work the way it seems to invite them to interpret it. Whereas, reading “against the grain” happens when readers interpret the text of which the text itself seems unaware. Based on that definition, the researcher applies the second way, “reading against the grain” when examining and interpreting The Laskar Pelangi Quartet. Decolonising of the mind is also attempted in this study, to observe the process of revealing colonialist power whether by challenging or affirming the continuing and enduring influences of
Eurocentrism as the colonialist values.
The procedures of this astudy are as follows. Close reading to each novel is the first step to understand the issue and the story itself. The second step is to find the pattern which always appears in each novel. Comprehending the issue to find its meaning is the third step. The last step is analyzing it using postcolonial approach.
F. Definition of Terms
The title of this thesis is Becoming Europeanized “Native” in Andrea
Hirata’s The Laskar Pelangi Quartet. To enlighten the reading of this thesis, some important terms in this study are defined:
1. Postcolonialism. Referring to Loomba’s concept of postcolonialism “not just
as coming literally after colonialism and signifying its demise, but more
flexible as the contestation of colonial domination and the legacies of
colonialism”,16 it can be seen as a theoretical attempt to engage with the
colonial aftermath whereby the contemporary resistance to colonialism and to
dominant colonizers’ culture included.
16Loomba, p. 16
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2. Colonial discourse. According to Aschcroft et al. colonial discourse that
implicated in ideas of the centrality of Europe is a system of statements and a
system of knowledge and beliefs.17
3. Colonialist ideology. According to Tyson, colonialist ideology refers to the
way colonialist thinking is expressed. 18 The colonizers express their own
superiority, an assumption gained by contrasting it with the inferiority of the
natives as the people they invaded. The superiority assumption gives direction
on classifying people’s characteristics based on the colonizers’ claim to
strengthen their own position as the controller.
4. Othering. Spivak points out that the term: “…the native states are being
distinguished from “our [colonial] governments””,19 is the process by which
imperial discourse creates its ‘others’.
5. Hybridity. This term has frequently been used in postcolonial discourse to
mean simply cross-cultural ‘exchange’.20 Bhabha contends: “Hybridity is the
sign of the productivity of colonial power, its shifting forces and fixities; it is
the name for the strategic reversal of the process of domination through
disavowal …”21
6. Europeanized “native”. This term refers to the hybrid condition, the in-
betweenness condition of the natives generated by colonialism. The result of
17Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin, Key Concepts in Post-Colonial Studies (London: Routledge, 1998) p.42 18See Tyson, p.419 19Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, The Rani of Sirmur An Essay in Reading the Archives, Vol. 24, No. 3 (Oct., 1985) p.255
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“mental miscegenation” of colonial educational policies, to educate natives for
becoming the Europeanized natives.22
7. Native. This term is used in the translated version of the novels. The word
native is choosen to translate the Belitung people or Belitungese (orang
Melayu Belitung), it is written as “the natives of Belitong” (TRT: 30), “the
native Belitong-Malays” (TRT: 39)
8. Culture. This study uses the term culture in relation to the way people perceive
themselves as an individual and their relationship to the world, or culture as
the tool of self-definition. The term is referring to Thiong’o: “To control a
people’s culture is to control their tools of self-definition in relationship to
others.”23
22Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 2006) p. 91 23Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature (Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe Publishing House (Pvt). Ltd., 1994) p.16
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CHAPTER II
LITERATURE REVIEW
A. A Glimpse of The Laskar Pelangi Quartet
1. The Bestsellers
The Laskar Pelangi Quartet consists of four novels: Laskar Pelangi
(2006), Sang Pemimpi (2006), Edensor (2007) and Maryamah Karpov: Mimpi- mimpi Lintang (2008). Laskar Pelangi as the first novel is the most popular of all.
It was firstly published in 2005 and then later it becomes a phenomenon in
Indonesian literature. Laskar Pelangi (2006) has been sold more than 500,000 copies and won the position of Must-Read Novel in every corner of the nation's bookshops and media review pages.24 Additionally, it was sold internationally in
33 countries, such as in Germany, Korea, China and Australia.25 The three novels of the quartet, Laskar Pelangi (2006), Sang Pemimpi (2006) and Edensor (2007) have already been adapted into movies. The movie Laskar Pelangi and Sang
Pemimpi have received international awards in Singapore International Film
Festival and the Udine Far East International Film Festival in Italy.26The movie could, surprisingly, attract five million viewers and it was considered as the highest grossing Indonesian box-office.27
The setting of Laskar Pelangi (2006) is Belitung which is a portrait of a beautiful island with long history of tin mining which later becomes impoverished
24Iwan Seti, “LaskarPelangi”: The Audacity of Hope. 7 September 2008.
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by the destructive effects of the mining activities. This story represents the condition of society and region in Indonesia’s hinterland area and how children spend their childhood in poverty trap and critical condition of education. Hence,
Laskar Pelangi as a quartet is also based on the writer’s true story. Andrea Hirata himself was born in Belitung and he portrayed his life journey through The Laskar
Pelangi Quartet. In an interview,28Hirata explained that initially the novel Laskar
Pelangi was not going to be published. He wrote the novel to express his gratitude and appreciation to his teachers in the Elementary School, Ibu Muslimah and
Bapak Harfan Effendi, and a couple of his best friends. By coincidence, his friend found the draft of the novel in his boardinghouse room, and sent it to a publisher quietly. The three sequels were later published after the success of the first novel.
2. The English Translated Version
After the success of Laskar Pelangi (2006) in Indonesia, Hirata decided to translate it into English for overseas market. He asked Angie Kilbane, a student of literature at Indonesia University, to work for the translation.29 He mentioned their goals in translating Laskar Pelangi into English. Firstly, it is to share it with the world, not only limited for the Southeast Asian Studies libraries and classes.
Secondly, it is to provide Indonesian students of English with a reference written by someone from their own country.30 Therefore, the English version that has firstly been published under the same publisher of the Indonesian version,
Bentang Pustaka, is the major source for other translated versions. At present, it
28Buku Laskar Pelangi (LP) pada awalnya bukan untuk diterbitkan. Niat saya untuk menulis buku ini sudah ada sejak saya kelas 3 SD, ketika saya demikian terkesan pada jerih payah kedua guru SD saya Ibu Muslimah dan Bapak Harfan Effendi, serta 10 sahabat masa kecil saya, yang disebut Kelompok Laskar Pelangi. Buku Laskar Pelangi saya tulis sebagai ucapan terima kasih dan penghargaan kepada guru dan sahabat-sahabat saya itu. Seorang teman, tidak sengaja menemukan draf buku itu di kamar kos saya, dan diam-diam mengirimkannya pada penerbit. Sampai hari ini saya masih heran ternyata buku LP masih merupakan buku laris. .Andrea Hirata Sastrawan dari Kampung Belitung. 8 March 2011. (Posted by Puja, Interviewed by StevyWidia) [My translation here and thereafter]
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also has been translated into German, Korean, Chinese and Turkish language.
However, both the English version for Indonesian and overseas market are not exactly identical compared with the original version of Laskar Pelangi (2006) since there are some addition and reduction.
The English version The Rainbow Troops (2009) undergoes changes in some important parts. Firstly, the change is on one of the characters, Mr.
Samadikun as the School Superintendent who does not exist in the Indonesian version. He wants the Muhammadiyah School to be closed because of its lack of the government’s standards. He appears to emphasize how the government oppresses the marginalized people through the state education policy. The oppressed are students and teachers who live in the hinterland area. They should achieve the government’s standard to conduct formal education in their region.
The standards include the number of students, school’s facilities, and students’ achievements. The School Superintendent has a duty to check and evaluate those standards. He is described as having arrogant manner to show his overbearing image:
The sight of his glasses made all the teachers in Belitung tremble. He was, none other than Mister Samadikun—the School Superintendent. (TRT: 86)
Because she was so nervous, Bu Mus made a fatal mistake before anything else even happened. “Please come in, Pak,” she said politely. Mister Samadikun glared at her and snapped, “Call me Mister!” It was common knowledge: He didn’t want to be called Pak Samadikun. Maybe it was influence from his Dutch teachers, or perhaps it was to maintain his authoritative image, whatever the reason was, one thing was clear: he wanted to be called Mister.” (TRT: 88-89)
Mr. Samadikun represents the government’s policy and power towards education in Indonesia, especially formal education. His existence is to strengthen the education issue which is popular as the central theme of the novel.
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Secondly, the change is on the arrangement of chapters. The original version consists of 34 chapters and the English version consists of 48 chapters.
The titles of the chapters changes on certain numbers. It also shows different emphasize on the story in each chapter. For example in Indonesian version there is chapter four with the title Perempuan-perempuan Perkasa. It tells about the woman teacher character, Bu Mus, who teaches in Muhammadiyah School. She taught Ikal and became one of the inspirational teachers who influenced him. She is portrayed as a woman who has strong passion and loyalty on her duty as a teacher. Whereas in the English version, the title of chapter four is Grizzly Bear which tells about Pak Harfan, the headmaster of Muhammadiyah School. His characters are down to earth, charismatic and being described as a guru:
He was a guru in the true sense of the word, its Hindi meaning: a person who not only transfers knowledge but who also is a friend and spiritual guide for his students. (TRT: 26)
The portrayal of Bu Mus in English version is told in chapter six under the title
Those without the Right. Thus, the title does not highlight the tough woman’s character as shown in the Indonesian version.
Thirdly, the change is on the finding of the tin under the Muhammadiyah
School’s building. That occurs to support the conflict between the government’s company and educational institution. It also represents the oppression from those who have authority, power and wealthy towards the oppressed, the people who are marginalized, powerless and poor. Because of the tin under the school’s building, the threat to close the school strengthens the conflict that supports the education issue:
From the head of the team, we learned that the level of tin down there was 12; meaning that by their estimate, there was about 1,200 kilograms of tin per 1,000 cubic meters of land.
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… We felt the sting of irony. Underneath our decrepit and collapsing school— the school where we fought in poverty every day to continue our lives—laid a hidden treasure worth trillions of rupiah. (TRT: 276)
Fourthly, the change can be clearly noticed in the end of the story. Laskar
Pelangi (2006) includes the fulfillment of the aspiration of each member of
Laskar Pelangi. It is considered more communal. It is not only the achievement of
Ikal as the main character, but also all his friends’ are highlighted. This is significant because it brings a big value that no matter where they come from, what sort of life they have achieved, they found happiness through the fulfilment of their aspiration. Meanwhile, the ending of The Rainbow Troops (2009) is more individual; it focuses on the experience of Ikal as the main character that shows his concern on education accessibility.
In brief, the impressions shown by the original and the English versions are different. Education issues in the original version are not emphasized previously. Joining formal school was told as part of childhood experiences which were colored by happiness and sadness. When Laskar Pelangi (2006) later becomes bestseller because of education issues, then the production of the English version gives emphasize to strengthen that issue. It can be seen from some changes that have been mentioned above.
Whereas Edensor (2007) the third novel translated into English with the same title, a conspicuous reduction is on the title of Mozaik 15. The title of
Mozaik 15 in Indonesian version is Aku dan Anggun C. Sasmi. Anggun C. Sasmi is an Indonesian singer who becomes international singer nowadays after she moves to France. The main character adores her because she represents an
Indonesian who succeeds in promoting Indonesia to the European people,
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particularly in France. By seeing her CD album in a music store in France, his patriotic pride is raising:
This evening, after class, we visited a music store in an elite area L’ Avenue des Champs-Elysees. We were delighted to see Anggun C. Sasmi’s CD album among other world musicians. Her songs were in French language. There was something strange deep inside my heart when I was seeing her CD album. For the first time, my patriotic fervour was raising. It was because of a singer that I knew when I was not in my own country. Patriotism was not easily gained, when I stayed in my country with its symbol the bird of Garuda Pancasila.31 [My translation]
However, in the English version the title is changing into Paris and the narrative about Anggun C. Sasmi is omitted. It tells more about France with its charm on culture. Thus, patriotic fervour as an Indonesian is diminished in English version and replaced with the description of France as the center of art.
The English version of Edensor (2007) as the third novel has been published and marketed, while the second novel, The Dreamer (forthcoming) has not yet been settled. Therefore, the publication of the quartet English version has not been done sequentially. This is a questionable circumstance between the importance to publish the quartet sequentially and the market interest on the issue in each novel. Moreover, based on the information from Hirata’s management representation, Arsi, the English version of Sang Pemimpi (2006) indeed has never been marketed.32
Hirata stated that his goals in translating Laskar Pelangi (2006) into
English is to share it with the world, not just South Asian Studies classes, but will
31Pulang kuliah sore ini kami iseng mengunjungi toko musik di kawasan elite L’Avenue des Champs-Elysees. Kami meloncat-loncat girang karena diantara jejeran compact disk musisi dunia tampak album Anggun C. Sasmi dengan lagu yang dibawakan dalam bahasa Prancis. Aneh, untuk pertama kalinya rasanya rasa patriotik membuncah dalam diriku, semuanya karena seorang vokalis dan saat aku berada di negeri orang. Perasaan ini amat sulit kutumbuhkan selama aku hidup dibawah naungan Burung Garuda Pancasila. Andrea Hirata, Edensor (Yogyakarta: Bentang Pustaka, 2007) p.87; All subsequent references to this work, abbreviated EDI,will be used in this thesis with pagination only. 32Miss. Arsi’s respond was based on my previous email that asked about the English version of Sang Pemimpi in book stores. She gave a short respond after my brief explanation on the importance of the novel for my thesis research: “Halo saya Arsi dari Andrea Hirata Manajemen.Nanti saya cek dulu ya, karena setahu kami versi Inggris Sang Pemimpi belum pernah dijual.” The email address belongs to Andrea Hirata, but when I sent the email, I got the respond from his assistant under Andrea Hirata’s management. I thank Dr. Patrisius Mutiara Andalas, SJ. S.S., S.T.D for giving me Andrea Hirata’s email address.
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appear to a wider audience.33 Therefore, in translating Edensor (2007), the content is also arranged for the purpose of international market. The international agent responsible for the overseas market, according to Hirata, is Amer& Asia Co. Ltd. from Tucson, Virginia, in the United States. Additionally, the agency has already signed deals to release the books in German, China, Vietnam and Egypt.34 In
February 2011, he signed a contract with New York-based Kathleen Anderson
Literary Management, which oversees the publishing of his novels outside
Indonesia.35 The Rainbow Troops (2009) has been marketed in some countries.
The promotion of the international edition is also printed behind each book cover of The Laskar Pelangi Quartet that is published in Indonesia. The English versions or international editions are: The Rainbow Troops (2009), The Dreamer
(forthcoming), Edensor (2011) and Strange Rhythm (forthcoming). The advertising of The Laskar Pelangi Quartet is unceasing whether for Indonesian or overseas market.
3. The Term “Native”
The Rainbow Troops (2009) and Edensor (2011) as the English version of the two novels of the quartet use the term native to translate the Belitungese. The main character describes who the Belitung people are:
We Malays generally are simple individuals who acquire life’s wisdom from Koranic teachers and elders at the mosque after magrib prayer. […] Ours is an old race. We have heard various definitions of our race, and there are some experts who say that Belitong Malays are not Malay. We don’t put much stock into that opinion for two reasons: Belitong people themselves don’t understand such matters; and because we aren’t eager to be primordial. To us, people all along the coast—from Belitong up to Malaysia—are Malays, based on a mutual obsession with peninsular rhythms, the beating of tambourines and rhyming.
33Andrea Hirata, Translating Laskar Pelangi Into The Rainbow Troops. 3 September 2010.
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Our identity is not based on language, skin color, belief systems or skeletal structure. We are an egalitarian race. (TRT: 127)
Malays are their identity because of the location of the Belitung Island, “To us, people all along the coast—from Belitong up to Malaysia—are Malays” (Ibid.).
Therefore, the Belitungese is Belitung Malays. Then, in the translated version it is translated into “the natives of Belitong” (TRT: 30), “the native Belitong-Malays”
(TRT: 39), and “the Malays” (TRT: 42).
For other ethnics who live in Belitung, he mentions Chinese and Sawang.
In Indonesian version, the Chinese is written as orang Tionghoa, and it is translated into “the Chinese” (TRT: 128) and “the Chinese-Malays” (TRT: 41).
They live side by side with the Belitungese for hundred years:
The Chinese-Malays, as they sometimes are called, have lived on the island for a long time. They were first brought to Belitong by the Dutch to be tin laborers. Most of them were Khek from Hakka, Hokian from Fukien, Thongsans, Ho Phos, Shan Tungs, and Thio Cius. That tough ethnic community developed their own techniques for manually mining tin. Their terms for these techniques, aichang, phok, kiaw, and khaknai, are still spoken by Malay tin prospectors to this day. (TRT: 41)
It shows that the Chinese is seen as other inhabitants of Belitung, not originally part of the Belitung people although they live in Belitung. Their existence is as a migrant. Although they live in Belitung, the main character does not include them as the Belitung-Malays but as the Chinese-Malays.
Then, for Sawang people, he observes them as having primitive culture that live near the Belitungese:
I got goosebumps thinking about how close our community was to primitive culture. […] Next to the Malays—and even more so next to Chinese—the Sawangs have a very different appearance. They are like the native Australian inhabitants, the Aborigines: dark skin, strong jaws, deep eyes, thin foreheads, Teutoniclike cranial structures and broom-like hair. (TRT: 128)
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From the Sawang’s appearance, he sees them as different from the Malays and the
Chinese. Furthermore, how they spent their money becomes the main character’s concern:
They spent like there was no tomorrow and borrowed like they’d live forever. Because of their money management problems, the Sawangs often became the victims of negative stereotypes in the circles of the Malay majority and the Chinese. (TRT: 129) Sawang becomes the minority with their attached negative stereotypes in
Belitung. Not only do they spend their money on particular way, their culture is also seen as different from the Belitung-Malays, as he states:
The Sawangs were quite happy to marginalize themselves. For them, life consisted of a foreman willing to pay them once a week and hard jobs that no other race was willing to do. They didn’t recognize the concept of power distance because there was no hierarchy in their culture. People who didn’t understand their culture would consider them impolite. The one and only exalted one among them was the head of the tribe, usually a shaman, and the position wasn’t hereditary. (TRT: 129-130)
The primitive culture that the main character has mentioned earlier about the
Sawang is described clearer in this quotation, such as: they marginalize themselves, do the hard jobs that other races do not want to do, and their leader is written as “the head of the tribe”.
