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$Unique_ID{bob00211}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Indonesia
Chapter 2D.   Languages}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Riga Adiwoso-Suprapto}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{urban
ethnic
government
members
rural
society
indonesian
areas
own
elite}
$Date{1982}
$Log{}
Title:       Indonesia
Book:        Indonesia, A Country Study
Author:      Riga Adiwoso-Suprapto
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1982

Chapter 2D.   Languages

     Estimates of the number of languages spoken by the more than 300 ethnic
groups range from 150 to more than 400. Some of the languages, however, are
probably not discrete languages but regional dialects of the same language.
Racially and linguistically, however, the picture is not quite so fragmented
as these estimates would suggest. Most Indonesians stem from Deutero-Malay
stock, and most languages belong to the Malayo-Polynesian language family.
The main languages spoken over broad regions are Javanese, spoken by 40
percent of the population; Sundanese, spoken by 15 percent; and the language
of the coastal Malays of Sumatra, spoken by 10 percent.

     Unlike many other developing countries in Southeast Asia, Indonesia has
been fortunate in establishing a national language. In 1928 a Malay trade
language, widely used in the archipelago and relatively easy to master, was
adopted as one of the unifying symbols for the future Indonesian state and was
called Bahasa Indonesia. Even during the Dutch colonial era, and later during
the Japanese occupation, this Indonesian language was indispensable for
interethnic communication. Because ethnic languages have continued to be
spoken as well, bilingualism and trilingualism are widespread. In ethnically
diverse cities or towns an individual may use the ethnic language or dialect
at home, the regional language in public places, and Indonesian in official
and formal settings. For the postindependence generation, Indonesian has
become more important, allowing its members to circumvent problems linked to
ethnic language use. The government has also encouraged the development of
Indonesian and in 1972, with Malaysia, had worked to standardize its
orthography and grammar.

Social System

     Because each of the ethnic groups has its own system of social
organization and its own set of values, what constitutes the essence of
Indonesian identity and culture is, even among members of the younger
generation, still a matter of debate. The government, striving for unity and,
implicitly, for a national culture, has yet to define the basic
characteristics of an Indonesian national culture. The concept of gotong
royong, central to the traditions of most ethnic groups, has been promoted by
the government as one that should become the foundation of the national
culture, but it remains a question whether or not this concept will continue
to be upheld. The introduction of modern technology, individual performance,
and material gain may leave little room for traditional concepts of life.
Ethnic diversity notwithstanding, Indonesian society can be broadly divided
into four general types, based on ecological and economic adaptation: rural,
tribal, coastal, and urban.

Rural Society

     The majority of Indonesians-about 70 percent of the population-belong to
rural society and are settled rice cultivators, using either wet- or dry-rice
cultivation methods. They form a peasant community that controls and
cultivates the land for subsistence and maintains the ethnic traditional way
of living. Members of this society look to, and are influenced by, the gentry,
or townspeople (see Urban Society, this ch.).

     The pressures for change in rural life are extreme. Wet-rice growers on
inland Java and Bali are faced with the scarcity of arable land and a dense
population. The sheer quantity of people in the Javanese and Balinese rural
areas can be compared to that of moderately dense suburban clusters in the
United States. More and more villagers without any rights of land are faced
with limited, and often not so rewarding, options, such as working for wages.
Agricultural work is scarce, seasonal, and low paying. Many persons feel
compelled to leave their villages to look for better opportunities in the
urban centers.

     In this process, traditional features of rural life, such as community
cohesiveness and reciprocal work-sharing arrangements, tend to break down. By
the early 1980s sharecropping, which once permitted landless farmers to
maintain themselves and to accumulate capital to buy or rent land, was only
infrequently practiced. In the more densely populated areas and near large
cities-where most of the people lack any direct right of control over the
lands-harvests were largely in the hands of outsiders, who were detached from
village life and internal village community needs. Little help was available
to the villagers from the administration. Although the government placed
priority on agricultural development, in practice its programs had become
highly bureaucratized and have had limited success in solving new rural
problems. One difficulty with government support programs has been that the
administrators have been reluctant to share any real power with the village
communities (see Technical Support Programs, ch. 3).

