Culture, the soul of a country

Nowadays, if we see the environment around us, everything is so modern, so

advanced and many people can do anything with a touch of a button. I realize that
everything seems to be so practical these days, and everything can be done within a much
smaller amount of time. Sadly, as people are obtaining new ways of doing thing, new
methods, new entertainment and forgetting all that is in the past. Particularly in
Indonesia, not many present generations is realizing what our traditional culture is like.
There are many dances, architecture, traditional clothing and ingenious inventions that
had become a part of us today. However, not many realized this, and not many people can
see Indonesia as a country with a beautiful and diverse culture. I myself, as an Indonesian
people feel terribly sad, because if culture in Indonesia would prosper, Indonesia can and
should be an iconic Asian country.

Culture itself is a form of entertainment, an origin and a start toward something

even greater. People enjoying culture usually receives a certain satisfaction whereas they
would be motivated to improve and create something new. As Indonesian people we too
realize how diverse and how creative our culture is. Sadly, I myself and almost all the
people in my community weren’t able to see the beauty in our culture. Many of these
cultures are forgotten, but some are still remembered up until now, even if there are only
few people who practice it. Culture doesn’t have to be a form of art or not necessarily a
traditional methods and foods; culture could also be iconic historical remains that we
have up until now. Temples such as “Candi Borobudur” and “Candi Tikus” is also a
symbol of our past culture. How many of us really admire the beauty of all the culture in
Indonesia, especially when we hardly notice it in our environment. It is really sad that
many people in Indonesia especially in big cities are not enjoying or even realizing our
culture. Just take a simple example, which is a regional language, a simple custom that
every major island in Indonesia have. How many of us Javanese, really want to learn
Javanese language? Not even I would want to. This proofs that of the culture that we see
and known is inside each and every one of us, but we haven’t realized its importance. It is
an inheritance from our ancestors that we should cherish for days to come.

Survey has it that 71.6% of Indonesian people feel proud of its country because of
its culture. Yet many of these Indonesian people still suffer from many political,
economical and social dilemmas that are commonly occur in every Indonesian citizen
which reduces the feeling of proud towards our country. What does this really tells us?
Indonesian culture is really something more than just a common knowledge, is a soul of
our country, something that can relive the patriotism and the love towards our country.
Other surveys also shown result that the percentage of people who are proud for
Indonesian economics, politics, law, security and government have an average digit of
around 20%. It is so sad that seeing how bad our country is, not many people is loving
what our country most precious treasure is, which is our culture. Culture is not just some
common knowledge that we need to know as an Indonesian country, it’s really our past
history which are applied in our daily life that we can still enjoy up until know. In fact,
some of these culture are still around us and we were enjoying it, even there are still
many that are forgotten which should also be enjoyed by all of us. Therefore, without all
of these cultures, Indonesia is same like a body without a soul, controlled by all its
desires that destroy everything and wreak chaos and destruction everywhere, even we can
see it happening around us today.

I personally have said before that I wouldn’t want to learn Javanese, and I am not
lying. Most schools and educational systems are forcing many students to learn their own
regional language. I wouldn’t say it’s a bad idea, it’s just should be more enjoyable from
the methods of how it is offered to the student. From my own perspective, this lesson
would be a living torture, not only it have a lot of things to be memorized, it would make
my average grades decreases, especially if I don’t do anything about it. “Would I like it
this way? Certainly by all means, no.” If the regional language lessons exist to preserve
the culture of our country, and yet many people think of it as something useless, boring
and a burden then it would defeat its own sole purpose. In fact, why do it in the first
place? These lessons should be done in a more interesting way, whereas many people
could really grow to love it, and having an independent desire to preserve it. Of course,
this does not only apply to language lessons, it applies in teaching other beauty of one’s
culture.

From 2005 to 2007, the number of visitor toward historical monument had
decrease significantly from 5.5 million down to 2.5 million, and it is probably still
decreasing until now. This may not directly lead to how Indonesia is losing its culture, but
it really shows that many people were starting to become more ignorant since a long time
ago. How many of you know that a cultural museum does exist? I would probably know
that it should exist, but I never heard of one, but in fact it does exist. This is an example
of how poor the advertisement and the presentation of Indonesia’s culture toward the
people. In logic, it shouldn’t be hard to advertise all of this when information technology
is so advanced these days. Sadly, many of Indonesian TV channels are contaminated with
useless, ridiculous and pathetic drama shows that many people call “sinetron”, or “junk”
in my dictionary. These stupid bewildered shows provide entertainment but no
educational values at all, and it makes people corrupted by useless fantasies. Not many of
us ever saw a documentary in Indonesian channels about the beauty of its country or its
culture. In fact to see a good and interesting documentaries, we need to gain access to
foreign channels such as Discovery Channel or National Geographic, which sometimes
shows other countries culture. What does this do then? Of course, it would makes us love
other countries’ culture, which they would think as something better than us, but in fact
Indonesian culture are far more richer and diverse, yet not many of us could witness what
it is like. One fact that enhances the stupidity of this fact is that many Indonesian people
have TV in their houses, and many present generations have chances to watch it at noon
around 6 pm, yet what almost all the channels presented? “Junk”! It is really important
for someone, who really care about this to actually do something and make something
useful for the whole country to see and learn.

Let’s take an example of China, how many people really admire its beauty and
culture, in fact almost the world does. China is one of a kind country that are preserving
its culture up until now, and many the historical remains still exist and well-preserved for
the whole world to witness. For a growing and a country with a great variety of culture,
Chine is still doing a great job in preserving its culture. Many people Kung Fu, Chinese
language, paper and fireworks (the invention of Chinese people), or the Great Wall of
China. However, Chinese people does isolate itself for more than 50 years as a
communist country, and because of the little amount of influence from other country, its
culture has prosper and become familiar towards many people. Different from China,
Indonesia has a long history of foreign influences and international center of trading
because of its strategic location. However, we doesn’t have to isolate our country like
China did, we just need to learn our own country by loving its culture. For a modern and
developed country, China’s cultures are still reflected in its architecture, annual events
like Chinese New Year, and their people behavior. You can actually see that Chinese
people, up until now are still preserving their culture, taking part in it and preserving it in
the environment around them. This is one thing that we should learn, preserving our
culture in our hearts and towards our environment for our future generations and for the
sake of our country to be seen as a beautiful and diverse country in the eye of the world.

For many years to come, Indonesia will keep growing and changing for the better.
We too are also growing to know and love the culture of our country and our country
itself. Let us try to see the beauty of Indonesia through its diverse culture and preserve it
for the generations to come. Even as modernization still continues, we should still look
back and try to struggle for the survival of our culture. We shouldn’t let the beauty of
Indonesian culture to vanish and to disappear, because it is also a part of us, a major part
of Indonesia. We are admiring it, enjoying the beauty of it and being proud of it, because
it is the culture of our country, Indonesia. Like Matthew Arnold said, “Culture is to know
the best that has been said and thought in the world.”

Reference:

1.NA, 2007. Jumlah Pengunjung Tempat Bersejarah di Indonesia, Tahun 2005 –

2007.[online]. Available at: http://www.budpar.go.id/filedata/3870_1236-
Pengunjungtempatbersejarah.pdf [Accessed 15 August 2008].

2.Administrator of website. 2007. ORANG INDONESIA BANGGA KARENA

KEBUDAYAAN 71,6 PERSEN. [online]. NA. Available at:
http://banjarkab.go.id/index.php?Itemid=12&id=768&option=com_content&task
=view [Accessed 15 August 2008]