Therefore, the term native in The Laskar Pelangi Quartet refers to the
Belitungese, that to be specific is Belitung-Malays people with their Malay race and Islam religion. As the main character has mentioned: “We Malays generally are simple individuals who acquire life’s wisdom from Koranic teachers and elders at the mosque after magrib prayer” (TRT: 127). Meanwhile, for the Chinese and the Sawang, they are not part of the native. They are seen as other races that live in Belitung but are not included as the Belitung-Malays.
According to Chow, “[…]seeing become overwhelmingly important ways of talking, simply because “seeing” carries with it the connotation of a demarcation
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of ontological boundaries between “self” and “other”.36 “Native” in the quartet is the main character’s construction based on his “seeing” to categorize who the
Belitung people are. Thus, the quartet as a text may contradicts the “real” understanding of the dynamic population in Belitung.
B. Previous Study
The phenomenal success of The Laskar Pelangi Quartet has invited different appreciation from different readers. They give their comments mostly through the internet while academic reports or journals discussing those novels as a quartet emerge infrequently. Mostly the discussion is only taking one novel from the quartet. Andreas Akun uses postcolonial approach to discuss Laskar
Pelangi (2006) to argue that the novel decentralizes the center (dominant discourse power) to empower (centralizing) the peripheral marginal group.37
The counter discursive strategy which is developed by the author can be seen from the inverted positioning of the marginalized against the dominating group. The marginalized here means Belitung’s people as a local and the dominating group is the comers who works and leave in PN Timah ( a government company that control the tin mining) environment. The marginalized has been represented as overpowering the dominating group, through the representation of deconstructive teacher images, the used of the myth and science as teasing to criticize the education problems, the Chinese with their positive images and the use of local language. Those represent the marginal people with their marginalized position may have an opportunity to fight against the dominating
36Rey Chow, Woman and Chinese Modernity: The Politics of Reading Between West and East (USA: The University of Minnesota Press, 1991) p. 3 37Andeas Akun, “A Local Counter-Discourse against National Education Problems: Postcolonial Reading of Andrea Hirata’s Laskar Pelangi” in Journal Kata, Volume 12, Number 2, December 2010: pp 140-151
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people—who have power with their superior mainstream—and they become the winner.
Akun concludes that Laskar Pelangi (2006) is not about how struggle and spirit is important for marginal group to keep surviving in this life, but it is about how the minority actually have the potential to fight back ideologically the domination of the mainstream. Here, I partly agree with his study, particularly to fight back the domination of the mainstream. However, his conclusion on “the potential to fight back ideologically the domination of the mainstream”, the words
“the potential” shows the possible ways to fight back. How the minority fulfill their potential way is the question pursued in my study. Moreover, by using
Laskar Pelangi as a quartet, the findings will be more detailed. Therefore, how the minority develop their potential way to fight back the domination of the mainstream will be more obvious through my study on the ongoing effects of colonialism in The Laskar Pelangi Quartet.
Another study is conducted to criticize The Laskar Pelangi Quartet, written by Nurhady Sirimorok in his book entitled Laskar Pemimpi: Andrea
Hirata, Pembacanya dan Modernisasi Indonesia (The Dreamer Troops: Andrea
Hirata, His Readers and Indonesian Modernization) published in 2008 by Insist
Press.38 Sirimorok wants to answer his question why Hirata’s novels become very popular in Indonesia and labeled as Indonesia’s most powerful book. His purpose is to criticize the quartet by analyzing comments from website. In this case the commentators are varying in profession and also educational background. He judges the writer as an agent of modernization. Modernity is seen as a label
38Insist Press is a publisher in Yogyakarta which takes position to criticize formal education in Indonesia. Books that they publish mostly about informal education and critic to formal education in Indonesia, such as: Sekolah Itu Candu by RoemTopatimasang, Sokola Rimba by Butet Manurung and Sekolah Dibubarkan Saja by Chu-diel.
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generates from Western Enlightenment, as the way to show the development of their societies from traditional into modern.39 The readers of his work are the victims of modernization.40 It means that to be a successful person, someone should take formal education as the solution, and enter university to take under graduate program in urban area of the country and continue to graduate program in abroad, then work as an employee.41 Afterward, they become far away from their own society and only concern with their own life.
His judgments are completed with quotation from the novels, mostly from the main character’s development to convince the readers that his judgment uses appropriate data. He also uses Orientalism to argue that The Laskar Pelangi
Quartet represents the strong influence of Orientalism in the Eastern countries like Indonesia. 42 It is proven in the writer choice of Paris as the center of knowledge 43 and modernity that refers to Western modernization 44 which are depicted in The Laskar Pelangi Quartet. According to Sirimorok, Hirata’s adoration to the Western countries is too much. The adoration captures in the quartet does not offer good influence to readers. The writer brings the spirit of colonialism in his work by showing that the Western countries with their people and culture are the best role model in the world.
He also puts into question the kind of dream that the writer sold in his novels. He concludes that dream of modernization is the answer.45 Sirimorok’s answer cannot be separated from his own background as a literature scholar, and
39Nurhady Sirimorok, Laskar Pemimpi; Andrea Hirata, Pembacanya dan Modernisasi Indonesia (Yogyakarta: InsistPress, 2008) p. 31 40 Sirimorok, pp. 63-64 41Sirimorok, pp. 15-16 42Sirimorok, p.129 43Sirimorok, p. 130-131 44Sirimorok, p. 77 45Sirimorok, pp. 44-45
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then continued his study in Rural Livelihood and Global Change, Institute of
Social Studies, Den Haag, Holland.
Subsequently, his work allows him to do research and become a facilitator for people who live in rural area in South Sulawesi.46 His intense interaction with rural people supports him to take his position on their side. His lived experience has influenced him to question whether modernization pattern is appropriate for the people. Therefore, the critic from Sirimorok cannot be separated from his background and attention to the rural society life.
I agree with Sirimorok’s criticism in relation to colonialism and modernization. However, his critic on the quartet is more to the writer as a person rather than as the main character. He sees the quartet as a memoir, since it is based on the author’s real life. On the contrary, this present study is to examine the quartet mainly through the main character’s view and attitudes on perceiving and representing himself and his society to reveal the ongoing effects of colonialism.
Here, Akun and Sirimorok have different arguments. While Akun acquires positive argument, Sirimorok has the opposite by criticizing and giving negative views on Hirata’s novels. Akun applauds Laskar Pelangi (2006) as a single novel that depicts how the minority has potential to resist the domination of the mainstream. Conversely, Sirimorok concludes that the writer is an agent of modernization who adores western lifestyle and his dream is modernization itself.
Therefore, my study is close to Akun’s in terms of fulfillment of the potential. Meanwhile, Sirimorok’s research is also similar with my research.
However, we have different focus: first, Sirimorok examines the writer as a person, whereas my study focuses on the main character of the quartet. Second, is
46Sirimorok, p.168
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on the way colonialism is revealed. Sirimorok uses Orientalism to show the spirit of colonialism finds in the quartet through the writer’s Western adoration and dream. My study will instead reveal the ongoing effects of colonialism by using postcolonial approach to read Laskar Pelangi as a quartet and Orientalism is only part of other theories. It attempts to examine colonial discourse that operates through the main character’s view and attitudes in Hirata’s novels. In details, this study explains the way the main character portrays inequality as the consequence of modern colonialism practice and finds out how The Laskar Pelangi Quartet reveal colonialist ideology.
Despite the argument of the researchers above, the fact that the number of poverty in Indonesia is still high cannot be denied. Therefore, to survive people need power that can stimulate their spirit to struggle. The quartet provides that power that most people need. Moreover, it is a memoir of the writer’s life, based on his true story. It convinces people to believe that poor people have chances to obtain successful live. In my final remark, The Laskar Pelangi Quartet as an
Indonesian literature is indeed able to inspire many people to struggle with their life. However, what kind of struggles that people should do, what is the intention of their struggle, how to achieve and what is the result, for gaining better life are the questions to awaken readers’ awareness besides the popularity of the novels.
C. Review of Related Theories
The concern of postcolonial approach to the study of literature is on the way literary texts uncover the colonial traces and others confrontations that happens because of unequal power. 47 Unequal power emerges between the
47See Tony Day and Keith Foulcher. Clearing A Space: Postcolonial Readings of Modern Indonesia Literature (Leiden: KITLV Press, 2002) p. 2
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dominant and the dominated group whereby the dominant has power to control.
Confrontations because of unequal power as the legacy of colonialism can be occurred within the colonized after the end of colonization. It emerges between
“native” versus “migrants”. 48 Native here means the local residents, whereas migrants are newcomers that usually from different ethnic that move to another region and stay in the native’s region. Economic reason usually becomes the reason that supports them to migrate.
The confrontations that happened because of unequal power indicate the existence of colonialism that spread out in different ways on many aspects of society. Therefore, the colonizer and the colonized as the actors of colonialism are still exist with different performance. Their performance is not about the power on physical attack but more as an ideology that has latent characteristic to influence people and has been done by the extension of the colonizers.
Postcolonial approach is used in this study to reveal how The Laskar
Pelangi Quartet reinforces the colonizers’ values through the main character’s view and attitude and shows the ongoing effects of colonialism. Therefore, some theorists who develop ideas related to postcolonial approach are chosen to make this study complete.
1. Modern Colonialism
Loomba explains what modern colonialism does to people they invaded.
European colonialisms, in particular, use strategies to dominate the colonized with the intention to produce economic imbalance for the growth of European capitalism and industry. By restructuring the economies of the colonized, they
48A term that is adopted from Melani Budianta’s essay. Melani Budianta, “In The Margin of The Capital From “Tjerita Boedjang Bingoeng” to “Si Doel Anak Sekolahan” in: Tony Day and Keith Foulcher, Clearing A Space: Postcolonial Readings of Modern Indonesia Literature (Leiden: KITLV Press, 2002) p. 237-271
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exploit the natural and human resources for their prosperity. The consequence of restructuring the economic of the colonized is economic imbalance that creates inequality. Inequality that emerged is to strengthen colonial domination through class system to differentiate people, which put the colonizers as the highest class.
Thus, Loomba’s concept of modern colonialism is used in this present study to identify inequality as the product of modern colonialism, which emerges because of economic imbalance.49
Meanwhile, according to Sutrisno, there are two characteristics of modern colonialism:
a. First, the colonies do not only pay the taxes (the concept of earlier
colonialism) but their economies are also being constructed. The purpose
is to control the economy of the colonized for the mother country’s profit.
It is not only constructing the tangible, but also intangible area (namely:
ideas, perspective and reflection of the existing realities in cognition,
aesthetic, religiosity, and also cultural mentality).
b. Second, the colonies (from colonialism system) become the market for the
mother country’s goods and being forced to buy their products.50
Seen from the first characteristics, in terms of restructuring the economic of the colonized, Loomba and Sutrisno complete each other. The tangible and intangible areas are also being constructed through constructing the economy of the colonized. The attitude of the native on confronting with inequality is discussed based on the notion of constructing the intangible area. Therefore, colonial
49See Loomba, p. 9 50He mentions two characteristics of modern colonialism that construct the economies of the colonized for the colonizers’ importance. Mudji Sutrisno, S.J., Ranah-Ranah Kebudayaan (Yogyakarta: Kanisius, 2009 ) p.11
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domination through economic control is not the only way to perpetuate modern colonialism, since constructing the attitude of the colonized is also involved.
2. Colonial Discourse
Colonial discourse is a discourse for describing a system within which the range of practices termed “colonial” come into being.51 Using colonial discourses, makes it possible to trace connections between the visible and the hidden, the dominant and the marginalized, and also to see how power works through language, literature, culture and the institutions which regulate people daily lives.52
According to Aschcroft et al. colonial discourse is implicated in ideas of the centrality of Europe, thus:
Colonial discourse is thus a system of statements that can be made about colonies and colonial peoples, about colonizing powers and about the relationship between these two. It is the system of knowledge and beliefs about the world within which acts of colonization take place. Although it is generated within the society and cultures of the colonizers, it becomes that discourse within which the colonized may also come to see themselves. At the very least, it creates a deep conflict in the consciousness of the colonized because of its clash with other knowledges (and kinds of knowledge) about the world.53
In relation to language that is captured in literary works through the text, colonial discourse shows how language is used in particular way to maintain colonialist thinking. It means, language does not only mean verbal language but also the colonizers’ values that the colonized tries to adopt since they are taught to believe that their language and values are inferior. Therefore, theories relate to colonial discourse use in this study are:
51See Ashcroft et al, p.41 52Loomba, p. 45 53Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin, Key Concepts in Post-Colonial Studies (London: Routledge, 1988) p.42
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a. Orientalism
Said’s Orientalism uses the concept of colonial discourse as a system of knowledge about the Orient, as the colonized, that was and continues to be, constructed in European thinking. Orientalism is a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient.54 How the West perceives and represents the East contributed to the assumption of the West superiority towards the East.55 Therefore, the construction of European thinking about the Orient or the East is not in vacuum, there is a power that not only creates but also maintains their construction. Mostly all postcolonial theories are referring to Orientalism, especially in terms of power-relations.
b. Colonialist Ideology
Tyson’s colonialist ideology refers to the way colonialist thinking is expressed through a discourse. It is about the discourse on the way the colonizers express their own superiority. The discourse is represented in an assumption gained by contrasting it with the inferiority of the natives as the people that they invaded. Thus, this term is part of colonial discourse. Furthermore, ideology as a concept, refers to Gramsci in Loomba common sense on which ideology operates, is the practical, everyday, popular consciousness of human being, which is obviously true, common to everybody, or normative.56As a result, the superiority assumptions gives direction on classifying people’s characteristics based on the colonizers’ claims to strengthen their own position as the controller and the superior towards the colonized.
54 Edward W. Said, Orientalism: Western Conception of the Orient (England: The Penguin Group, 1991) p. 3 55 Said, p.46 56Loomba, p.30
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Tyson’s ways of reading the colonialist ideology claims the colonizers’ assumptions on their assumed superiority based on their technology and culture.
The colonizers’ believe that their technology and culture are highly advanced, therefore they disregard the colonized’s religions, customs and codes of behavior.
Relates to their position as part of the world, the colonizers see themselves at the center while the colonized is at the margin. They become the center of attention and civilization, whereas the people they invaded become the marginalized.
c. Othering
Spivak contends othering is the process by which imperial discourse creates its others, “…the native states are being distinguished from “our [colonial] governments”.57 Therefore, dividing society in term of binary opposition between center and margin is the way to maintain colonialist power by creating others. To divide the societies by giving them certain characteristics also creates the image of others. This is in line with Minh-ha’s concept of naming: “Naming is part of human rituals of incorporation, the unnamed remains less human than the in- human or sub-human. The threatening Otherness must, therefore, be transformed into figures that belong to a definite image—repertoire.”58 Therefore, othering is a process to divide societies by naming, to construct the others to a definite image, without the name means less human.
Then, in relation to “self”, the Western are the embodiment of what a human being should be. Therefore, they are the one having the proper “self”, whereas the natives are claimed to be the opposite. Primitive, backward, savages,
57Spivak, p. 255 58Trinh T. Minh-ha, Woman, Native, Other: Writing Postcoloniality and Feminism (USA: Indiana University Press, 1989) p. 54. I thank Dr. Patrisius Mutiara Andalas SJ., S.S., S.T.D for alerting me with this useful reference on Asian feminist.
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at the margin and other or different become the characteristics of the inferior natives.
d. Hybridity
The relations between the colonizers and the colonized are associated with the concept of hybridity from Bhabha:
“Hybridity is the sign of the productivity of colonial power, its shifting and fixities; it is the name for the strategic reversal of the process of domination through disavowal (that is, the production of discriminatory identities that secure the “pure” and original identity of authority).”59
From postcolonial perspective, hybridity then is the condition of the colonized subjects who have been contaminated by colonialism. It shows that the colonized are not simply and completely opposed to the colonizers. Thus, the relationship between the colonizers and the colonized is ambivalent.
3. Decolonizing the Mind
Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s details on how colonialism has imposed its control towards the native as a means of complete subjugation. He states that the domination of the mental universe of the colonized is the most important area by controlling the colonized’s culture. By culture, he means the ways in which people perceive themselves as individuals and on their relation to others.
Therefore, by controlling people’s culture, it means controlling their tools of self- definitions.
Other than physical attack, the domination of the mental universe through culture becomes the target. It refers to Thiong’o’s term as decolonizing the mind.
It shows the process of revealing colonialist power that is maintained through culture. That is how the influence of colonialism does not easily end up although
59 Bhabha, p.112
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the formal independence of a country has been gained. Thus, just as Said takes on power relation in postcolonialism, Thiong’o conceptualizes decolonizing of the mind.
To sum up, the above concepts are significant in postcolonial theory to reveal the ongoing effects of colonialism through colonial discourse implanted in
Hirata’s works. Loomba and Sutrisno’s theory on modern colonialism help to identify the kind of inequality that is produced by modern colonialism. Colonial discourse is used to analyze the colonialist thinking, particularly European thinking with its power to construct the natives, as conceived by Said’s
Orientalism concept. Othering and hybridity highlight the relationship between the colonizers and the colonized, which influence the natives’ view and attitude on perceiving and representing themselves as an indivual and their relation to the world. To highlight the colonial domination on the natives’ mind, the work of
Thiong’o is important to identify how colonialism has imposed its control through culture. It helps to reveal how people perceive themselves as an individual and their relation to others.
D. Theoretical Framework
As theoretical framework, postcolonial theory used in this study is modern colonialism as conceived by Loomba and Sutrisno which shows inequality as the product of modern colonialism through restructuring the economic of the colonized and constructing the natives’ attitudes. This theory is supported with colonial discourse theories. Orientalism by Edward Said is one of the colonial discourse which underlines Western thinking that construct a discourse about the East. Said’s Orientalism is supported by Tyson’s concept
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about colonialist ideology, that argues about the way colonialist thinking is expressed. This study also sharpened by Spivak and Minh-ha’s theory of othering and Bhabha’s concept of hybridity to highlight the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized, to reveal colonialist ideology manifests in the colonized’s mind. Next, Thiong’o’s decolonisation theory completes the analysis, especially on how people’s culture has been universally dominated by the
European thinking.