     In contrast to the wet-rice cultivating society of Java and Bali, the
rural societies of other islands show variations mirroring the complexities of
each area's ecological condition. Their social systems are usually based on
dry-rice cultivation, which requires less arable land. Members of a given
community are generally members of the same extended family. Landownership is
kept within the family; intermarriage with members of other communities
provides a means of strengthening or expanding landownership. Arable land is
more available than in wet-rice cultivating areas, and if more land is needed,
new fields are cleared for cultivation by the young men of the community.

     Social structure among dry-rice cultivators is marked by cohesiveness and
by the leadership of an older, respected headman. The headman decides when the
planting season begins and often becomes the arbiter in local civil disputes.
More often than not the position of headman is inherited; often he is
wealthier and owns more land than others. Personal achievement is another
variable, however.

     Belief in ancestor worship and supernatural spirits is widespread. There
are many different rituals; the most common one is the ritual of village
purification (see Religion and World View, this ch.). This ritual symbolizes a
new beginning-the banishing of evil spirits from the village and the request
for ancestral blessings for the new planting season.

     Another characteristic feature of the rural scene is gotong royong. This
system provides unpaid agricultural labor when needed, but participants keep
close tally of who owes whom, and one is expected to reciprocate for help
given in labor or in goods.

     Adat, although diminishing in significance in the urban areas and to a
lesser degree in many rural areas as well, still is applied in local civil
disputes. (The Indonesian legal system in the early 1980s distinguished
between adat and statutory or codified law.) Adat has become one of the
stabilizing factors in maintaining the traditional rural societies.

     In 1982 communities living by dry-rice cultivation were experiencing
sociocultural change, as were wet-rice cultivating societies. Among the
factors accounting for change were pressures from government and outside
influences to "modernize" cultivation methods, resettlement of transmigrants,
introduction of modern agricultural technology, and influences from urban
areas. Sometimes traditional values clashed with government policy.

     Wet-rice cultivators from Java and Bali, who had been resettled in areas
of dry-rice cultivation under heavily subsidized government transmigration
programs, constituted a new feature of rural society in the early 1980s. In
the areas to which the transmigrants moved, they were apt to encounter harsh
terrain, less fertile than that to which they had been accustomed on the
native islands. Many were heavily dependent on public administrators for
support and direction, adopting an attitude of accepting whatever was given to
them. Among the transmigrants, the harshness of the environment and the lack
of personal rewards, together with a continuing orientation toward their
former villages and customs and values, made for serious problems of
adaptation. Many, after accumulating some resources of their own, returned to
their villages. Meanwhile, they appeared indifferent to local community
interests. Organizations to foster such interest may have seemed just another
government policy imposed on them. Tensions occasionally erupted between the
indigenous population and the new transmigrants. The indigenous inhabitants
have viewed the transmigrants as intruding on their lands, supported by the
government. Most of the transmigration projects have not taken this into
account.

     Another special group that could be singled out on the rural scene were
temporary workers employed on large agricultural estates or plantations. In
contrast to the transmigrants, they were strongly motivated by the
possibilities for economic gain. Temporary workers tended to be resented by
the local populations in the areas where they were employed, because the local
inhabitants saw them as competition for a limited number of employment
opportunities. The temporary workers lived in enclaves of their own, situated
at a distance from other villages. Often, after saving some of their wages,
they returned to their native villages or moved to an urban center.

Tribal Society

     The tribal societies in the interiors display a wide range of cultures,
including those of the Toraja of central Sulawesi, the Dayak of Kalimantan,
and the Gayo Alas of northern Sumatra. The main characteristic of this type of
society is the relative isolation of the groups from outside influences,
living as they do in the hard-to-reach areas of the interior. Being mainly
rice farmers using the shifting cultivation method, they also engage in
permanent gardening of root crops and vegetables. Rice and maize are their
main food staples. Their traditional slash-and-burn method of cultivation has
now been limited by the government, which has encouraged more permanent
settlement.

