Cross Cultural Understanding between Malay and Javanese

Yogyakarta, Melayuonline.com- On Wednesday (16/7), three prominent universities from Indonesia and Malaysia organized “The Triune International Workshop, UGM-UKM-UNS” in the Faculty of Cultural Sciences at Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta. This international workshop themed “The Mindset of Malay-Javanese” was held by Gadjah Mada University, Sebelas Maret University and Kebangsaan Malaysia University. The workshop aimed to elaborate language and cultural heritages between Indonesia and Malaysia based on the reality that both have the same cultural background, that is Malay culture.

The workshop was begun at 8 a.m. by a remark from Prof. Dr. Syamsul Hadi – the Dean of Cultural Sciences Faculty at Gadjah Mada University. In his remark Syamsul conveyed the integral concept between Malay and Javanese cultures. “Javanese is Malay and Malay is Javanese” Syamsul said.

Came as the speaker in this two-day workshop were Prof. Marsono – a lecturer of Cultural Sciences Faculty at Gadjah Mada University, Prof. Dr. Noriah Muhammed – a lecturer at Kebangsaan Malaysia University, Drs. Paina Partana, M.Hum – a lecturer in the Faculty of Letter and Fine Art at Sebelas Maret University.

The second section of the workshop presented four speakers. Those speakers were Drs. Akhmad Nugroho, S.U. – a lecturer in Cultural Sciences Faculty of Gadjah Mada University, Prof. Dr. Harun Daud – a lecturer from Kebangsaan Malaysia University, Drs. Istadiyantaha, MS – a lecturer from the Faculty of Letter and Fine Art at Sebelas Maret University and Drs. Sudibyo, M.Hum – a lecturer from Cultural Sciences Faculty of Gadjah Mada University.

Those speakers attempted to explore and deliver their thoughts on the wealth of Malay and Javanese cultures in the context of language and literature studies. Prof. Paina conveyed his view on Javanese language which is very complicated. “Grammatically, Javanese language includes into a language which have complicated grammatical structure. It often uses implicit and indirect expressions to deliver an idea. Such characteristics can be found on the Javanese people‘s characteristics who avoid direct expression for showing certain purposes,” Paina said. From this point of view Paina concluded that Javanese people highly shoulder harmonious values in their daily lives to avoid social clashes.

Prof. Dr. Noriah Muhamed from Malaysia delivered his paper on efforts to gain and explore deeply Malay cultural heritage. She presented a famous fictive figure on Malay folklore named Pak Kaduk. Many people notice this figure as an amusing figure who fought against sultanates‘ authorities through great sense of humour.

The figure of Pak Kaduk is just the same as Abu Nawas from Iraq and Si Kabayan from Western Java. Those figures had the same mindset to fight against one‘s authority. However, the figure of Pak Kaduk tended to firmly hold Malay cultural and normative values. To some extent, the figure of Pak Kaduk also represents Malay cultural values.

Istadiyantha coming as the next speaker after Noriah, gave an explication on the similarities between Malay and Javanese cultures based on literature studies, especially sufic literature. Both Malay and Javanese literatures possess spiritual and mystical senses such as on Javanese ancient literature written by Ronggowarsito and also on Malay literatures written by Hamzah Fansuri or Abdul Kadir Munsy.

Those similarities certainly have different historical backgrounds. “From these similarities, we must rethink that Malay and Javanese cultures are not two separated cultural identities anymore. We have to view Malay and Javanese cultures as an integral unit with the same historical background even though cultural misunderstanding between Malay and Javanese are still available,” Istadiyantha said.

Similarly, Mahyudin Al Mudra – the Head of MelayuOnline.com – suggests to establish cultural understanding between Malay and Javanese. Many Javanese cannot communicate in Malay language well when they are in Malaysia. Therefore, Mahyudin offered a brilliant idea to the participants to compile a pocket dictionary of Malaysia-Indonesia. Hopefully, this pocket dictionary would be a medium to avoid cultural misunderstanding caused by wrong language usage.

(IA/brt/2/07-08) (NI/ter/13/07-08)

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