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CHAPTER III
PORTRAYAL OF INEQUALITY
IN THE LASKAR PELANGI QUARTET
This chapter seeks to find the answer to the first research question, namely how does the main character in The Laskar Pelangi Quartet portray inequality in relation to modern colonialism practice? It refers to the definition of modern colonialism from Loomba who states that modern colonialism is not only about occupying countries’ region but also restructuring the economies of the colonized and takes them into a complex relationship within themselves.60
This study uses Loomba and Sutrisno’s concept of modern colonialism. In the light of these theoretical concepts, the inequality that is produced by modern colonialism and the influence of class system to the natives’ attitude will be revealed from the quartet. Therefore, to ease the discussion this chapter will be divided into two sub chapters: first, economic restructure, which examines how modern colonialism restructures the economies of the colonized that produces inequality; second, constructing the attitude of the natives, i.e. scrutinizing how the natives are depicted in the quartet confront with inequality.
A. Economic Restructure
Before the Dutch discovered tin and built the tin mining company, mostly
Belitung people were fishermen and worked in plantation. They also delivered the iron products to Java, such as knives and hatchets.61 The occupation of the Dutch with the intention to exploit the tin was to support the growth her capitalism and
60See Loomba, p. 9. 61 Mary F. Somers Heidhues, ‘Company Island: A Note on the History of Belitung’, in Indonesia, Vol. 51 (Apr., 1991), p.2
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industry. Thus, restructuring the economy of the colonized says Loomba, is what modern colonialism does to dominate and control them.62In relation to European colonialism, its establishment is also intended to support the growth of European capitalism and industry.
Economic imbalance is the consequence of the domination done by the modern colonialism practice. On the contrary, for the colonized subject, economic imbalance always produces inequality. It is admitted by Ashcroft et al: “…the kinds of inequity, and injustice, exclusion and oppression simply explicable in terms of class.”63 The portrayal of inequality which is represented in The Laskar
Pelangi Quartet is based on term of class. It aims to strengthen the poor condition of the native colonized people.
Ikal, the main character, experiences such inequality. He portrays the inequality in Belitung society by contrasting the life of the highest and the lowest class. The existence of the tin mining company that had been built since the colonial era has become the colonizer’s tool to exploit Belitung. The company does not only exploit the tin as the natural resource and the treasure of Belitung, but also controls the economy of the colonized, the natives Belitung people. The company makes Belitung into a corporate village and creates imbalance condition that separates people into different classes. Ikal said that discrimination which has done by the company people as “The treatment differed based on caste-like groups” (TRT: 32).
The tin mining company previously was called the Billiton Maatschappij under the Dutch colonization. Later, when it was taken over by the Indonesian
62Ibid. 63Ashcroft et al, p.38
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government, the name becomes PN Timah. PN is an abbreviation for Perusahaan
Negeri or state-owned company, whereas timah is tin. From the beginning, the target of Dutch occupation in Belitung has been the tin exploitation. As Heidhues
(1991) states:
Whereas Bangka’s production has always been a state enterprise, the Billiton Maatschappij, or Mij as it was first known, (Billiton is the Dutch pronunciation for Belitung), a single company, and its successors controlled the mines and dominated the history of Belitung for the century from its opening in 1850 until 1958, when Indonesia nationalized Netherlands’ properties and dissolved the tin company.64
Based on the statement above, the Billiton Maatschappij was a private enterprise.
It was different from the company in Bangka which was a state enterprise. The investment was not only from the Netherland government but also from private investors.
The intention of European colonialism, namely using many kinds of techniques and patterns to invade others, is to produce the economic imbalance.
The economic imbalance becomes the essential point to support European capitalism and industry. Thus, the tin mining company becomes the Dutch’s tool to support their industry. At the same time it produces economic imbalance between the company people and the natives. Then, the company people become the one who gain profit. Therefore, the existence of the tin mining company becomes the proof of modern colonialism practice in Belitung.
Furthermore, opened in 1850, the tin mining company has become part of the island and the people for over a hundred years. The Billiton Maatschappij was the company that changed the ethnic composition in Belitung, because of its need of labourers. The company brought the Chinese people to migrate to Belitung and
64Heidhues, p.1
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became labourer. The management of the company was also handed over continuously from the clutch of the Dutch to the Indonesian government.
However, not only the assets but also the mentality of the Dutch is adopted:
The Indonesian government took over PN from the colonial Dutch. And not only were the assets seized, but also the feudalistic mentality. Even after Indonesia gained its freedom, PN’s treatment of its native employees remained very discriminatory. The treatment differed based on caste-like groups. The highest caste was occupied by PN executives. They usually were referred to as Staff. The lowest caste was comprised of none other than our parents, who worked for PN as pipe carriers, hard laborers sifting tin or daily paid laborers. (TRT: 32)
Then, feudalistic mentality, that is mentioned, refers to Belitung as a corporate village, which produces classes to differentiate people. The highest class is PN executives, and the lowest class is the labourers or coolies, who are the natives.
Thus, the term colonizer in this discussion refers to the company as the colonial extension, whereas the colonized is the natives or Belitung people. They are at the lowest position in the company, and the poorest in the island. How the main character differentiates the society is influenced by the existence of the company. As he states:
Because Belitong had already become a corporate village, PN slowly assumed the form of a dominant hegemonic ruler and, fitting with the feudalistic design, the caste of a PN worker automatically bled over into non-working hours. (TRT: 32)
The company makes Belitung into a corporate village which supports the born of feudalistic design through class system.
Ikal takes the tin mining company as the actor of economic control in
Belitung. He sees that the company only wants to exploit the tin and neglects the natives. Although the colonial era is over, the natives are still being occupied by the company people who do the same way as the previous colonizer.
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Previously, to keep the company’s production, the Dutch brought the
Chinese, mostly as mine workers. As for the natives they were chosen only in auxiliary tasks, such as: prospectors, forest workers or policemen.65 The Dutch began replacing the Chinese with the natives, after the First World War because of the economic depression.66 It made the crisis in tin prices that most the Chinese left Belitung. When Belitung has obtained her independence, the Indonesian government handles the company. However, they take Javanese as the staffs and executives of the company. The Belitung-Malays as the natives have the same position as the helpers before and after the independent era.
They were excluded by the Dutch on the exploitation of tin that is buried in their land. The Dutch preferred to use Chinese workers than the natives. Then, after Indonesia got her independence, the natives are still excluded by taking
Javanese, and they remain inert at the lowest position, coolies.
It indicates how modern colonialism restructures the economy of the colonized. By building the tin company, the economies of the colonized is being restructured. The Belitungese which was previously fishermen and worked in plantation began to work in industry sector as a coolie at the company.
Economically, based on Ikal’s portrayal, different range of income level between the company staffs and the Belitungese as a coolie support the emerged of economic imbalance through the class system. As Loomba emphasizes that the essential point in European colonialism is the economic imbalance which is important for the growth of European capitalism and industry.67 However, the effect of the economic restructuring by the Dutch in Belitung is not over after they
65Heidhues, p.5 66 Heidhues, pp.11-13 67See Loomba, p. 9
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left. The Dutch has left a legacy of capitalism and industry in Belitung. Therefore, feudalistic mentality is part and parcel of the consequences. Moreover, after being neglected by the Dutch, the natives then have to compete with the migrants who come to Belitung as the company executives and staffs.
With the above background in mind, it is interesting to see how the novels depict class structure in Belitung as something natural. I would argue that exploitation of the local people and nature is presented as something common.
The discussion that follows will show how uncritical the novels are through the portrayal of class system in Belitung. The class system is based on kinds of occupation and income level to conclude who belongs to the highest class as the haves and the lowest class as the have-nots.
Economic imbalance emerges between the natives, the company people and also the Chinese. The natives have lived side by side with the Chinese for more than a hundred years and they become part of Belitung society. However, the company people are the ones who dominate the economic condition in
Belitung:
The economic strength of Belitong Island was dominated by the Staff living in the Estate. … There was no middle class, or maybe there was—the public servants who engaged in small-scale corruption, or the law officers who took in extra money by intimidating the businessmen. … The lowest class was occupied by our parents, the PN coolies. PN paid them 30,000 rupiah per month. (TRT: 43)
From that dialogue, the highest class is the staffs of PN Timah, the middle class is the public servants and law officers, and the lowest class is the PN coolies whom
Ikal’s family belongs to.
Ikal accentuates the lowest class: “…was occupied by our parents.”
Therefore, he classifies his parents on the lowest class because his father’s income
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as a coolie is 30,000 rupiahs per month. That fact convinces him that he, as the son of PN Timah coolie, is a poor child.
Nevertheless, it should be noted that there is different classification shown in the Indonesian version, Laskar Pelangi (2006):
The economic strength in Belitung was lead by PN Staffs and private brokers who work on the concession of tin exploitation. They include in the higher class on the slightest stratification layer. There was no middle class, or maybe there was, the sub-district heads, the public official heads and staffs who able to corrupt in a low level, and law officers who got debts because of threatening the brokers. The rest was on the lowest strata. They are a lot in number and the difference was conspicuous to the higher strata. They are the village administrators, honey and nira seekers, organ musicians, Sawang ethnic, Chinese who work in plantation, Malays who live in coastal area, honorary employees, teachers and headmasters of state and village school, exclude teachers and headmaster of PN School. 68 [My translation]
The dialogue above describes that the first class is the PN Timah’s staffs and cukong swasta (private broker) who work on the concession process of the tin.
The middle class are the same as the English version above, the public servants and law officers. The lower class, are not only coolies, but they are a lot in numbers and their professions are varied. Teachers and headmaster of PN School are not included in this class because they are parts of the company people. From the Indonesian version, poor family is not only coolie but there are other types of works that are economically equal with coolies.
Therefore, in the English version, the main character emphasizes that the poorest is only PN coolies. Conversely, in the Indonesian version, there are many parents who live in poverty from other occupations, not only PN coolies. As a
68Kekuatan ekonomi Belitong dipimpin oleh orang staf PN dan para cukong swasta yang mengerjakan setiap konsesi eksploitasi timah. Mereka menempati strata tertinggi dalam lapisan yang sangat tipis. Kelas menengah tak ada, oh atau mungkin juga ada, yaitu para camat, para kepala dinas dan pejabat-pejabat publik yang korupsi kecil-kecilan, dan aparat penegak hukum yang mendapat utang dari menggertaki cukong-cukong. Sisanya berada di lapisan terendah, jumlahnya banyak dan perbedaannya amat mencolok dibanding kelas diatasnya. Mereka adalah para pegawai kantor desa, karyawan rendahan PN, pencari madu dan nira, para pemain organ tunggal, semua orang Sawang, semua orang Tionghoa kebun, semua orang Melayu yang hidup di pesisir, para tenaga honorer Pemda, dan semua guru dan kepala sekolah—baik sekolah negeri maupun sekolah kampung—kecuali guru dan kepala sekolah PN. Andrea Hirata, Laskar Pelangi (Yogyakarta: Bentang Pustaka, 2006) p.55; All subsequent reference to this work, abbreviated LP, will be used in this thesis with pagination only.
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result, poverty in the Indonesian version is portrayed as a common matter because there are many other professions with low salary. More dramatic effect is thus shown in the English version whereby poverty is only experienced by the PN coolies that makes gap between PN staffs and PN coolies is becoming more obvious. The portrayal of poverty in Indonesian version shows that it is not a vital problem but the English version takes it as a critical problem to strengthen the poor condition of PN coolies as the profession of Ikal’s father.
As for the Chinese, previously they become a coolie at the company in the colonial era. Heidhues gives description about the Belitung-Chinese at that era:
[…] in the 1920 census, almost all ethnic Chinese gave Chinese as their daily language; the role of Malay was negligible. […] Most of Belitung’s Chinese were immigrants and transients, recently arrived and living in near-isolation from the local population in mining areas. […] Intermarriage with native women was not common.69
Therefore, the Chinese come to Belitung as a migrant and only to work at the company. They use their own languge to communicate although they live in
Belitung with Malay as the local language. They also live separately from the local people.
After the independence era, the Chinese is able to survive with their own techniques on tin mining. The Dutch’s policy to bring the Chinese influences the composition of various ethnic groups in Belitung who then becoming part of the island:
The Chinese-Malays, as they sometimes are called, have lived on the island for a long time. They were first brought to Belitong by the Dutch to be tin laborers. Most of them were Khek from Hakka, Hokian from Fukien, Thongsans, Ho Phos, Shan Tungs, and ThioCius. That tough ethnic community developed their own techniques for manually mining tin. (TRT: 41)
69 Heidhues, p.12
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Economically, the life of the Chinese is better than the natives. Aside of that, they do not depend on the company for mining activity, they also penetrate the local trade, as Ikal explains:
Amid the harmony of our community, the Chinese were the efficient traders. Those who actually produced the product hailed from places unknown to us— we only knew them through the made in tags on the back of pants. The Malays were the consumers and the poorer they grew, the more consumptive they became. (TRT: 165)
They provide the natives’ needs by opening shops and supporting the native’s consumptive habit. Thus, he sees the Chinese as the shopkeepers who control the economy of the Belitungese through the local trade. The Belitungese is only able to buy and spend their money.
How he describes a Chinese shopkeeper is represented when he sees his cousin meets Mrs. Deborah Wong: “He came a close to A Siong’s wife. She was plaiting her little daughter’s hair, Mei Mei. The little girl reminded anyone of tofu. The mother and her daughter were plump but pretty”70 [My translation].
Then, for her mother in-law, Ikal describes her as: “Her mother in-law who almost one hundred years old […] She never smile. Her clothes, skin, hair, eyebrows, gums without any teeth, and also her cat, all were grey. Mournful was the impression of her”71 [My translation]. From the description, tofu represents the skin colour of the Chinese which is different from the Belitungese. It shows that Ikal othering the Chinese who has lived in Belitung side by side with the
Belitungese. Then, the word grey represents the Chinese as migrant but can survive for hundred years in Belitung which is the Belitung-Malays homeland, with their own character that is described as mournful.
70Lalu ia menghampiri istri A Siong. Nyonya ini sedang mengepang rambut putrinya, Mei Mei. Siapa pun yang melihat gadis kecil ini akan segera teringat pada tofu. Mereka berdua gendut-gendut tapi cantik. (SP: 44) 71Ibu mertua Nyonya Deborah yang berumur hamper seratus tahun […] Nenek ini tak pernah tersenyum. Bajunya, kulitnya, rambutnya, gusinya yang sudah tak ditenggeri sebiji pun gigi, dan kucingmya, semuanya berwarna kelabu. Murung. Itulah kesan keseluruhan dirinya.
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From the way Ikal describes the Chinese, it shows that economically, he sees the Chinese as one of the controller of the Belitungese consumptive habit.
However, culturally, he marginalizes them because of their appearance and characters that is different from the original inhabitant of the island, which are the native Belitung-Malays.
Inequality in Belitung is portrayed through the economic imbalance as the consequence of economic restructuring of the colonized. Economic control is one of modern colonialism ways on producing inequality. Inequality that emerges is to strengthen colonial domination through the class system. The class system divides society into the highest and the lowest class based on their wealth. Here, the migrants comprise of the company executives and staffs as well as the Chinese.
The economic imbalance that emerges is the effect of restructuring the economy that had been done previously by the Dutch. However, its effect does not stop in the end of colonization. Thus, the natives keep competing with the company people throughout different eras and under different controllers.
Ikal’s descriptions on being poor and wealthy are given to cementing tension of economic imbalance. It is based on the occupation and income. The life of coolies and other professions that have low income is poor and belongs to the lowest class, whereas, PN Timah’s executives and staffs with their high income and prosperity, are classified into the wealthy and the highest class. Even when the native is compared to the Chinese, who do not work for the company, their positions are the poorest and the oppressed. It is because the Chinese controls their consumptive habit which means they make the natives use their money and make them poorer. As for the Chinese, they may gain profit from their trade then.
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PN Timah as the extension of colonial rules has the intention to dominate and control the native of Belitung. Economic imbalance is the consequence of the company’s domination that produces inequality which is represented in class system. Thus, the company as the legacy of Dutch colonization produces economic imbalance that continues to emerge among the native and the migrants.
Nevertheless, people who are related to company still dominate the economic strength in Belitung, specifically the executives and the staffs since some of the native also work at the company, but their position is a coolie. Therefore, when it relates to the company, people who join it by default belong to the highest or the lowest class in Belitung.
B. Constructing the Attitudes of the Natives
Restructuring the economic condition of the colonized society produces economic imbalance. Different income level and kinds of occupation create inequality as described through the gap between people who live in poverty and in prosperity. Through the class system, the society is not only divided into the highest and the lowest class based on their wealth but their attitudes are also constructed. Thus, economic control involved a reconstruction of the economic and social resources of the colonized. Then, class system becomes important factor in colonialism on constructing the attitude of the colonizers and the natives.
Ikal is described as being aware of the inequality in his society, not only as the result of the economic imbalance but also how the natives’ attitudes is constructed to confront with different lifestyle between the haves and the have- nots. The different lifestyles are captured in the condition of the settlement area,
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the table manners, the routine activites and the accessibility in gaining an appropriate education.
1. The Settlement Area
On the first sequel of The Laskar Pelangi Quartet, The Rainbow Troops
(2009), Ikal describes the exclusive compound of the company’s staffs as follows:
The Staff—almost none of whom were Belitong-Malays—lived in an elite area called the Estate. This area was tightly guarded by security, fences, high walls and harsh warnings posted everywhere in three languages: Formal colonial style Indonesian, Chinese and Dutch. The warning read “No Entry for those without the Right.” In our eyes—the eyes of poor village children—the Estate looked like it said, “Keep your distance.” (TRT: 32)
He sees invulnerable life of the staff in the elite area. Afterward, he places himself as an outsider of the elite compound and only becomes part of poor Belitung-
Malays village children.