     Basic kinship organization is a large corporate system, in which an
individual may choose to become a member of either the maternal or the
paternal lineage. Each group has its own ritual objects and titles and is
socially, politically, and economically independent. The political
superstructure over the village is not considered part of the system. In the
past, warfare between the kin groups was the usual means to obtain prestige
and to expand power, because it was believed that in overpowering other kin
groups, their ancestral spirits were overpowered as well. Tribal warfare was
prohibited in the early 1980s, but antagonism nonetheless often erupted into
fighting.

     Christian and Muslim missionaries have been active among the tribal
societies, but their converts often continue to practice their own religious
beliefs simultaneously. Ancestor worship is widely practiced, and ritual
ceremonies are held on occasions related to a person's life cycle or to
village activities.

Coastal Society

     Coastal societies, such as those on the coasts of Sumatra and Kalimantan,
the Makasarese and the Buginese of Sulawesi, and the Javanese of north-central
Java, exhibit common cultural features, modified by strong local variation.
Coastal societies developed as participants in the spice trade of the
fourteenth to eighteenth centuries and were exposed to Hindu-Buddhist and
Islamic cultural traits. They became something of a melting-pot culture in
which cultural borrowing and exchange occurred (see Early Historic Indonesia,
ch. 1). Distinct to the coastal culture is an orientation toward commerce and
marketing activities.

     Among the coastal people are differentiations between the traders and the
coconut growers and fishermen. Traders adapt more easily to outside
influences; residing mostly in the coastal towns, they are considered socially
superior. Their life is centered on gaining material wealth through income,
such as becoming landlords to coconut growers and rice cultivators. Coconut
growers and fishermen together occupy the lowest stratum of coastal society.
Culturally, they are much like the cultivators of the rural society, but they
consider the cultivators socially inferior. Coastal people are highly
competitive compared with other groups in Indonesia. They stress literary
forms of art, such as epics and, most important of all, their own historical
and moral tales, rather than dance and drama. Their kinship systems range from
bilateral kinship groups with the nuclear family at the core to
patrilineal-corporate kinship groups.

Urban Society

     In the post-World War II period the population or urban areas increased
steadily, and the rate of urban migration exceeded that of natural population
growth. The limitations of arable land in the densely populated areas and the
promise of better living conditions, education, and employment in the cities
gave rise to high rates of urbanization. Jakarta, the capital and center of
political, economic, and military power, attracted migrants from within Java
as well as from outside it. Other cities in Java showed a lower rate of
urbanization than did cities on Sumatra, Sulawesi, and Kalimantan. Rapid
urbanization created the range of new social and economic programs typically
found under such circumstances.

     Temporary urban migration during the dry season's idle agricultural
period was also common. These rural people were seeking employment
opportunities to supplement their income. In the early 1980s small-scale as
well as large-scale, industries were developing around the major cities,
replacing small-scale industries in the rural areas where the local
inhabitants had formerly been able to earn income during the idle season.

     As in many developing countries, the urban areas have become the center
of national social institutions and are becoming the focal point of a new
national culture interconnecting Indonesian society as a whole. The cities are
marked by anomie, typical of rapid urban growth. There is a lack of
community-wide institutions, such as social welfare facilities and citizen
groups. Many of the cities were developed under the Dutch colonial
administration, which was more interested in the welfare of its own temporary
colonial settlers than that of the population as a whole. Community spirit and
group initiative having failed to develop, maintenance of cities became the
sole responsibility of the local government.

     In the early 1980s urban society was characterized by sharp segmentation
of the population. Among the middle and lower classes, ethnic identity still
played a major role. Ethnic segmentation was further emphasized by the
village-like quarters (kampung) shared by people of the same ethnic
background. Each kampung followed an ethnic life-style, modeled after its own
traditional rural oriented system and stood as a separate cohesive community.
The kampung leader was chosen on the basis of his seniority in the kampung,
his connections outside it, and his abilities as an administrator. Contacts
outside of the kampung were limited to business trade.

