Protecting Indonesia’s Image

Leaders of the Indonesian press in the early 20th century contributed much to building the nation’s image through the narratives they wrote and published in their newspapers. The same spirit is needed to maintain Indonesia’s image today as a nation of diversity.

KOMPAS/RONY ARIYANTO NUGROHO

People of varying ethnic and religious backgrounds gather in front of the national emblem in this file photograph. The diversity of the Indonesian people is a legacy of the country’s national revolution against Dutch colonialism, and must be maintained for national unity and integrity.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS – The will to build the image that Indonesia is a diverse nation that comprises people of different ethnicities and religions is one of the important values inherited from our heroes of the pre-independence era.

This value is still relevant to the current generation in maintaining Indonesia’s image as a diverse nation.

Some of the figures who helped build the image of what the Indonesian people have become were founders and writers of the mass media. Some have been recognized as national heroes, including Ruhana Kudus, who was declared a national hero on Friday.

Ruhana fought for women’s emancipation and was former editor in chief of Soenting Melajoe (Malay women), an early 20th century women\'s newspaper published in Padang, West Sumatra.

Another figure is Danudirja Setiabudi, or Ernest Douwes Dekker, who, through his writings, encouraged self-government in the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia. Meanwhile, Tirto Adhi Soerjo, the founder of the Medan Prijaji newspaper who has also been declared a national hero, gave rise to the dichotomy of “ruled and the ruling nations” in imagining national identity during the same era.

Lie Kim Hok might not have thought about being an Indonesian at the time, but he thought about how people could live together.

Besides them are several other media figures and writers who are not recognized as national heroes, but have also made great achievements. One example is Abdoel Rivai, who established the Bintang Melayu magazine in the early 1900s and frequently called for the importance of education for the people of the Dutch East Indies.

Chinese-Indonesian journalist Lie Kim Hok was the first to write in the Malay language. He also compiled a Malay language grammar guide.

In the era during which the colonial government defined identity, figures of different races, cultures and regions emerged from their own identities to build the broader, national identity.

"Lie Kim Hok might not have thought about being an Indonesian at the time, but he thought about how people could live together. From that awareness arose an abstract idea about how to communicate using a cognate language, one that was understood by many people in his environment," Fariz Alniezar, a linguistics lecturer at Nahdlatul Ulama Indonesia University, said when contacted in Jakarta on Sunday (10/ 11).

KOMPAS

Leaders of the Indonesian press,, Ruhana Kudus, Tirto Adi Soerjo, Lie Kim Hok, Ernest Douwes Dekker and Abdoel Rivai.

According to Heri Priyatmoko, a history lecturer at Yogyakarta’s Sanata Dharma University, these figures who had different identities were bound by the same interests, the spirit of nationalism. "They did not care about the differences between them, but focused more on a sense of togetherness and shared goals," he said.

Building the image of Indonesia as a nation of diversity, said Heri, was a value inherited from the nation’s heroes. Maintaining the inclusive image of Indonesia was thus a value that the current generation needed to continue.

In Imagined Communities (1983), Benedict Anderson writes that the discourse on "imagined communities" was developed through the print media. People who didn\'t know each other, even in places thousands of kilometers away, shared the feeling of being part of the same community, or “one nation”.

The power of the press

According to Prisma Resource Center director Daniel Dhakidae, the early 20th century press played an important role in raising awareness of nationalism. "There never was a press in Indonesia as good as that at the beginning of the 20th century. The press at that time was used to spread anti-colonialism,” he said.

There never was a press in Indonesia as good as that at the beginning of the 20th century.

Press figures of the time emerged in response from the colonial era, which tended to be authoritarian. "They spread the awareness that we were colonized, and that those who came had no right to our land. Resistance was worth it," said Daniel.

History professor Dewi Yuliati of Semarang’s Diponegoro University stressed that, in reflecting on press figures of the past, the contemporary press should continue to give voice to national truth and superiority.

The press must also continue to strengthen the identity, integrity and integration that contributed to developing nationalism in Indonesia.