Whereas in the Indonesian version, not only does the explanation mention about the physical performance of the building, but also about the people:
The Estate is Belitung’s land mark. This area was tightly guarded by high walls. There was only one way to access the area. It was like cul de sac concept in modern settlement concept. Colonial style became the style of the architecture and landscape design. People who lived inside the Estate were having odd name, such as Susilo, Cokro, Ivonne, Setiawan or Kuntoro. There were not Malay’s name, such as Muas, Jamali, Sa’indun, Ramli, or Mahader, and they were not 72 using bin or binti as usually Malay’s people used. [My translation] That quotation shows the exclusivity of the people who live in the Estate. The colonial style is explained more detail in English version as a Victorian style.
Then, people without Malay’s name who stay on that compound shows that not all of the Belitung-Malays are able to have position as the staff.
The Estate becomes the symbol of the ultimate high class lifestyle. The houses’ designs, decorations and furnitures are superb:
72Gedong adalah land mark Belitong. Ia terisolasi tembok tinggi berkeliling dengan satu akses keluar masuk seperti konsep cul de sac dalam konsep pemukiman modern. Arsitektur dan desain lanskapnya bergaya sangat kolonial. Orang-orang yang tinggal di dalamnya memiliki nama-nama yang aneh, misalnya Susilo, Cokro, Ivonne, Setiawan atau Kuntoro, tak ada Muas, Jamali, Sa’indun, Ramli, atau Mahader seperti nama orang-orang Melayu, dan mereka tidak pernah menggunakan bin atau binti.” (LP: 42)
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The luxurious houses of the Estate were built in the Victorian style. … the legendary Belgian peeing mannequin … . … a square cage decorated with Roman pillars. It was the home of the English pigeons, voracious but tame. …Victorian rosewood sofa. Sitting on it, one felt like an exalted king. (TRT: 33)
The luxurious physical description of the Estate above refers to European style.
Therefore, to show the houses elegant style, Europe becomes the reference.
In comparison to the Estate dwelling, the natives live outside the Estate’s wall with their opposite condition:
Just an arm’s length outside of those fortress walls spanned a strikingly contradictory sight, like a village chicken sitting next to a peacock. There lived the native Belitong-Malays, and if they didn’t have eight children, then they weren’t done trying. They blamed the government for not providing them with enough entertainment, so at night, they had nothing to do besides make children. … It would be an exaggeration to call our village a slum, but it would be not wrong to say it was a laborer’s village shadowed by an endless eclipse since the dawn of the industrial revolution. (TRT: 39-40)
Peacock is the symbol for the Estate, whereas the native Belitung-Malays’ compound is a village chicken. It indicates the deprived condition of the natives’ compound, although the word slum is mentioned as hyperbolical choice.
To contrast the settlement area of the native Belitungese and the company people, the European style becomes Ikal’s choice to strengthen the imbalance condition. In my opinion this is part of constructing the intangible part, particularly the attitude of the colonized on seeing their environment. When the natives Belitung need to describe their own society they will compare themselves with the PN Timah as the extension of the colonial rules. Since the standard that they know and they learn are from the company people as the controller and the highest class in Belitung.
2. The Table Manners
The second different lifestyle is the table manners. Ikal describes it as follows:
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The occupants of the house ate dinner wearing their best clothes—they even put on their shoes for the meal. After placing their napkins on their laps, they ate without making a peep while listening to classical music, maybe Mozart’s Haffner No. 35 in D Major. And no one put their elbows on the table. (TRT: 34)
Unlike at the Estate, when eating, the PN coolies were not accompanied by Mozart’s Haffner No. 35 in D Major. Their meals were accompanied by bickering, husbands complaining about the menu—always the cheapest fish for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The complaint was then countered by a hysterical blast from the wife, “I should have been the wife of a worker in the Estate instead. You are just a coolie, be grateful for your fish!” In the midst of their terrible fight at the dinner table, a calm backsound entered and harmonized the lyrics of their whimpering children, lined up neatly like boards in a fence, asking their parents to buy them new scout uniforms. (TRT: 42)
He describes the table manners of the Estate people compare with the natives. The sentences, ”placing their napkins on their laps” and ”ate without making a peep while listening to classical music” are the way to show a solemn atmosphere.
Whereas for the natives, husbands are complaining about the menu and wives regret for being coolies’ wives. Then, words that are used to describe the situation at the dinner table are “terrible fight” and “whimpering children”. Those create a chaotic atmosphere identical to the natives’ table manners.
The table manners that he describes are his reference to Western tradition.
It can be seen from the way they eat and also the kind of music. Those become the style of the highest class in Belitung when they are eating. Ikal takes Western table manners as being the solemn style of the company people. This is how the natives adopt the colonizers’ attitude construction on describing the changing of their own societies opting for the Western style by comparing the natives and the company people table manners.
In contrast, the Indonesian version describes it in a different way:
Unlike at the Estate, when eating, this urban people did not know about appetizer, main course or dessert. For them, there was only one main menu. …When they eating, they were not accompanied by Mozart’s Haffner No. 35 in D Major. Their meals were accompanied by whimpering from their children who asked to buy scout uniform.
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Every dawn the wives blew the siong or bamboo canes pieces, to light the firewood. Smoke billowed inside the house then blew through a crack in the boards. It woke up the ducks that caged under the rumah panggung. A plume of smoke made people inside the house coughed. Yet, it was also necessary to smoke fat cow that had been purchased in previous month. The fat cow was hung like laundry hang-dangling above the fireplace, a traditional stove that using firewood. It was their breakfast menu every morning. Coolies were not drinking Earlgrey tea or cappuccino before they left for working. Water of palm sugar blended with jadam to energize them to work all day was their drinking.73 [My translation]
It is different because there is not any complain from husbands and wives, as it is mentioned in the English version. This version portrays the local habit that is appropriate with their needs to work and also to eat. In my opinion, this is a unique local habit of the native which is not highlighted. Furthermore, there are positive cause and effect related to what the wives do at the fireplace. For example, a plume of smoke that is produced by the firewood along the cooking process is important to smoke the fat cow, which becomes their supply for breakfast. As for the drink, it is a wise choice. Water of plam sugar blended with jadam is what they need to help energizing them to work all day. Therefore, a chaotic atmosphere does not appear in this version, as it is described as the common habit of the natives.
3. The Daily Life
Besides the table manners, the routine activities are showing the different lifestyle of the natives and the company people. Ikal portrays the daily life of the native which is controlled by the company’s siren:
73Tidak seperti di Gedong, jika makan orang urban ini tidak mengenal appetizer sebagai perangsang selera, tak mengenal main course, ataupun dessert. Bagi mereka semuanya adalah menu utama. … Ketika makan mereka tak diiringi karya Mozart Haffner No. 35 in D Major tapi diiringi rengekan anak-anaknya yang minta dibelikan baju pramuka. Setiap subuh para istri meniup siong (potongan bambu) untuk menghidupkan tumpukan kayu bakar. Asap mengepul masuk ke dalam rumah, menyembul keluar melalui celah dinding papan, dan membangunkan entok yang dipelihara di bawah rumah panggung. Asap itu membuat penghuni rumah terbatuk-batuk, namun ia amat diperlukan guna menyalakan gemuk sapi yang dibeli bulan sebelumnya dan digantungkan berjuntai-juntai seperti cucian diatas perapian. Gemuk sapi itulah sarapan mereka setiap pagi. Sebelum berangkat para kuli itu tidak minum teh Earlgrey atau cappuccino, melainkan minum air gula aren dicampur jadam untuk menimbulkan efek tenaga kerbau yang akan digunakan sepanjang hari. (LP: 53)
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As for the Malays, they lived like puppets—controlled by a small and comical but very powerful puppet master called a siren. At seven o’clock every morning, the stillness shattered. The siren roared from the PN central office. Immediately, PN coolies bustled about, emerging from every corner of the village to line up along the side of the road, jumping and jamming themselves into the backs of trucks which would bring them to the dredges.The village fell quiet again. But moments later, an orchestra emerged as the women began crushing their spices. The sounds of pestles pounding against wooden mortars incessantly echoed from one stilted house to another, but when the clock struck five, the siren shrieked once again. The coolies dispersed to go home like ants fleeing a burning anthill. And that’s how it went on, for hundreds of years. (TRT: 42) It shows how the natives are always controlled by the company. The company’s existence becomes the standard of power, it is able to control many aspects of the natives’ life. Not only in economic but also in social aspect. The natives are described as puppet that has being controlled by the company’s siren.
Since mostly natives work as a coolie in PN Timah, the siren becomes the sign when they have to begin to work and when they have to finish their work.
The main character shows that the natives of Belitung never free from colonization. The colonial rules are only has done by different colonizers:
After three-hundred-fifty years, the Dutch said “good day” and the Japanese yelled “sayonara”. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the happy ending for us, the natives of Bellitong. For we were to be occupied in another way. Our land was seized once again, but in a more civilized manner. We were freed, but not yet free. (TRT: 40)
Thus, after the Dutch and the Japanese, PN Timah as the state-owned company of
Indonesian government occupies the natives. The company is represented as the controller and the ruler for Belitung-Malays people “in a more civilized manner” .
The company siren’s roar that control the natives Belitung who work as a coolie, then becomes one of the more civilized manner on controlling their daily life.
4. The Education Accessibility
Although PN Timah is seen as the extension of colonial rules that control and dominate the Belitungese, ironically, the company also becomes the role model for them. The Belitung-Malays appear to admire the lifestyle of PN Timah
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staffs that are wealthy and also have the privilege in gaining an appropriate education. To consolidate the accessibility in gaining an appropriate education, one of the facilities that the company provides for its staffs and executives is a school called PN School.
Ikal says that the center of excellent in Belitung is PN School: “The PN
School was in the Estate compound, and it was a center of excellence, a place for the best. Hundreds of qualified students competed at the highest standard at this school… “(TRT: 35) Therefore, the natives’ parents want to believe that education will possibly give their children better future than them. Thus far, they can only afford to send their children to village schools affordable for their income.
Next, it is because most parents are illiterate, their work only gives them low income. Furthermore, when they join PN Timah, they only require a coolie position, unlike PN staffs that are mostly graduated from universities in Java and abroad. Therefore, being well-educated becomes the aspiration of the natives.
They see the well-educated company people who are able to gain high position in the company with which their salary is also high as to enable them to live in prosperity. Parents, thus have aspiration to send their children to school for the sake of making their family’s future better. Ikal despises parents who do not have the same aspiration, saying “These parents weren’t convinced that their children’s education, which they could only afford up to junior high, would brighten their families’ futures.”(TRT: 2)
The novel shows that, in order to overcome the fee problem, parents choose Muhammadiyah School because the payment is the cheapest. It becomes
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their choice to let their children get into proper education. For Ikal,
Muhammadiyah School is similar to many poor schools in Indonesia:
It isn’t very hard to describe our school. It was one among hundreds—maybe even thousands—of poor schools in Indonesia that, if bumped by a frenzied goat preparing to mate, would collapse and fall to pieces. (TRT: 17) The atmosphere inside the class could be described with words like these: underutilized, astonishing, and bitterly touching. … It was a pathetic fixture completely void of content because no government officials wanted to visit our teachers, there were no graduates to be proud of, and we certainly hadn’t achieved anything prestigious yet. (TRT: 19-20)
His description strengthens the poor and decrepit school condition. Furthermore, he says that there are not any achievements that can be proud of in relation to increasing the school’s prestige. Compared to PN School that he calls the center of excellence, the natives’ inaccessibility to PN School make them unable to have a chance to get qualified education. Moreover, because of their parents’ profession, the only school they can enroll to is Muhammadiyah village school.
PN School with its complete facilities and achievements that they can be proud of is also discriminating:
The PN School was Belitong’s most discriminating club. That school only accepted children of the Staff who lived in the Estate. There was an official rule that regulated which rank of employees could enrol their children at the PN School. And of course, on the gate hung that warning not to enter unless you had the right. This meant that the children of fishermen, pipe carriers, daily paid laborers or hard laborers sifting tin, like our parents, and especially native children of Belitong, didn’t have the least opportunity to receive a good education. If they wanted to go to school, they were forced to join the Muhammadiyah village school, which if caressed by just a little bit of strong wind, could fall apart. (TRT: 37)
Through such regulation, Ikal can only afford village school with its lack of facilities. To compare the school condition, he uses PN School as the standard in terms of facilities and school’s achievements. To provide a qualified education, a school should be like PN School. Therefore, Ikal describes his Muhammadiyah
School by using the standard of excellence applicable to PN School.
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From the comparisons above, Ikal defines himself based on the school that he entered. He envies PN School as the centre of excellence that can provide a qualified education with all resources in it. With his poor school, it seems that there is no chance to offer for the best education due to the lack of facilities and achievements.
Consequently, Ikal is also influenced by what the native people know about the company people’s education background. Then, he is beginning to believe that education is the solution to confront the poverty condition in
Belitung. Therefore, he is eager to attain high education. Moreover, his father, a
PN coolie, always supports him:
Since the first time he sent me to the first grade of elementary school in Muhammadiyah, his proudly smile was never erased from his face. Now I completely understood the meaning of my father’s smile. The years before, since the moment I enroled in a poor Elementary School Muhammadiyah, he has assured that one day I will get a higher education scholarship. Even once, he was never stop on believing his son.74 [My translation]
The support from his father encourages him to pursue education as a way out of the entangled poverty web, in order not to become like his illiterate father with his poor wages.
Muhammadiyah School which lacks of facilities and achievements is able to take him to enroll at prestigious high school in East Belitung. Different from his previous school, that he calls as poor Muhammadiyah School where he studies from elementary until junior high, he enrols at the State Senior High School. The state school is called as the symbol of enlightenment and an ivory tower of excellence for Belitung-Malays people. Ikal’s way in pursuing education to
74Sejak dulu ia mendaftarkanku masuk kelas satu di SD Muhammadiyah, senyum bangga itu tak pernah terhapus dari wajahnya. Kini aku mengerti sepenuhnya arti senyum ayahku: bahwa sejak dulu, sejak aku masih sekolah di SD miskin Muhammadiyah, ia telah yakin suatu hari nanti aku akan mendapaatkan beasiswa pendidikan tinggi. Ia tak pernah sekali pun berhenti meyakini anaknya. Andrea Hirata, Sang Pemimpi (Yogyakarta: Bentang Pustaka, 2006) p. 271; All subsequent references to this work, abbreviated SP, will be used in this thesis with pagination only.
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confront his social class is achieved through his success to join a prestigious senior high school.
He feels proud because he is able to enter a prestigious school and excited because his access and chance to get better education through better school than before is enhanced. Economically, he includes himself as a village poor boy that belongs to the lowest class. Nonetheless, he is able to enter a prestigious school in his environment. It shows that his prestige is not the same as mostly natives who belong to the lowest class who usually can only afford to a village school.
Therefore, education through a prestigious school becomes his ladder to improve his social rank.
Inspiring by his teacher in the State Senior High School, Mr. Balia, who says about the Europe’s charm, encourages him to cherish an aspiration: study in
France. Then, Ikal works hard to embrace that aspiration which he says more as a dream, as he states:
At that time, I, Arai, and Jimbron crystallized our great hope in one ambitious statement: study in French was our ideal! We wanted to take a step on the sacred altar Sorbonne, wanted to explore Europe till Africa. Later, these expectations were haunting us everyday. Our aspiration is so high. Considering our poor condition, it was more appropriate to say it as only an empty dream. However, in front of this charismatic man as Mr. Balia, everything would seem possible.75 [My translation]
Therefore, after he studies in a prestigious school, he begins to harbor a dream which is different from mostly native. Although he remains the poor and the lowest class, his aspiration is no longer restricted by his social rank. “Take a step on the sacred altar of the greatest alma mater of all time: Sorbonne” (SP: 73), becomes his intention.
75Pada saat itulah aku, Arai, dan Jimbron mengkristalisasikan harapan agung kami dalam satu statement yang sangat ambisius: cita-cita kami adalah kami ingin sekolah ke Prancis! Ingin menginjakkan kaki di altar suci almamater Sorbonne, ingin menjelajah Eropa sampai ke Afrika. Harapan ini selanjutnya menghantui kami setiap hari. Begitu tinggi cita-cita kami. Mengingat keadaan kami yang amat terbatas, sebenarnya lebih tepat cita-cita itu disebut impian saja.Tapi didepan tokoh karismatik seperti Pak Balia, semuanya seakan mungkin. (SP: 75)
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He also has known one of the company staffs who graduated from Europe:
Flo’s father was a great man, an educated person. He was the best graduate from Technische Universiteit Delf, faculty of Werktuiqbouwkunde, Maritieme techniek&technische materiaalwetenschappen in Holland. The simplest to say it in Indonesian is jago teknik or an expert engineer.76 [My translation]
Thus, studying abroad becomes his target to confront with his social class. By following the lifestyle of the highest class, Ikal decided to study abroad for becoming an expert. He also wants to prove that although he belongs to the lowest class but his achievements will be equal with the highest class.
Ikal’s effort finally pays off by obtaining the scholarship. He achieves his ambitious dream, and fulfills his teacher’s hopes. He studies in the sacred altar of the greatest alma mater of all time: Sorbonne University in France. It is the institution that Mr. Balia claims, where people who can change civilization studied. Thus, the celebration of the life that he wants to be proud of is by achieving his ambitious dream.