     Broadly speaking, there were two types of urban centers: metropolitan
cities, such as Jakarta and Surabaya on Java, Medan on Sumatra, and Ujung
Pandang on Sulawesi, and regional towns, such as Malang and Bandung on Java,
Jambi and Banda Aceh on Sumatra, and Balikpapan in Kalimantan. The towns were
marked by their relative integration with the traditional ethnic values of the
region. In the early 1980s the descendants of the former ruling class still
enjoyed considerable social prestige and were respected by the rest of the
population. The government administrators placed in the towns by the central
government were usually viewed by the population as outsiders.

     In both kinds of urban centers Chinese and Arab traders dominated
small-scale retail trade. They maintained their identities by living in
groups, isolated from the rest of the population.

The Elite

     The elite had set their own social values and life-style, distinguished
from that of the rest of the urban society. The gap between the elite-a tiny
segment at the very apex of the population-and the mass of the people was
widening, despite efforts by the government to narrow it. Members had
prestigious occupations, higher than average income levels, some academic
background and, most importantly, the right family connections. The majority
were upper echelon military officers or bureaucrats; a few were wealthy
entrepreneurs. The main characteristics of the elite were participation in a
westernized life-style and the use of the Indonesian language in daily life.
Their social goals were economic development and the maintenance of national
pride and consciousness through expansion of the concept of one distinct
Indonesian culture. Attainment of Western luxury goods, travel abroad, and a
certain facility with foreign languages, notably English and French, were
some of the valued symbols.

     In the early 1980s the elite could be divided into two main groups based
on their degree of orientation toward metropolitan culture and their adherence
to their own ethnic heritage. The first group was the elite of the regional
towns, aspiring to a westernized style of living but conforming in its daily
behavior to the traditional norms and values of its own ethnic region. The
second was the elite of the major cities-more westernized than the elite of
the regional towns-maintaining that some of its ethnic-based values should be
upheld as the national tradition. This elite in Jakarta and other major cities
could be further divided into three subgroups according to relative age.

     The first subgroup consisted of persons who had been educated during the
Dutch colonial era and who had held positions in the colonial administration,
the so-called colonial civil servants (pangreh praja) of the upper aristocracy
(upper priyayi). Many were Javanese, who after independence occupied positions
at the apex of society and displayed a strong drive to obtain the social
privileges that had once been the exclusive prerogative of the Dutch. This
subgroup gave priority to university education and academic achievement and
was oriented to civil service. It adhered to the Dutch value of frugality, as
well as absolute loyalty and commitment to the government, which assured its
members a stable upward mobility, however slow; the system was hierarchical
and authoritarian. Subordinates avoided conflict with their superiors; it was
considered impolite and improper to criticize or disobey a person of superior
rank, and the concept of obedience (ngawula) was highly regarded. Loyalty
toward the country could be called into question if the orders of one's
superiors were not followed. The pattern was partly inherited from the former
Dutch colonial administration and partly from the royal court system. Most of
the members of the subgroup took part in the development of Indonesian
nationalism and were politically active during the struggle for independence.
At the same time, they were conscious of, and interested in, maintaining their
privileged position in society. By the early 1980s many of them had retired
from government service but continued to be respected by the younger
generation.

     The second subgroup consisted of persons who had once belonged to the
lower priyayi, having little Dutch educational background. Most of them had
fought during the struggle for independence, and many still maintained their
military affiliation. Although they represented a more diverse array of ethnic
backgrounds and were more influenced by their ethnic heritage than the first
subgroup, their common experience during the National Revolution brought them
together as a group. They were less fluent in Dutch and used Indonesian as a
medium of communication among themselves. After World War II many attended
local universities, where they earned degrees that came to be seen as the
equivalent of the aristocratic titles of the past. Total loyalty to the
government was an imperative, and military discipline guided daily conduct. A
militaristic hierarchical structure was maintained to preserve stability and
strengthen the authoritarian system. This subgroup differed from the first one
in its life-style, blending Western-style conspicuous consumption with some
elements of the traditional ethnic heritage. For its members westernization,
however superficial, carried a great deal of prestige but, paradoxically, they
regarded modern patterns of thinking and behavior as inappropriate.