As a village poor boy who graduated from Sorbonne University, Ikal feels that he has succeeded on addressing his lowest class by making his ambitious dream comes true. Then, he has something to be proud of in his life. Since for the mostly natives, it cannot be easily achieved. He overvalues himself because of his education background and overseas experience. It is proven when Ikal returns home and meets Bang Zaitun, a driver:
I was blushing and tried to fix my broken confident. Bang Zaitun looked at me anxiously. It seemeed that he said, “What can I say, Boi, that is the truly meaning of you.” However, I appreciated his honesty. It was pathetic, I have overvalued about myself. Since the truth was, I only a man with a dangdut face, not even more than that.77 [My translation]
76 Bapak Flo adalah orang hebat, seseorang yang amat terpelajar. Ia adalah insinyur lulusan terbaik dari Technische Universiteit Delf di Holland dari Fakultas Werktuiqbouwkunde, Maritieme techniek & technische materiaalwetenschappen, yang artinya kurang lebih: jago teknik. (LP: 47) 77Aku sendiri, tersipu-sipu mengumpul-ngumpulkan percaya diri yang remuk berserakan. Bang Zaitun memandangku prihatin, apa boleh buat, Boi, itulah maknanya. Namun, aku menghargai jujurnya. Menyedihkan, rupanya selama ini aku telah menilai diri terlalu tinggi, overvalued. Lelaki berwajah dangdut, demikianlah kebenaran yang hakiki tentangku, tak lebih tak kurang. Andrea Hirata, Maryamah Karpov: Mimpi-mimpi Lintang (Yogyakarta: Bentang Pustaka, 2008) p. 79; All subsequent references to this work, abbreviated MK, will be used in this thesis with pagination only.
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Ikal is confident of his achievements that is different from the natives. He thinks people will treat him differently. However, Bang Zaitun treats him the same as he was before, a Belitungese with a dangdut78 face. Thus, he plays dangdut music at his car as a welcoming song for Ikal. No matter what he has been through before he came home, it does not influence Bang Zaitun’s judgments about him. He is truly a Belitungese.
However, Ketua Karmun or the village leader gives different judgment.
Ikal represents a well-educated native, thus Ketua Karmun asks him to arrange a welcoming party for the first dentist in their village:
That afternoon, Ketua Karmun visited my mother’s house. Unfortunately, his intention was not welcoming me, but he wanted to discuss something that he described as: an important enhancement that will free our village from jahiliah era. “Ikal, I give you an honour to become the coordinator of a welcoming party for the new dentist arrival.” Ketua Karmun showed that he was giving order than asking. “You have just graduated, your knowledge is still fresh, do not under estimate yourself by rejecting this honourable duty, do you understand?!” 79 [My translation]
Ketua Karmun sees him as the right representative for the native who is no longer jahiliah. Therefore, he becomes the role model who will free them from the jahiliah era to the enlightenment era. Jahiliah is an Arabic word. The root of that term is jahala, which means “to be ignorant or stupid, to act stupidly”.80 Ketua
Karmun uses that word to show the traditional life of the society. Then, if referring to the root of the word, it confirms stupidity because they are backward.
78A genre of Indonesian music that combines elements of Arab, Malay, and Hindi music.
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Thus, Ikal’s struggle on pursuing his ambitious dream makes him having different achievement with mostly people in his society. In my opinion this is what he calls as life that can be proud of, life that is different from mostly native who belong to the lowest class and backward. Furthermore, that is also how he confronts inequality by neglecting the natives’ lifestyle, which is marked as jahiliah or backward.
He has confronted his social rank by having different lifestyle from mostly natives. He leaves his hometown to pursue better education. Studying abroad is the peak of his life achievement that makes him into well-educated person. As has been showed by Ketua Karmun’s statement, “You have just graduated, your knowledge is still fresh, do not underestimate yourself by rejecting this honourable duty, …”81 [My translation] He sees Ikal as a fresh graduate and the right person to ease backward era in their village. He is different from mostly natives who are not well-educated and conventional.
Ketua Karmun affirms that Ikal represents a well-educated native because of his educational background. Hence, it creates a distance and exclusiveness between Ikal and mostly natives in his environment. He has something to be proud of in his life, namely becoming the educated person and having overseas experience. Those achievements are different from mostly natives, but similar to the company staffs as the highest class. Therefore, that is the way he confronts inequality, by gaining different achievements with mostly natives and following the company staffs’ lifestyle.
81"Kau baru pulang sekolah, ilmumu masih panas, jangan rendahkan dirimu sendiri dengan menampik tugas mulia ini, …" (MK: 99).
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Different lifestyle of the haves and the have-nots influence the natives on defining themselves and confronting their poor condition. Following the haves as the highest class becomes the choice to avoid getting entangled in poverty web.
That is the way inequality as the product of modern colonialism constructs the natives’ attitude by defining themselves as the poor and the lowest class and then confronting it by following the highest class lifestyle.
Conclusion
The main character portrays inequality in relation to modern colonialism practice through economic restructuring and constructing the attitude of the native. Inequality is portrayed through the economic imbalance as the consequence of restructuring the economic of the colonized. Economic control is one of modern colonialism ways on producing inequality. Inequality that is emerged is to strengthen the colonial domination through class system. Class system divides society into the highest and the lowest class based on their wealth.
By building the tin mining company, the colonizer influences the economies of the natives.
Different occupation and income level creates a gap between people who live in poverty as the lowest class and who live in prosperity as the highest class.
However, the economic strength is always controlled by the company people, and the native is always become the oppressed and the lowest class. The native should compete with the migrants after the Dutch left. The migrants are people who work at the company, the Javanese; and who were ever being brought by the Dutch to work, the Chinese. Therefore, PN Timah as the extension of colonial rules dominates and controls the natives of Belitung. As a result of the domination is
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economic imbalance that produces inequality. The portrayal of inequality is represented in class system.
Inequality also influences the natives on construting their attitude. The natives’ attitudes are constructed to confront with different lifestyle between the haves as the highest class and the have-nots as the lowest class. The different lifestyles are captured in the condition of the settlement area, the table manners, the daily life and the education accessibility. The PN Timah people’s attitude becomes the role model of the haves lifestyle with their luxurious place to live, solemn table manners, the controller for the natives who work as a coolie, and also the privilege to gain appropriate education. The confrontation process is taking the native into a complex relationship. From the main character’s description, it is a kind of paradox, on one side he is mocking and complaining on the company’s discrimination attitude, but on the other side, he admits their lifestyle as more elegant, solemn and also powerful than the natives.
Thus, he defines himself as a poor village boy who belongs to the lowest class in Belitung. Then, to confront with his social class, he pursues education.
Since he knows the company staffs are well-educated people, pursuing education becomes his choice to avoid getting entangled in poverty web. Therefore, the main character follows the company people on shaping his “self” by achieving his ambitious dream to study in Europe and gain overseas experience. Then, gaining different achievements with the mostly native, where he is originally part of them, becomes his measure of life that can be proud of.
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CHAPTER IV
COLONIALIST IDEOLOGY IN THE LASKAR PELANGI QUARTET
After discussing inequality as the poor product of modern colonialism with which the natives’ attitude is shaped to confront, this chapter attempts to answer how The Laskar Pelangi Quartet reveals colonialist ideology. Said’s
Orientalism (1991) provides a way to reveal the main character’s view and attitude towards the society, himself and his relation to others which is influenced by the Western thinking, namely, the European thinking. Then, the way he expresses his view and attitude about the Belitungese as the natives and the company people, which is influenced by colonialist thinking, is explained in
Tyson’s concept on colonialist ideology.
For that reason, the discussion observes how the main character is described as harboring colonialist thinking. This chapter is divided into two sub chapters: the first is superiority versus inferiority, to dig out how the main character asserts his resistance to the natives’ tradition. The second is
Europeanized “native”, to find out how the main character is taking the West, particularly Europe, as his absolute pole.
A. Superiority Versus Inferiority
Seeing the condition of the natives, Ikal has potrayed the inequality in
Belitung from the perspective of Orientalism. He describes the company people lifestyle that he is familiar with by referring to Europe, such as through: their compound’s design, the table manners, and their education accessibility. His description shows how the natives as the colonized use the discourse which is
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generated within the society and cultures of the colonizers. Thus, colonialist thinking is manifested in the mind of the main character, as the native. The way he describes the native’s local values is based on the colonizers’ assumption of their own superiority, contrasted with the inferiority of the native.
Having the colonialist attitudes on seeing the native, Ikal has done othering process. Othering is not only to create the others but also to build their definite image as the result of naming in its process. Based on Spivak, debasement and wordling are two examples of othering.82 Therefore, how he, as the natives, asserts his resistance to Belitung-Malays’ tradition indicates debasement and wordling in othering process within the native. Since controlling a people’s culture is to control their tools of self-definition in relationship to others83, as part of the natives he performs himself in the opposite manner. The native’ culture does not become his tools of self-definition to define himself and his relationship to others.
When describing the origin of his name, Andrea Hirata, the author of the quartet, also implies his being different in relation to other Belitungese. He explains about the significant meaning of a name on their Belitung-Malays tradition:
In the other hemisphere, one might ask what’s in a name. For Malays like us living in the hinterlands of Belitong, names are highly significant. Names are everything to us. A name is associated with one’s religion and is considered a source of aura. Take Din, it comes from Dienul Islam: the Islamic religion. Nearly every male Malay villager has a name ending in—din. If there were something wrong with a child’s disposition, its name would be first thing to be investigated. My father closely held to that old wisdom.84
82Spivak gives those two examples of othering in a reading of Colonial Office dispatches between Captain Geoffrey Birch, his superior Major-General Ochterlony and his superior the Marquess of Hastings, Lord Moria. The first is a process of worlding whereby Captain Birch, riding across the Indian countryside, can be seen to be “consolidating the self of Europe”. The second is an example of debasement whereby the hill tribes are described by General Ochterlony in terms of “depravity”, “treachery”, “brutality”, and “perfidy”. (Spivak, p.253-255 ) 83Thiong’o, p.16 84 Andrea Hirata, Edensor (Yogyakarta: Bentang Pustaka, 2011) pp.19-20; All subsequent references to this work, abbreviated EDE, will be used in this thesis with pagination only.
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Therefore, a name is related to someone’s religion and source of aura. The same is true with the main character’s name.
Ikal’s father who believes in that tradition, named his son Aqil Barraq
Badruddin. The meaning of that name is explained at length:
“Aqil, in Arabic, means wisdom. Barraq means shining brilliantly, it’s from the formal language used in Yemen,” said my Mom. Badruddin, or full moon of religion, is used because Malay boys’ names always end with -din. (EDE: 19)
However, the name does not represent his behavior because he becomes a naughty boy. He states, “Aqil Barraq Badruddin was a little too weighty for me.
The name just didn’t fit. The bearer of a name like that would have to have an elegant personality, and I clearly did not.” (EDE: 23)
Because his father believes in the important meaning of names, he decides to change the name into: Wadudh. It refers to his father adoration to people wearing uniforms that represents smart people. Moreover, that name is a title to honor the most highly ranked nomads in Samia. Ikal’s parents have a hope, by using that name, that their son will become a model santri, a religious Moslem.
Nevertheless, he is mocking that by saying, “Wadudh? Must be those nomads who wear kafiyeh and like to drink goats milk!” (EDE: 25)
Furthermore, his naughty behavior does not change. Conversely, he becomes naughtier:
Unfortunately, the wise, skilled nomad of Samia transformed into a robber. Not long after being given the grand name, I lead a gang of students in raiding the tambul, a between-meal snack that the community would provide the mosque during Ramadan. “Chief Wadudh,” that’s what my classmates called me. (EDE: 25)
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By having a name which is based on Belitung people’s tradition, he becomes a naughty child and makes his parents worry. Then, his father has completely drained to deal with his son’s behavior and to choose a good name for him.
Then, his father lets him to find his own name: “Alright boy, just pick yourself a name …” (EDE: 30). Surprisingly, Ikal chooses an Italian name that he finds from Current magazine, as he says:
I was in the middle of leafing through Current magazine. In one of the columns, I read some old news about how the Italian police had some trouble with a crazy lady who had climbed up a telephone pole and threatened to cast herself off if Elvis Presley didn’t reply to her letters. Her name was Andrea Galliano. “Father, how about Andrea?” (EDE: 30-31)
A Western name that does not show his origin as Belitung-Malays becomes his choice. His mother opposes his choice by saying, “Aih! What kind of name is that? That’s not the name of a Muslim!” (EDE: 31) Her disagreement represents the importance of a name for Belitung-Malay. For the male, they usually put the word –din at the end of their name as the representation of their identity as a
Moslem.
However, his father who already gave up on his son lets him use the
Western name. Moreover, he also tries to convince his wife that Ikal choice is a good idea and persuades her by saying, “Yah Ni, there are no Malay names like that. That’s a Western name. They don’t care about names and anyway that one’s for a girl.” (EDE: 31) Since she really wants to have a daughter, finally she gives a hint sigh of agreement. Therefore, his name becomes Andrea whereas Ikal, is his nickname because of his curly hair style.
His father always backs him with his choice of a Western name. However, his naughty behavior when he has Malay names represents his resistance towards
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the tradition. Since he has choosen Andrea as his name from the Italian name of
Elvis Presley’s fans, Andrea Galliano, his behaviour changes:
I studied the Qur’an with devotion. Taikong’s glasses slipped down, his jaw dropped. He hurried over to meet my parents. “I’ve never seen Ikal act like this. Pak Cik, he’s so calm now. What did you do with him?” My father looked surprised, beaming. My mother looked dumbfounded. “Most holy God! Dear, can you believe it?” My mother was still floored. “So what do you say about that Italian name!” (EDE: 36)
His father believes that the changes of his son’s behaviour are because of his new
Italian name.
From the narrative of the main character’s name origin, it is an example of debasement whereby the tradition of choosing a name is described as a fruitless attempt to build children’s positive character. It is proven, for he becomes a naughty boy when his father gives him a name based on Malay people tradition.
Although the meaning of the names that have been given reflects positive characters, his behaviour is the opposite.
Nevertheless, actually his mother still holds on the Malay tradition on giving his son a name. Ikal never realizes it, until his mother tells him when she gets really mad with his attitudes:
“Repeat your last name fastly, fifth times!” I felt astonished, but it was impossible to defy her because she had got really mad. “Hirata, hirata, hirata, hirata ……” “Faster!” “Hirata hirata hirata hirata hirata.” She threatened me, I was afraid that she would threw the pestle and mortar stone. “More faster!!” “Hirata hirata ahirat ahirat ahirat.” Awkward, after I repeated my last name faster, miraculously it turned into akhirat. It was strange. “So, do you hear it?! That is the meaning of your name. I tried hard to arrange your name. Hence, you will always remember akhirat, the place where you will return someday after your life in this world, the immortal place!” 85 [My translation]
85“Coba kau ucapkan cepat-cepat nama belakangmu itu, lima kali!"
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Therefore, despite his resistance of a Malay name, his mother actually gives him a name relates to their religion as Belitung-Malay’s tradition believes. She changes the word –din as the usual ending of a name for a male Malay Moslem identity into another word. She takes akhirat to represent the religion and modifies it to hirata. His mother does not want his son to forget his Moslem faith and his origin as a Belitung-Malay. Thus, she modifies it by using the word akhirat, as part of
Moslem’s believe about the place after the death for all human who are mortal to replace –din.
As for Ikal, he thinks that the name Hirata has different meaning from his mother’s intention. He tells his contemplation:
[…] For many years I had been carrying the name Hirata, but in this day I understood the real meaning of that name. Before today, I assumed that I got that name as my last name because my parents wanted me to be a smart person, like the Japanesse. Otherwise, Hirata was a catchy name, an advanced and modern one. I often guessed that it was taken from a Japanesse hero, an art maestro, […] Unfortunately, it was the same as my judgement about my face when I just arrived and rode home on Bang Zaitun’s car. My judgement about my name was also overvalued. Realizing akhirat closely attached to my name, my heart pounded.86 [My translation]
The criteria of overvaluing are related to advanced, modern, and well-educated taste as the values. Therefore, although he admits himself as part of the natives, he
Aku merasa heran, tapi tak mungkin Ibu kubantah karena ia sudah muntab mustajab. “Hirata, hirata, hirata, hirata…….” "Kurang cepat!" "Hirata hirata hirata hirata hirata." Ibu bersikap mengancam, aku takut alu lumping batu melayang. "Kurang cepat!!" "Hirata hirata ahirat ahirat ahirat." Ganjil, rupanya setelah diucapkan cepat-cepat, nama belakangku hirata itu secara ajaib berubah menjadi akhirat, aneh betul. "Nah, kau dengar itu!?Itulah kalau kau mau tahu arti namamu. Aku bersusah-susah mengarang namamu hirata agar kau selalu ingat pada akhirat!" (MK: 280-281) 86Sepanjang hari aku melamunkan kejadian dimarahi Ibu pagi tadi. Puluhan tahun aku menyandang nama Hirata, baru hari ini aku mafhum maksudnya. Selama ini aku selalu menduga nama itu dilekatkan pada nama depanku karena orangtuaku ingin aku pintar seperti orang Jepang. Atau karena Hirata bagus kedengarannya, tak ketinggalan zaman, modern. Sering pula kusangka nama itu diambil dari seorang Jepang pahlawan, seniman maestro, atlet pencetak rekor, seorang ilmuwan discoverer yang menaklukkan Kutub Utara atau seorang inventor—penemu obat tangkal bengek, seorang dokter hebat, atau professor penemu magic jar, alat penetas telur, peninggi badan, atau paling tidak pencegah botak. Rupanya, seperti sangkaku akan wajahku dulu, anggapanku akan nama pun telah mengalami overvavalued. Menyadari akhirat lekat dalam namaku, begitu dekat, aku berdebar-debar. (MK: 283)
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does not want to be included on their tradition. His judgement about his last name shows his resistance of the name based on the natives’ tradition.
It is ironic that his debasement to resist from the negative effect of the natives’ tradition disproves by his own mother. A woman who never goes abroad and only gets basic education in Belitung, but brilliantly modifies the Belitung’s value on giving a name. Despite the non-existence of –din at the end of her son’s name, she chooses akhirat and modifies it into hirata. No matter what he does, whether it is a good or bad thing, he is truly part of Belitung-Malays people. That is the way his mother reminds him about his origin by giving him “Hirata” as his last name, his origin as the Belitungese who is a Malay and a Moslem.
Another debasement is reflected when Ikal observes negative attitude of the natives according to the life of young people Belitung-Malays. When he is in senior high school, he finds that young people in his environment give him bad influence towards his youth spirit to struggle. Since that time, he has built his ambitious dream to study at the greatest alma mater, Sorbonne University, in
France, and he works hard to pursue it. Conversely, he also realizes the impossibility to reach it because of his poor condition. Therefore, it makes him to be more realistic.
Supporting that view, he judges the life of mostly Malays teenagers as follows:
Living in the Malays teen’s environment, which toiled endlessly, and heard their view about future, and then saw how they finally ended up, were gnawing at me gradually. Those affected me on judging my situation realistically. However, I never realized that being realistic was a dangerous attitude, as it had a linear relation to pessimistic thinking. Therefore, being realistic often blocked people’s hopes.87 [My translation]
87Berada dalam pergaulan remaja Melayu yang seharian membanting tulang, mendengar pandangan mereka tentang masa depan, dan melihat bagaimana mereka satu per satu berakhir, lambat laun mempengaruhiku untuk menilai situasiku secara realistis. Namun, tak pernah kusadari sikap realistis sesungguhnya mengandung bahaya sebab ia memiliki hubungan linear dengan perasaan pesimis. Realistis tak lain adalah pedal rem yang sering menghambat harapan orang.” (SP: 144)
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He thinks that Malays teenagers’ environment supports him to alter from being realistic into pessimistic person. To be precise, he judges them as: toil endlessly but end up without future and without hope. Then, he realizes that their plight of poor condition will take them into pessimistic thinking about their future.
His judgment is a debasement whereby the life of Malays youth is presented as without future and hope. In my opinion, Ikal concludes the youth of
Malays is without future and hope, because he makes his ambitious dream as the measurement of better life and life that to be proud of. On the contrary, for the
Malays youth, the hard work to fulfill their primary need while supporting their parents’ economic burden is a better life that also to be proud of since they can support their family and help their parents. Moreover, hard work is the positive character of the Malays teenagers. Nevertheless, Ikal sees their ending is not better and cannot be proud of based on his view of life on future and hope.
Those two examples of debasement show othering process that the main character has conducted. He reduces the value of Belitung-Malays tradition on choosing names and the life of the youth. It is to confirm his choice to resist the value of the natives’ tradition. Emphasizing the negative effects and ignoring the wisdom of the local values are his way to reduce the value of Belitung-Malays tradition.
Another way of othering in this case is a process of wordling whereby
Ikal, choosing Andrea from an Italian name, can be seen “consolidating the self of
Europe”. Europe is seen as the centre and the absolute pole of address for him to pick a name for a Belitung-Malay boy that transforms him into a good child, for
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using a Malay name has made him becoming a naughty child. When he has an
Italian name, which is referring to the European names, he transforms into a good boy.
Hence, it indicates his side to consolidate the self of Europe, when unintentionally devalues the meaningful sense of Malay name. It shows that
European self-construction of the natives does not easily diminish along with the formal independence of the country. As Said states that “Orientalism spills over into the realm of self-construction”88, which is Eurocentric by consolidating the self of Europe.
Also about his aspiration that is well supported by his teacher in the senior high school. The teacher tells him about the luxurious and glorious Europe with their scientists who are able to change civilization. It also consolidates the strength of Europe as the centre of culture, knowledge and even civilization.
Then, Ikal crystallizes it deeply on his mind, as he admits:
At that time, I, Arai, and Jimbron crystallized our great hope in one ambitious statement: study in French was our ideal! We wanted to take a step on the sacred altar Sorbonne, wanted to explore Europe till Africa. Later, these expectations were haunting us everyday. Our aspiration was so high.89 [My translation]
Therefore, he sees the youth in his environment as young people without future and hope because they work hard for nothing. It is nothing because for Ikal, his measurement about having better and proud life is directed to the glorious Europe.
Therefore, othering is his process on confessing the natives’ inferiority which also admits the colonizers’ superiority, especially Europe. As part of the natives, he opposes the local values because it does not support his intention to
88 Said, p.12 89Pada saat itulah aku, Arai, dan Jimbron mengkristalisasikan harapan agung kami dalam satu statement yang sangat ambisius: cita-cita kami adalah kami ingin sekolah ke Prancis! Ingin menginjakkan kaki di altar suci almamater Sorbonne, ingin menjelajah Eropa sampai ke Afrika. Harapan ini selanjutnya menghantui kami setiap hari. Begitu tinggi cita-cita kami. (SP: 75)
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have better and proud life. Through confessing his origin, he admits himself as part of the inferior natives with their culture.
As a result, his resistance to the natives’ culture shows his attitude to fight against his own origin for his better hope and future. Referring to Thiong’o that
“to control a people’s culture is to control their tools of self-definition in relationship to others,”90 the main character uses the colonizers’ assumptions as the tool to define his self and Belitung-Malays people. Thus, he finds that the natives’ culture is inferior. Then, as part of the natives he does not want to be part of the inferior culture which is defined as conventional, pessimistic as well as without hope and future. To confront that inferiority, he asserts his resistance to the natives’ culture.
B. Europeanized “Native”
Ikal’s resistance to the natives’ culture makes him sweep aside the local values and behaves in quite the opposite way. On his view, natives’ culture does not support him to liberate from the threat of inferiority. By seeing the company people, he includes himself as a poor village boy and others. Moreover, how the company people treat the natives, put them as the oppressed. They are the lowest position in the company and the poorest in the island. Then, to free himself from the characteristics of the natives as the lowest clas, he needs a role model to motivate him. Thus, Ikal tries to find his guidance to reveal his inferiority.
1. Impression and Adoration
There are two processes that Ikal has passed on his journey for choosing
Europe as his absolute pole, namely impression and adoration. In The Laskar
Pelangi Quartet, Ikal knows about Europe from a novel. It happens when A Ling,
90Thiong’o, p. 16
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his first love in elementary school, leaves him. Then, she gives him a novel If
Only They Could Talk by James Herriot. Edensor village in England is the setting of the novel. He is enormously impressed by the description of Edensor. Curing his broken heart, he reads it and imagines himself in Edensor:
Miraculously, I was suddenly cured. I had a new love right inside my worn out bag. That love was Edensor. After 480 hours, 37 minutes, and 12 seconds of mourning my loss of A Ling, I decided to stop feeling sorry for myself and dwelling on my first love. (TRT: 271) His imagination puts Edensor as an escape solution when he feels desperate with his life struggle:
Whenever faced with uncertainty, I often ran to the most beautiful place I knew—the one I had discovered in childhood when an enormous love attacked me for the very first time. The place is a beautiful village with flower gardens surrounded by grey stone fences and trails in the woods shaded by plum tree branches. Oh, Edensor, the nirvana of my imagination.[…]That village is the cure for my broken heart. The more difficult my life became, the more frequently I re-read Herriot’s book. I often visited Edensor in my dreams. (TRT: 420-421)
By imagining Edensor, he gains a positive spirit because his real life in his own country is disappointing, as he states:
Poverty, my lifelong friend. We had been close buddies ever since I was in my mother’s womb. I was a poor baby, a poor child, a poor teenager, and now a poor adult. I was as accustomed to poverty as I was to taking my daily bath.[…] Living life alone, ignored, working ten-hour days, and falling within the 20-30 year old age range was my demographic. But my psychographic identity was: a lonely man desperately starving for attention. …. The world didn’t care about me and the country only knew me through my nine-digit employment number at the state-owned postal company: 967275337. (TRT: 421-422)
Through the novel that he reads he makes Edensor the best place for him to run away from reality that he does not want to face. By imagining Edensor, he gains spirit to struggle with all matters that he usually faces off.
Then, when he enters senior high school, he meets Mr. Balia, his teacher.
He gains some knowledge about European superiority from him. Mr. Balia also encourages him about living a life and shaping identity. He relates it to people’s life mosaics:
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“What we do in life…,” said Pak Balia with theatrical flair,” …echoes in eternity…!! Every occurrence in this universe is pieces of mosaic. It spreads everywhere, extends in time and spaces. Yet, gradually it will unite into configuration as Antoni Gaudi’s montage. Those mosaics will shape who you are when you are grown up. Then, anything that you do in this life, will echo in eternity[…]“Hence, roam about this earth to find your mosaic!” 91 [My translation]
“Echo in eternity” is one of the intentions of life. By doing something in life, it will make someone become unforgettable person in the world. Then, he completes his speech with these sentences:
Explore the glorious of Europe till the exotic Africa. Discover the diamond of culture till France. Take a step on the sacred altar of the greatest alma mater of all time: Sorbonne. Pursue the paths of Sartre, Louis Pasteur, Montesquieu, Voltaire. Right there, people study science, literature, and art until they change civilization …92 [My translation]
Those sentences explain about the way to reach the “echo in eternity”. It can be achieved by exploring, discovering and studying, in Europe since they are
Europeans, who are able to change civilization. That is another way how his teacher promotes the superiority of Europe to Ikal. Therefore, his teacher’s statements influence him to begin a journey and to shape his life mosaics. He crystallizes it as his aspiration and an ambitious dream. Then, he wishes to make it comes true.
2. Pursuing Education
In relation to how the colonizers impart their values to the colonized,
Ashcroft et al. argues that education becomes a technology of colonialist subjectification in two ways: firstly, establishing the normative values claimed as universal, achieved through what is taught, how it is taught and secondly,
91“What we do in life…,” kata Pak Balia teatrikal,”…echoes in eternity…!! Setiap peristiwa di jagat raya ini adalah potongan-potongan mozaik. Terserak disana sini, tersebar dalam rentang waktu dan ruang-ruang. Namun, perlahan-lahan ia akan bersatu membentuk sosok seperti montase Antoni Gaudi. Mozaik-mozaik itu akan membangun siapa dirimu dewasa nanti. Lalu apa pun yang kau kerjakan dalam hidup ini, akan bergema dalam keabadian…“Maka berkelanalah di atas muka bumi ini untuk menemukan mozaikmu!”(SP: 72) 92Jelajahi kemegahan Eropa sampai ke Afrika yang eksotis. Temukan berliannya budaya sampai ke Prancis. Langkahkan kakimu di atas altar suci almamater terhebat tiada tara: Sorbonne. Ikuti jejak-jejak Sartre, Louis Pasteur, Montesquieu, Voltaire. Disanalah orang belajar science, sastra, dan seni hingga mengubah peradaban…(SP: 73)
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representing the colonized to themselves as inherently inferior, barbarous, and uncivilized beings.93As Anderson argues colonial educational policies with their purpose is to create Europeanized native.94 Such is what Macaulay envisiones
Europeanized native through the Indians as being,”a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinion, in morals and in intellect.”95
Europeanized native is included in hybridity in Loomba as intellectual hybridities.96 Rather than physically, Anderson then completes Loomba’s term with “mental miscegenation” 97 that is happened through colonial educational policies. Europeanized native in the context of hybridity shows that the natives can mimic but never exactly reproduce European values. Colonial “hybridity” in this context is a strategy to stabilize their domination through the colonizers’ cultural purity. In relation to identity, Europeanized “native” is a kind of identity that is envisioned in the main character as a postcolonial Belitungese who physically is a Belitungese, but imitates the European values. Thus, hybridity shows that the relationship between the colonizers and the colonized is ambivalent because the colonial subjects never simply and completely oppose to the colonizers. In short, they have been contaminated by the colonizers’ values.
However, Anderson’s term on Europeanized native is not adequate to explain the complexity of the Belitungese identity and hybridity process in The
Laskar Pelangi Quartet. Colonialism happens in Belitung is not only because of
93Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin, The Post-Colonial: Studies Reader (London and New York: Routledge, 1995) p. 426 94Anderson relates his argument to mental miscegenation through Englilsh educational system in India under the British colonization, as he states: “Parliament allocated 100,000 rupees a year for the promotion of native education, both ‘oriental’ and ‘Western’. In 1823, a Committee of Public Instruction was set up in Bengal; and in 1834, Thomas Babington Macaulay became president of this committee.” (Anderson, p. 91) 95Thomas Babington Macaulay as the president of the committee introduced English educational system in his notorious “Minute on Education” and he stated that statement. ( Thomas Macaulay, “Minute on Indian Education” in Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin, The Post-Colonial: Studies Reader (London and New York: Routledge, 1995)) p. 430 96See Loomba, pp. 145-146 97Ibid.
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the Dutch colonization, as the representation of European colonialism. It is also the colonial extension which is done by the Indonesian government through PN
Timah as the state-owned company. Then, it is represented by Java as the centre of the Indonesian government that controls the company. Therefore, Ikal as the natives of Belitung passes two displacements: the first is within the country, particularly in Java and the second is outside the country, especially in Europe.
Those two displacements influence his hybridity process for becoming a
Europeanized “native”.
Thus, after Ikal gains the adoration and impression on Europe from his teacher in senior high school and makes his decision to pursue education, he leaves Belitung. Then, to gain the best education he goes to the “centre” as the place which provides qualified education, namely: Java and Europe. He decides to roam around Java to make his dream comes true after graduates from the senior high school: “We wanted to visit Java, as the prosperous island and to speculate on our destiny.”98[My translation] Java becomes his choice because he knows that mostly PN Timah’s staffs are Javanese. They graduate from excellent universities in Java and also from abroad. In addition, the centre of Indonesian government as the owner of PN Timah is also in Java, in particular Jakarta.
Java is seen as the colonial extension through PN Timah. The company exploits the Belitung’s natural resources and the Belitung people who work as
PN’s coolies. Furthermore, their prosperity as the coolie is being ignored. Thus, colonialism happens not only because of the expansion from other countries, but in its development it also happens within the country. In The Laskar Pelangi
Quartet, colonialism occurs because PN Timah as a state-owned company
98Kami ingin mengunjungi Pulau Jawa yang gemah ripah loh jinawi itu dan berspekulasi dengan nasib kami. (SP: 216)
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controls and dominates the natives of Belitung. The company gives privilege only to the executives and staffs. Hence, they become the one who live as a wealthy people with their exclusive and complete facilities in Belitung. As for the
Belitungese, the company’s policy discriminates them. They do not have the same acces to the company’s facilities, such as: the settlement area and the PN School.
Ikal, who is familiar with that reality, decides to experience Java himself to pursue education. Going to Java becomes his way to pursue education as well as to shape his life mosaics.
Going to Java, Jakarta becomes his target. However, he is stranded in
Bogor. Fortunately, he rents a room near Bogor Agricultural University. Living near students’ community provokes him to struggle more to gain his dream:
“When they talked about calculus, […], my great yearning for pursuing education became stronger”99[My translation].
After a bitter struggle to get proper job to survive, Ikal becomes a civil servant as a postal worker at the state-owned postal company in Bogor. He is also able to continue his study in University of Indonesia, as he states:
Along my working experiences since I was in second grade of junior high school, became a postman was the peak of my career. Although my division was mail sorter and I did not like it, but I was a civil servant.100 On the next year, I was accepted at Indonesia University. I adapted my job schedule to suit my lecture’s schedule.101 [My translation]
To compare his father profession with his profession, he is better based on the income level. His education accessibility also improves, since he enrols at one of the prestigious universities in Indonesia. For a poor village boy who defines himself as a poor village boy, those achievements are incredible. Moreover,
99Ketika mereka bicara tentang kalkulus,[…] rinduku akan bangku sekolah membuncah. (SP: 235) 100Selama pengalamanku bekerja, sejak kelas dua SMP, menjadi pegawai Pos adalah puncak karierku. Meskipun hanya sebagai tukang sortir, dan ini tak kusukai, tapi aku adalah seorang pegawai jawatan! (SP: 243) 101Tahun berikutnya aku diterima di UI. Aku mengatur jadwal shift menyortir surat sesuai dengan kesibukan kuliah. (SP: 246)
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University of Indonesia is famous as one of the best universities in Indonesia.
Hundreds of qualified students compete to enrol to that prestigious university.
Thus, as the natives of Belitung, he proves his quality by going to Java and enters one of the prestigious universities in Indonesia.
His identity as a Belitungese is also influenced by the Javanese, particularly as well-educated person. It is shown when he meets his friend in senior high school, Nurmala, who also studies in University of Indonesia. They talk about his cousin, Arai, which she is curious about:
“Oughh, integrity and loyality! What can I expect more from a man?” “Do you mean, Arai? The most eligible bachelor in the whole world! Is that what you mean, Ikal?”102 [My translation] […] Nurmala became flirtatious,”Okey, but don’t say gue sends regards.” Gue? A Malays said gue. The demand to melt with the place where we live was incredible. Some people might lose their identity.103 [My translation]
When Nurmala uses the word “gue”, Ikal said that she might lose her identity as
Belitung-Malays. The word “gue” means I. It is from Betawi dialect.104 Betawi is one of the local people in Jakarta. However, he does not give any explanation when both of them use English which is shown in italic in the above quotation.
When the Belitung-Malays use English along with Indonesian language,
Ikal does not see it as a sign of losing identity. It is different from his statement on using the word “gue” which is part of local language in Indonesia that may take someone to lose his/her identity. Going to Java, the hybrid with the Betawi dialect as part of Indonesian language might endanger the Belitung-Malays identity.
However, using English does not threaten their identity. It shows that he becomes the colonial subjects because, as the ex-colonized, he thinks that his own language
102“Oughh, integritas dan loyalitas! What can I expect more from a man?” , “Arai, gitu? The most eligible bachelor in the whole world! Begitukah maksudmu, Ikal?” (SP: 248) 103Nurmala menjadi genit,”Oke, tapi jangan bilang ada salam dari gue. Gue? Anak Melayu bilang gue. Sungguh besar tuntutan pergaulan. Beberapa orang sampai harus kehilangan identitas. (SP: 249) 104
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cannot “voice” or represent the image of well-educated person, and then he prefers using English to Malay language.
Taking a step to Java is a part of his journey to shape his life mosaics as well as shape his identity, as Mr. Balia says: “Those mosaics will shape who you are when you are grown up. Then, anything that you do in this life will echo in eternity”105 [My translation]. Therefore, his decision to go to Java is a way to define his “self” by shaping his life mosaics. However, going to Java is not his ambitious dream, which is to study to Europe. Java becomes his stepping stone to reach his dream.
Thus, despite his achievements in Java, he feels that his life is still a failure:
That was my life now. My future was unclear and I no longer had any notion of what it would hold. Everything was uncertain. The one thing I knew for sure was that I was a failure. I cursed myself every time I had to stand in the post office’s yard on the 17th day of every month for the Indonesian Government Employee Corps flag ceremony. (TRT: 423)
Those achievements become nothing for him since he has his own ambitious dream. An ambitious dream that is inspired by Mr. Balia is his measurement of better life. For that reason, he decides to join a graduate scholarship program from
The European Union.