     Members of the third subgroup were generally younger, belonging mainly to
the first generation of postindependence Indonesians. Their family backgrounds
were ethnically varied. For them, however, ethnic background was less of an
issue than it was for the other subgroups, for they considered themselves
first and foremost Indonesians, in conformity with Western concepts of
nationalism. The main characteristic of this subgroup was its orientation
toward a metropolitan culture, its members being less attracted to the idea of
working for the government than to that of becoming entrepreneurs in the
private sector or in working for foreign companies. Among themselves, they
were highly competitive, giving less emphasis to ascriptive criteria of social
status than did older members of the elite. Their lives tended to focus on
financial security for their own nuclear family and on a concomitant reduction
of attention to needs of the extended family. In contrast to older members of
the elite who often deferred to Westerners, many considered themselves to be
on an equal footing with foreigners.

     In the early 1980s the urban elite was going through transition. While
most of those who had served the colonial administration and who had laid the
foundation for Indonesian nationalism had by this time retired, those who
fought during the National Revolution still maintained their preeminent
positions in society. They were concerned about the socioeconomic conditions
and problems faced by the country and, hence, stressed the need for raising
the standard of living. They saw political stability as essential to economic
development (see The New Order since 1978, ch. 4). Because the
postindependence generation of the elite was headed in a different direction,
oriented toward the private sector and industrial growth, it did not consider
itself in competition with the national leadership. It considered level of
income and education to be the main criteria for upward mobility.

The Middle Class

     The urban middle class consisted largely of mid-level personnel in
government civil service, skilled and semiskilled workers, and merchants
engaged in petty commerce. They were mostly underemployed and, based on their
income alone, had to be seen as being impoverished. The middle class was
defined more in terms of social status than income level, its members seeing
their clerical and retail positions as an avenue of upward mobility, providing
a chance to be assimilated by metropolitan culture. Many were caught between
metropolitan and ethnic-based rural values and were leading a bicultural life.
A small emergent element in the middle class was composed of persons who had
been able to attain a degree from one or another of various local universities
and had aspirations to enter into the higher level of the bureaucracy. Also
included in this middle class were a small number of relatively wealthy
santri, whose resources permitted them to acquire Western consumer goods and
to live more comfortably than most members of the middle class. These santri
had not been accepted into the elite, because that group regarded them as
unsophisticated-unappreciative of modern Indonesian literature, popular music,
Western films, and other hallmarks of metropolitan culture.

     The Chinese and the Arab minorities had the same orientation and
aspirations as other middle-class members. Many were wealthy; however, it was
impossible for them to become members of the elite, for that group continued
to be composed exclusively of persons seen as being native Indonesians.

The Lower Class

     The unskilled and functionally illiterate street peddlers, laborers, and
servants, comprising the lower class, lived in a quite different situation
than other urban groups. Packed together in kampung quarters, often with poor
sanitary facilities, they faced problems of crime, unemployment, and narcotic
addiction, which was unknown in rural areas. Each kampung unit was an
ethnically homogeneous entity, whose members maintained a rural orientation.
They continued to practice their traditional religious rituals and were tied
to their own rural-based cultural values. Considering their barracks-like
housing only as temporary quarters, even though they stayed many years, they
gave little attention to maintaining them. Many returned once a year to their
villages after the Muslim Ramadan to spend their savings lavishly. Kampung
dwellers maintained their ethnic language, while using Indonesian to
communicate with persons of different ethnic backgrounds. Their Indonesian
showed the characteristics of a pidgin language and had grammatical,
syntactic, and intonation patterns based on their own native tongue.

     Although it was difficult to assess the extent to which members of the
urban lower class could achieve upward mobility within the urban society,
urban migration continued. Those who kept up their family ties and accumulated
savings found on their return to the village that their social position had
been enhanced. Many who could not obtain work in the cities became desperate
and escaped from reality by using drugs. Prostitution was rampant. Many
refused to return to their villages empty handed, afraid to go back as
failures.