He studies hard and feels excited to get the scholarship: “I have to get that scholarship. There is no other option. I have to get it! Those were the words that rang in my heart everytime I stood in front of the mirror. That scholarship was a ticket out of a life I couldn’t be proud of.” (TRT: 435). Neglecting his previous achievement and saying that to get the scholarship is a ticket to gain a life, which
105 Mozaik-mozaik itu akan membangun siapa dirimu dewasa nanti. Lalu apa pun yang kau kerjakan dalam hidup ini, akan bergema dalam keabadian…(SP: 72)
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he can be proud of, supports his ambitious dream. It also confirms that his criteria of proud life are defined by studying abroad.
The effect of education, which is referred to Gramsci in Loomba, is a
“domination by consent”.106 It means willingly being controlled through what and how the colonialist values are taught. Through Mr. Balia’s speech in his class about the glorious progress of Europe, it becomes the way to establish the normative values claimed as universal. It refers to European ideas, ideals and experiences. Although his intention is to motivate his students to struggle and to gain better future, but for Ikal, it gives him deep impression about the superiority of Europe. Then, he becomes more convinced about European superiority.
Beginning with the impression from his previous experience about Europe before he enters senior high school, it is improving through his teacher’s speech in the senior high school. Thus, it proves that education becomes a technology of colonialist subjectification through Mr. Balia’s way on motivating his students.
By establishing the superiority of Europe, which also means convincing the natives’ inferiority, he creates a Europeanized “native”. A Belitung-Malay boy who reinforces the European values as universal and normal. Referring to
Thiong’o, the main character’s attitudes show the way colonialism imposes its control towards natives on defining and representing their culture. Then, based on his concept of decolonizing the mind, the main character does not challenge the colonialist values but maintains it in his mind. He adores Europe with her values and takes it as his role model.
Afterwards, his adoration makes him admit the European superiority. His reinforcement improves when he achieves his ambitious dream. He joins the
106Loomba, p. 30
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European Union Scholarship for a master program, which he says as: “The scholarship offered a sort of turning point for my life, the kind of chance that possible for people who always try to find themselves.” (EDE: 46) Fortunately, he is accepted in Sorbonne University in France, which happens to be Mr. Balia’s example on his speech. That becomes the opened gate for Ikal to interact with people from many countries.
Then, in his class at Sorbonne University, he states that his class is like a laboratory for human behavior and also a university of life because it consists of students from different countries. Besides Indonesia, where he comes from, other students come from India, Georgia, Britain, German, Holland, France and
America. Then, there are also Jewish and Chinese students. As he has stated, the scholarship is a chance for him to find himself. He begins to join the ranks of the students from different countries.
He includes himself in a group that he calls “The Pathetic Four”. The group is a place for everything that is marginalized. There are four students in that group. The leader is Pablo Arian Gonzales from Guadalajara, North America.
Three other members are Monahar Vikram Raj Chauduri Manooj from Punjab,
India, Ninochka Stronovsky from Georgia and Ikal from Belitung, Indonesia. His view about all of the students’ character and traits is presented in a table in the appendix.107
The students’ attitude which is shown in the table represents the country that they come from as well as their characters. In addition, Ikal says:
Great nations are nations that honor their heroes, and great nations pass on that disposition to their citizens. … Dig a hole, fill a hole, just like the character of their motherlands. (EDE: 103)
107See, Appendix, p. 102
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“Great nations pass on that disposition to their citizens,” therefore students who have good intelligence and achievement come from great nations. On the contrary, for other nations that “dig a hole, fill a hole” are group of students who are always “late, messy, uneasy and trying frantically to catch up”. (EDE: 94)
From Ikal’s description about students in his class, it shows his view about people from Britain, German, Holland, France, America, India, and also the
Jewish and Chinese. In relation to the colonialist ideology, Ikal shows the superiority of some Europeans and Americans intelligent students who have ideas to change the world. Meanwhile, some Asian students and those who come from a pocket of poverty in developing countries, are described as having the opposite quality, and their ideas pass the subjects albeit the minimum passing score. As a result, he becomes the member of “The Pathetic Four” and characterizes its members as the ones who are “always late, messy, uneasy and trying frantically to catch up”. This description is in line with the construction of the colonized inferiority as being savage, backward and undeveloped based on the colonizers' superiority assumptions.
However, there is one activity that can unite them all, i.e. pub crawling. As
Ikal states:
Although we always competed, it was only academically. After the deathly battle, we leapt into student’s café, Brigandi et Bougreesses. The meaning of the café’s name, more or less was Mr. Brigandi and his mistresses. It was located at the corner of Sorbonne. At that café we joked and laughed asone family. Every Friday, we tried to forget all of the lecture’s assignments and did the ritual, pub crawling. We crawled from one pub to another pub around Paris until three o’clock in the morning.108 [My translation]
108Meskipun kami saling bersaing tajam, semuanya hanya secara akademik. Setelah pertempuran habis-habisan, kami menghambur ke kafe mahasiswa Brigandi et Bougreesses, artinya kurang lebih Pak Brigandi dan gundik-gundiknya, di pojok Sorbonne. Disana kami bercanda laksana satu keluarga. Setiap Jumat, kami melupakan tugas kuliah yang menggunung dengan melakukan ritual pub crawling: merayap dari pub ke pub seputar Paris, sampai pukul tiga pagi. (EDI: 112)
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On pub crawling ritual, he also takes American and European as the leading students. Although they ignored the usual accepted ways of behaving which is always dictated in his life, they are outstanding students in class. Meanwhile he himself, a student who always tries to become obedience with a good character, is rarely able to be equal with them academically. He explains this through his own contemplation:
Sometimes, I was amazed at the Brit, the Yankee, the German and Holland friends. They were the leading pub crawler and really loved to get drunk. Got drunk since Friday evening and stayed sober on Monday morning. Most of their lifestylewas like a bohemian, such as nose piercing, a drug addict, trash metal music and unusual sex orientation. I never saw them study seriously. But, they got sterling achievements. Conversely, I…who lived appropriately based on Dasa Dharma Pramuka, Ten Commandments for the Indonesian Scout to behave, and obeyed my parents’ order, always studied hard and never forgot to drink milk, rarely got better grade than them.109 [My translation]
Therefore, whether it is academic or pub crawling, the superior is always the
European and American. Then, he considers rethinking about a proper “self” for him to be an outstanding student, since good behaviour based on his culture as a
Belitung natives does not really support him to be an excellent student in
Sorbonne.
Although Ikal concludes himself not as an outstanding student, he praises women warmly. He describes himself as a man who understands about women’s weaknesses and how to adore them. He tells about a British woman with her obnoxious behaviour, Naomi Stansfield who is also the prominent figure in
British students group:
The swing of her hips, every time when she entered the classroom, I regarded her intently. I knew that she enjoyed the way I regarded her fashion style. Because she walked by smiling cheerfully. … Others were curious because I could get along with her, who had obnoxious behavior. Whereas the secret is
109Sering aku heran. Kawan-kawanku The Brits, Yankee, kelompok Jerman, dan Belanda adalah para pub crawler kawakan. Mereka senang bermabuk-mabukan. Tak jarang mereka mabuk mulai Jumat sore dan baru sadar Senin pagi. Sebagian hidup seperti bohemian, mengaitkan anting di hidung, mencandu drugs, music trash metal, berorientasi seks ganjil, dan tak pernah terlihat tekun belajar, namun mereka sangat unggul di kelas. Aku yang hidup sesuai dengan tuntutan Dasa Dharma Pramuka, taat pada perintah orang tua, selalu belajar dengan giat dan tak lupa minum susu, jarang dapat melebihi nilai mereka. (EDI: 112)
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simple: compliment. For some women, compliment became the spot of their weakness. It was like an armpit hair in Benyamin’s movie Tarzan Kota that became his weakness. When it was shaved, the muscular strength of his body was gone.110 [My translation]
Moreover, an idol in his class chooses him to be her lover. She is Katja from
German. Many men are madly in love with her, but she makes her choice to Ikal.
Then, he willingly and proudly accepts her:
All this time I had only watched over people fight over Katja. … I myself couldn’t believe it, much less could they. I hadn’t joined in battle and yet had won the war. I was like a little child finding a diamond ring in a pack of watermelon seeds. Ah, this wasn’t real, wasn’t possible.” (EDE: 107- 108)
Ikal really enjoys having a love-relationship with Katja and knowing the jealous gaze from other men:
For weeks I worked on controlling myself around Katja. After I was pretty well trained, and along with the jealous gaze of MVRJ Manooj and Gonzales, I routinely bezooked her at her apartment, accompanying her as she watched Tom and Jerry cartoons, her favourite activity. We enjoyed the appeal of turning a friend into a lover, it turned out to be an exhilarating process. Moreover, she always called me my man, making me feel handsome, feel as if I had become a Celtic Knight in the highlander legend, protector of the farmers from villains. I called her, God I can’t believe it, baby. When I said it, my stomach felt like it was being tickled. (EDE: 110)
It becomes his victory as marginalized natives and as the member of the marginalized group. Although academically he is not an excellent student, he defeats all men from many countries on becoming the lover of the woman idol in his class, who is a European woman. She becomes the symbol of victory that shows the hybrid in the context of interbreeding between the “white” and the native Belitung-Malay since he is a Europeanized “native”.
Ikal’s displacement takes him into the “in-betwenness” condition. As a native who lives in Europe, he falls in cross-cultural exchange. Having his impression and adoration of Europe, his consciousness as a native is subjugated.
110Setiap melenggang ke dalam kelas, aku tahu, Stansfield menikmati tatapan kagumku pada pakaiannya. Ia tersenyum berbunga-bunga.…Banyak yang heran bagaimana aku bisa akrab dengan Stansfield yang sengak itu. Padahal rahasianya gampang, yaitu pujian.Pujian bagi wanita tertentu, tak ubahnya ketiak Benyamin Tarzan Kota, di situlah titik lemahnya. (EDI:97)
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His condition refers to hybridity as Bhabha states: “[..] it is the name for the strategic reversal of the process of domination through disavowal”. 111 There is not the “pure” and original identity because colonialism has contaminated the identity of the colonizers and also the colonized. Thus, the hybrid is between his origin as a Belitung-Malays and the European values that he adopts. He faces the two choices: for having a double consciousness or having his originality as a native. The main character’s hybridity shows the relationship between the colonizers and the colonized which is ambivalent. Since as the colonial subject, he never simply and completely opposes to the colonizer.
Meanwhile, although Ikal classifies himself as part of the marginalized and the inferior colonized when he studies in Sorbonne, he makes his ambitious dream comes true. Then, when he returns home, he is able to overvalue himself compared to other natives. He has seen the world outside Belitung and gained something to be proud of. Because of his experience of life and education outside
Belitung, he feels proud of himself. He assumes himself as a superior contrasted to mostly natives. This is the result of his hybridity process. He chooses to adopt the European values for becoming superior over the natives.
Furthermore, in completing his life mosaics based on Mr. Balia’s statement in the senior high school, he pursues his paths by following European scientists who are able to change civilization. By exploring, discovering, and studying in Europe to pursue the paths of people who are able to change civilization, are the way to achieve the echo in eternity. Since they could change civilization, their achievements always become a reminiscence of the world development.
111Bhabha, p. 112
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Therefore, the result of his journey on shaping his life mosaics is, becoming a Europeanized “native”. Physically, he is a Belitung-Malay, but ideologically he affirms the European ideas, ideals and experiences as the normal and the universal. It shows the hybrid life of the main character through “mental miscegenation” that he gets from his formal education. Furthermore, based on
Orientalism, the construction of European thinking about the East is controlled by a certain power to create and maintain the construction. Hence, the education becomes means of colonialist control.
3. The Journey Aftermath
Then, to show his achievements as a Europeanized “native” after his journey, he presents his Eurocentrism and modern consciousness to the natives.
According to Ashcroft et al. Eurocentrism is: “the conscious or unconscious process by which Europe and European cultural assumptions are constructed as, or assumed to be, the normal, the natural or the universal,”112 by which the main character’s attitude represents it.
He takes the Europe and European cultural assumptions as the standard on constructing his “self” and the natives. The following table shows the way Ikal constructs himself as the colonized native who wants to reveal his inferior characters by adopting the colonizers:
Based on: The colonized Ikal’s paths The colonizers
Technology Primitive Using science Highly advance
Culture Backward, Pursuing Civilized savages education
Relationship to the world At the margins Roaming about At the center outside Belitung
112Ashcroft et al., pp. 90-91
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As the embodiment of what Other, different Becoming well- Having the proper a human being should be educated and “self” applying modernity
Therefore, to construct his proper “self” and gain achievements that can be proud of, he chooses Europe as the absolute pole.
Following the European scientist who can change civilization through their achievements, modernity becomes the way to confirm his improvement as a
Europeanized “native”. Ashcroft et al. states that modernity has a relation to colonization:
The term “modernity” extended its influence throughout the world in the wake of European exploration and colonization. As European power expanded, the sense of the superiority of the present over the past became translated into a sense of superiority over those pre-modern societies and cultures that were ‘locked’ in the past—primitive and uncivilized peoples whose subjugation and ‘introduction’ into modernity became the right and obligation of European powers.113
The concept of modernity is therefore significant in the emergence of colonial discourse that Europe has constructed itself as the modern and has power to promote it. Modernity can also be characterized as the enlightenment of thought in which science and rationality are assumed to be the only possible course for modern consciousness.114Thus, the main character represents modern consciousness by using science and rationality as the way to master certain skills.
He says: “Science, friends, science, it could make something absolutely amazing.”115[My translation] He applies science on making a boat to find, A Ling, the woman he loves, and learning to play the violin. The boat makers in his village are usually people with talent and experience inherited from generation to generation. However, he is able to make a boat design by using scientific theories
113Aschcroft et al., p. 145 114Aschcroft et al, p. 146 115Ilmu, Kawan, sekali lagi ilmu, dapat membuat sesuatu jadi mencengangkan.(MK: 305)
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that he browses from the internet. Then, he succeeds in making the boat although he does not have the talent and experience needed beforehand. It becomes a celebration for the power of science:
I touched the hull of my boat gently. The flavour of seruk wood that had witnessed thousands full moon, exhaling one meaningfull tale: persistence and science could defeat everything.116 My boat and the swell surges in harmony. Then, hundreds of my supporter rejoiced spontaneously to see it.117 [My translation]
Aside of that, when he learns to play violin, he tries to understand by paying attention to the distance of each strings and fiddling techniques. He relates the violin to physics acoustic as a perspective to practice:
I disregarded the note pitch and its scale. I only wanted to proof Lintang’s hypothesis that all difficulties could be solved by changing a perspective. Just like my perspective on seeing my boat. Then, now, I saw a violin as an acoustic instrument with its strings that obeyed the physics acoustic’s rules. 118 [My translation]
Then, he practices regularly until he can play it well, as he says: “It was unbelieveable. I succeeded in playing the violin by using science as the technique to the musician technique, although for only one song.”119 [My translation] Thus, something which is assumed by the people in his hometown needs a talent and high experience, can be learned and mastered through effort dealing with the way of science. Then, his achievement on playing the violin is another triumph for science.
Afterward, Ikal also becomes the first patient for the dentist in puskesmas
(Public Health Center or a clinic) in his village. It is a remarkable event since going to the dentist for checking their teeth is a problematic matter for the
116Aku membelai lambung perahuku. Aroma kayu seruk yang telah menyaksikan beribu purnama, mengembuskan satu kisah padaku: bahwa semangat dan ilmu dapat menaklukkan apa pun. (MK: 355) 117Perahuku dan ombak, telah sepakat.Sontak ratusan pendukungku bersorak-sorak girang. (MK: 358) 118Aku tak ambil pusing akan tangga nada dan aku tak hirau dengan segala skala. Aku hanya ingin membuktikan hipotesis Lintang bahwa kesulitan apa pun dapat diatasi dengan mengubah cara pandang. Seperti caraku melihat perahu, bagiku sekarang, biola adalah benda akustik dengan senar-senar yang tunduk pada aturan fisika akustik. (MK: 297) 119Susah kupercaya, aku berhasil memainkan biola, walau hanya satu lagu, dengan cara ilmu bukan dengan cara musisi. (MK: 309)
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villagers. They usually go to a shaman to cure their toothache without opening their mouth and showing their teeth. Since in their tradition, letting others to see their teeth by opening their mouth is a taboo.
However, Ketua Karmun or the village leader, wants to convince the villagers to change their habit from shamanism dental treatment to modern medical treatment, as it states: “In order to convince the audiences about modern dental treatment, and to leave dental shaman, A Put, Ketua Karmun invited the villagers to the clinic.“120 [My translation] He also persuades Ikal for becoming the first patient. Ketua Karmun considers him as the right role model not only because of Ikal’s teeth cronic pain, but also because of his life experience and education that he gains outside his hometown,
He convinces Ikal that he can be the hero for modern medical treatment in their village, by mentioning Archimedes, Galileo, Columbus, Mary Currie,
Faraday, Gandhi and also the Moslem prophet, Muhammad SAW, whom he cites as his examples to persuade him. To strengthen his persuasion, he says: “You can be like them, Kal. If you want to go to the dentist, you will become the pioneer for modern medical treatment in our village, you can be a hero!”121 [My translation]
This becomes Ikal’s chance to achieve the echo in eternity by becoming a hero in his village.
Nevertheless, Ikal does not want to make it easy since finding and becoming a hero, need times and great efforts. Then, he tells about a traumatic experience when he was a child. He was bleeding during his circumcision process.
Therefore, he becomes traumatic in dealing with clinic or hospital. However,
120Agar penonton yakin akan pengobatan gigi modern dan tak berobat pada dukun gigi A Put lagi. Untuk itulah mengapa mereka beramai-ramai diundang Ketua Karmun ke klinik. (MK: 466) 121Kamu bisa seperti mereka, Kal! Jika kau ke klinik gigi itu, kau akan jadi pelopor pengobatan modern di kampung ini, kau bisa jadi pahlawan! (MK: 441)
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because Ketua Karmun really wants to free the village from the jahiliah or the backward era, for a year he never gives up on Ikal’s rejection. As Ikal tells:
He always tried to appeal, persuade, invite, bluff and also threaten me, in order to make me wanted to check my toothache to Doctor Diaz’s clinic. It was to end up the jahiliah era on the dental shamanism in the village.122 [My translation]
Afterward, his rejection finally can be defeated because of a woman request.
Ketua Karmun asks A Ling, the woman that Ikal is in love with since he was a child, to persuade him. Spontaneously, he accepts the order after A Ling asks him directly: “Would you mind going to the dental clinic, Ikal?”123[My translation]
At the end, he becomes the hero of the village. Through Ketua Karmun’s idea and a woman gentle coaxing, he liberates the village from the backward era to the modern era of dental treatment. This is his camouflage to manifest his modern consciousness to the society. His intention is actually the same as Ketua
Karmun who supports modernity. However, he does not want to make it easy for him. It becomes his way to conceal his modern consciousness by having traumatic experience at hospital and taking a year to accept Ketua Karmun’s order.
After he becomes the first patient for modern dental treatment, finally he emphasizes his victory by describing the positive atmosphere at the village:
Miraculous, everyone at the village were rejoicing after the incident at the dental clinic. Everybody became excited and contented, just like the brightness of the blue sky. One day after the great surgery, at early morning, Doctor Diaz was beaming and clearly delilghted on welcoming her second patient. Therefore, on that morning the myth has been broken. The myth of supernatural fairy jar from Hokian ethnic that has been used by A Put as the master of teeth shaman in the village, finally diminished. As for Ketua Karmun, he succeeded in liberating our village from the primitive era of the teeth shamanism. Ah, he was really an annoying man. Standing firm on his decision and stubborness were his characters. Nevertheless, he was a truly noble leader.124 [My translation]
122Ia kembali mengimbau, membujuk, mengajak, menggertak, sampai mengancam, agar aku mengunjungi klinik Dokter Diaz demi mengakhiri masa jahiliah perdukunan gigi di kampung. (MK: 437) 123Mau kan kau ke klinik itu, Ikal?(MK: 454) 124Ajaib, kejadian di klinik gigi itu membuat seisi kampong jadi bersemangat. Semuanya serba menggairahkan. Hati setiap orang menjadi secerah langit biru. Sehari setelah operasi gigi yang hebat itu. Doker Diaz dengan wajah berseri-seri, pagi- pagi sekali langsung menerima pasien keduanya. Maka pagi itu, pecah sudah mitos gaib peri tempayan khas Hokian dari tabib gigi A Put. Yang berarti pada Ketua Karmun telah berhasil membebaskan kampong kami dari zaman jahiliah
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He proves that he has succeded in bringing enlightenment to the village. It means that he becomes an agent of change from the teeth shamanism to the modern dental treatment. Then, the myth supernatural fairy jar from Hokian ethnic, which has been used by A Put as the master of teeth shaman at the village for many years, is easily disproved.
His success is also a proof of his modern consciousness through the power of science and rationality. As he states: “The impossible matters sometimes could be defeated by knowledge, whether it was scientific or polytheistic.” 125 [My translation] Then, he covers his modern consciousness by saying: “Ketua
Karmun, he succeeded in liberating our village from the backward era of the teeth shamanism.” Therefore, he puts Ketua Karmun as the hero of modernity.
However, actually he backs Ketua Karmun to liberate the village from the undeveloped era to modern era. Thus, he becomes the hero of modernity in his village through Ketua Karmun’s enlightenment era program. His achievement as the hero of modernity is his way to confirm his improvement as the Europeanized
“native” who adopts the European superiority characteristics.
As Thiong’o states that the domination of the mental universe of the colonized is the most important area by controlling the colonized’s culture,126 the
European thinking about the East as a discourse operates in relation to power.
Therefore, the colonialist power is maintained by dominating the mental universe of the colonized. Colonialist ideology shows how the colonized employs colonial
perdukunan gigi. Ah, memang menyebalkan lelaki itu. Tembaga pendiriannya dan batu kepalanya, tapi ia adalah pemimpin berjiwa mulia tiada banding.” (MK: 479) 125Hal-hal mustahil kadangkala mampu ditaklukkan ilmu: ilmiah maupun musyrik.(MK: 398) 126See, Thiong’o, p. 16
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discourse on perceiving and representing their inferior culture because their mental universe has been dominated by the colonialist thinking.
The main character uses European cultures and assumptions as the standard to differentiate and pose the natives’ culture as negative and inferior. It is
Europe because he is pursuing abroad education and experiencing in Europe. It also relates to the Dutch that had colonized Belitung Island to expand their territory and also to spread out their superiority culture. The effects of its expansion towards the natives are they admit the superiority of European culture and take it as the standard of being civilized. Then, in relation to “self”, it leads to the notion of being fully human and having proper “self”.
Conclusion
The effects of colonialism keep continuing by dominating the mental universe of the colonized through their culture. There are two ways to observe an ideology that manifests in the main character’s attitudes towards the natives and his relation to others. The first is superiority versus inferiority, to dig out how the main character asserts his resistance to the natives’ culture. The second is the
Europeanized “native”, to find out how the main character chooses Europe as his absolute pole.
The Laskar Pelangi Quartet as the phenomenal novels in Indonesia reveal the colonialist ideology that is manifested in two ways: the first is through Ikal’s othering process and the second, is his absolute pole on stating his Europeanized
“native”. Debasement and wordling are the othering process that the main character takes to define the European superiority and the natives’ inferiority.
Realizing his inferiority as a native, he tries to fight against it. Therefore, he
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roams about outside Belitung to shape his life mosaics and find his paths to build his “self”. Then, after his long struggle and his best effort, he is able to study in
Europe. However, it makes him into a Europeanized “native”. Physically, he is a
Belitung-Malay, but ideologically, he affirms the European superiority assumptions.
Thus, education in these novels is but one way to dominate mental control through culture. By gaining education, how he perceives himself and his society follows the colonizers’s assumptions on European superiority culture. Then, he takes it as the absolute pole on making assumptions about himself as the
Europeanized “native” who adopts the European values. Moreover, by returning home, he shows that as a Europeanized “native”, he gains Eurocentrism to
(re)construct his identity, and modern consciousness by using science and rationality to disprove local believes.
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CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION
Indonesia colonial experience and its colonial traces do not end with the country’s independence. The ongoing effects of colonialism perform in different forms to occupy people. The expansion is not merely about the region but more to the mind of people through culture. Referring to Thiong’o (1994) dominating people’s culture means controlling the way people perceive themselves and their relation to others.127 Therefore, colonization is not only about occupying a region but also dominating and controlling people’s culture. The intentions are to maintain the colonizers’ values and impart them to the colonized’s culture.
As has been discussed in this study, The Laskar Pelangi Quartet as one of the phenomenal novels in Indonesia has displayed the traces of colonial encounter in Indonesia. The first novel of the quartet Laskar Pelangi (2006) is considered very remarkable in Indonesia due to its portrayal of the story of the ten children and their inspiring teachers. It is a successful story of children living in poverty in the Belitung Island who keep their spirits high and hold great expectation to enjoy education by going to a formal school, a rare attempt among other Belitungese who are happy to become coolies in the mining company.
The discussions in this study are mainly focused on the colonial discourse implanted in the main character’s view in his attempt to portray and confront his social and cultural environment. It is related to the idea and ideology manifested in the main character’s attitudes. European way of life is assumed as being the normal, natural or universal guidance for the main character to articulate his
127See Thiong’o, p.16
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society as the native of Belitung and to confront his marginalized condition. Thus, the aim of this study is to reveal the ongoing effects of colonialism through colonial discourse inscribed in The Laskar Pelangi Quartet.
I argue that after reading the complete sequel of The Laskar Pelangi
Quartet, the issue of education is no longer dominant. Instead, the colonialist ideology abounds in the quartet. The discussions have shown that colonial discourse operates in The LaskarPelangi Quartet through the ways in which the main character portrays inequality in relation to the modern colonialism practice.
As such, the so-called phenomenal novel in Indonesia turns out to reveal colonialist ideology when the readers examine its three sequels.
Using theory on modern colonialism, I have explored that the depiction of inequality is a necessity which resulting on restructuring the economy of the ex- colonized vis-à-vis the impacts of colonial injustice. Such reconstruction, the quartet appears to show and produces economic imbalance. Hence, economic control that produces inequality is intended to strengthen the colonial domination through class system which in turn also influences the natives’ attitude in seeing themselves and others (ex-colonial masters). The novels describe that by seeing the different lifestyle of the tin mining company people as the highest class; the natives receive influences and find the role-model to follow.
I have detailed how the company people’s attitudes becomes the example of how wealthy people with their elegant and solemn lifestyle are favored by the main character who is a poor village boy belonging to the lowest class in
Belitung. To emulate the well-educated company people, he insists on pursuing education to avoid getting entangled in the poverty web. Therefore, the main
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character follows the company people in shaping his “self” through education and overseas experience as a measure of success. Here, class system influences the natives’ attitude in defining and improving themselves, in this case by following the colonizers’ way of life. The first research question is thus answered by the novels’ inclination not to resist modern colonialism as shown by the main character.
The second finding to the second research question is that the quartet reveals colonialist ideology in two ways, i.e. through the main character’s othering process and his absolute pole on stating his Europeanized “native”. Most characters come across in admitting the natives’ inferiority. The main character resists the tradition that does not support his intention to gain better future to be proud of. Here, to confront the inferior characteristics of the natives, he takes
Europe with its superiority as his absolute pole. Becoming Europeanized “native” is the result of his act on pursuing education and experiencing abroad.
I have shown that education remains one of the most powerful and potential way to dominate the mental universe of the colonized by controlling how they perceive and represent themselves. Thus, the novels seem to agree with the colonizers’ normative values as universal when the main character is depicted as part of the natives with their poor condition and inferiority when studying abroad. In short, he is a Europanized “native”.
Reading Laskar Pelangi as a quartet gives a new horizon on seeing an undisclosed message inspite of its popularity on education issue. It is about the glorious Europe with its culture and values as the solution to enhance people’s social rank and to measure life which can be proud of. Through “reading against
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the grain”, it highlights the elements in the text of which the text itself seems unaware. In this study, it is the colonial discourse implants in the main character’s view and attitude.
The golden thread of all findings is that the ongoing effects of colonialism in The Laskar Pelangi Quartet is revealed through: firstly, the portrayal of inequality based on class system as part of restructuring the economy of Belitung and constructing the attitudes of the natives of the island; secondly, the colonialist ideology is manifested through the main character’s othering process and his consciousness as a Europeanized native instead of Belitungese.
Therefore, I have concluded that reading LaskarPelangi as a quartet rather than a single novel with the same title gives complete understanding that education for the natives is but a manifestation of (modern) colonialist ideology that the author consistently delves in his works. As such, by making use of the issue of education for the poor, the quartet begs to be read as a colonial discourse to reinforce the colonizers’ values.
However, this research is limited on the analysis of colonial discourse, which means there are several other aspects left to be discussed. The Laskar
Pelangi Quartet as a phenomenal Indonesian literature offers many interesting topics. Literature appreciation is not only based on the explicit topics that the works lightly provide but also the implicit topics. It provokes readers to be more critical and aware with the issues captured in the literary texts. The popularity of
The Laskar Pelangi Quartet is a trigger to excavate other interesting issues that can be implicitly captured.
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The issue of education for the poor is the popular issue of the quartet.
Based on the character, there are two teachers in the first novel Laskar Pelangi
(2006). The two teachers, Bu Mus and Pak Harfan, impart the principle “to give as much as one can, rather than to take.” To give as much as one can, does not depend on his/her social class, but it is more on his/her concern and passion in their life. Both of the teacher, economically they belong to the lowest class in
Belitung. Although their line of descent from Belitung’s kingdom that concludes them as the noble class, they do not pursue a wealthy life. Getting entangled in poverty trap, they are able to give valuable insight into their society by teaching in a poor school in their village. It shows that the hierarchy based on the economic condition cannot restrict people to contribute to their society. The tension of the principle “to give as much as one can rather than to take” does not related to poverty but it is more on the spirit to give no matter what kind of condition they have. This issue is not lightly emphasized because the highlight of education for poor students that conducted by poor teachers at poor school has been shown explicitly.
As a further research, translation studies can be used to observe the agent of power in The Laskar Pelangi Quartet translated version. The translator has a certain power to put something here and there, as well as creates omission and addition in order to translate the main issues of literary texts. The quartet has been popular as the novels about education in Indonesia. The translated version might bring that issue as the main issue that would be promoted. Thus, translating literature text is not an independent task. The supremacy of the dominance has the power to control the translated texts to maintain their values.
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It is recommended that the novels are analysed by using the feminist approach to dig up the women’s role to perpetuate the natives’ cultural values and women’s status in terms of class and ethnicity. It is also suggested to analyze the author’s world view on portraying the natives and the European’s culture since the global market becomes the target of the international edition of The Laskar
Pelangi Quartet. It is important to see whether the international editions really represent the Indonesian with her local culture or the Indonesian as the followers of Western culture.
In relation to the forces of global market culture, The Laskar Pelangi
Quartet has opted to define its cultural identity, in term of ethnicity and class, based on the dominant power, particularly Europe. However, the complex way on constructing selves and others as the cultural identities is not an essence but a positioning.128 Thus, the main character takes his position as part of the dominant power, specifically Europe with its culture and superiority rather than as the native Belitungese.
As the closure, it is necessary to rethink who an Indonesian is. It relates to how we will take our position and perform ourselves as an Indonesian. The
Laskar Pelangi Quartet gives contemplation on seeing Indonesia with its ethnics and cultural diversity in the global market-driven world.
128Stuart Hall, “Cultural Identity and Diaspora” in Jonathan Rutherford, Identity: Community, Culture, Difference (London: Lawrence&Wishart, 1990) p.226
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APPENDIXES
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British American German Holland French Jewish Chinese ∗ always rowdy ∗ similar to the ∗ never rowdy ∗ didn’t ∗ the most ∗ they were ∗ their appearance ∗ provocative, British, ∗ tactical, immediately impressive geniuses is like an account- B but their however they methodical, start pointing in individuals ∗ only interested in ant e confrontations tend dominate, systematic protest ∗ seemed to always something grand ∗ communal h were civil intimidate, full ∗ Preparations ∗ very quiet be inspired by the and revolutionary ∗ broad minded a with intrigue to Perfect spirit of the ∗ friendly to other v take over the Performances French students i control is their motto Revolution, o liberte, egalite, r fraternite ∗ the nirvana of art lay in their hearts Wanted the I Wanted to Wanted to economics Wanted to d change the change the Wanted to change syllabus to be change the e syllabus of the syllabus of the France raised to a University a subject subject higher level
G Never less than r distingue, higher Often distingue, Weren’t concerned a Tresbien Tresbien than tresbien, or parfait, excellent about grades d very good e
*Those are summarized from Edensor (2007) as the Indonesian version and Edensor (2011) as the English version.
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The Synopsis of The Laskar Pelangi Quartet
The Rainbow Troops—Laskar Pelangi (the first novel of the quartet)
The Rainbow Troops tells about the life
of Belitung people who live side by side with the
tin mining company staffs. Most of the
Belitungese works in the company as coolies
with the lowest position and salary. Ikal, the
main character, is the son of a coolie. Seeing the
lifestyle of the company staffs, Ikal defines
himself as a poor village boy. Like the mostly native, his family belongs to the lowest class and lives in poor condition. To confront his poor condition, he follows the step of the company people take to gain better life by taking up higher education, since they are the only role-model he is familiar with.
The Dreamer—Sang Pemimpi (the second novel of the quartet)
The Dreamer narrates Ikal as a teenager who
struggles to achieve his ambitious dream in
raising his social rank and freeing himself from
the poverty trap. Following the company people
who are well-educated and graduated from
favourite educational institutions in Java and
worldwide, he enrolls on the prestigious State PLAGIATPLAGIAT MERUPAKAN MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TIDAK TERPUJI TERPUJI 105
Senior High School in Belitung. Being influenced by Mr. Balia, his teacher, who motivates his students by taking European people and culture as the best example,
Ikal attempts to reach his dream by studying in Europe. He believes that Europe is the place where the world famous scientists study as to change civilization.
Edensor (the third novel of the quartet)
Edensor tells about Ikal as a young native
Indonesian who succeeds in exploring and
studying in Europe. His single-minded dream
comes true. He gets the European Union
Graduate Scholarship Program. Then, he studies
in Sorbonne University in France. The institution
is claimed by his teacher, Mr. Balia, as where
people who can change civilization studied. Ikal meets people from different countries and interacts with them as students and also friends. He proves his teacher’s statement about the superiority of Europe through its people and culture. As a result, he realizes the inferiority of the natives along with his acknowledgment of the European superiority.
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Strange Rhythm—Maryamah Karpov: Mimpi-mimpi Lintang (the fourth novel of the quartet)
The last novel is about the ending of Ikal’s
journey after pursuing education and
experiencing overseas. He returns to his
hometown, Belitung. His self confidence is
improved. Some people admit him as well-
educated person but some others see him as the
same person as before he left Belitung.
To show his achievements after his journey, he makes a boat. By using science that he gets from books and internet browsing, he is able to make his boat to find A Ling, the woman he loves. The boat makers in his village are usually people with talent and experience inherited from generation to generation.
However, he proves that science is the best way to master the skills. It also happens when he learns violin. By using physics acoustic as a perspective to practice he is able to play violin.
Then, Ketua Karmun, the village leader chooses him for becoming the first patient for the first dentist at their village. To ease the backward era into modern era for the dental treatment, Ketua Karmun considers Ikal as the right representative. Finally, Ikal becomes the hero in his village. He succeeds in bringing enlightenment to the village, from the teeth shamanism to the modern dental treatment. The myth supernatural fairy jar from Hokian ethnic, which has been used by A Put as the master of teeth shaman at the villae for many years, is easily disproved.