From Jogja, Establishing Harmonious Relations with Malaysia

Yogyakarta, MelayuOnline.com- The relation between Indonesia and Malaysia begins catching the intention of broader public, especially public in Yogyakarta. The unique one is, people notice that issues from cultural point of view. Therefore, now we can see that the issues on the relation between those two countries tend to be wise and may lead to peace.

The fact above could be seen on the interactive dialogue “From Jogja, Establishing Harmonious Relations with Malaysia” presented by JogjaTV on Monday (17/12/2007) 8.30 - 9.30 p.m. Came as the speakers were Ir. Condroyono, M.SP – the Chairman of Tourism Board of Yogyakarta Province, Mahyudin Al Mudra – the Head of the Center for Research and Development of Malay Culture, and K.H. Jazir ASP – the Director of Abdullah Ibnu Abbas Islamic School.

The topic of the dialogue was driven to the respond of those two countries towards foreign culture. K.H. Jazir told, since 1991 Malaysia has applied education system based on Malay culture. All of elementary students in Malaysia must be able to speak Malay. Likewise, they must also be capable of writing Melayu Jawi letter (Arab Pegon). This policy indicates the great attention of Malaysia to tighten up their identity as Malay. The mission to reach the glory of Malaysia 2020 is based on their own cultural heritages.

Malaysian government does not hesitate to adopt “Iqro” method to teach their citizens reading Koran. Hence, some of Indonesian people are invited to Malaysia to teach “iqro” method.

The one which amazes K.H. Jazir is Malaysian students` respect for their Cik Guru (teacher). “Though they grow up around the modern educational environment, they firmly hold their own local wisdom. They kiss teachers` hands when they give handshakng to their teachers. They take considerable respect for their teachers and other old people. This scenery might be only seen in Indonesia in the 1960s.” K.H. Jazir remarked.

Condroyono, on that occasion suggested that Indonesia must continuously preserve and develop their culture and identity. Do not only take a proud on their past history, but they must also be capable of promoting their culture to other nations. In this case, educational institutions play significant role to introduce and stimulate Indonesian people, especially youth, to their own local culture.

So, how to establish harmonious relation with Malaysia starting from Yogyakarta? When Condroyono was offered such question, he replied that there should be an intensive communication to avoid bad prejudice.

Condroyono`s remark was supported by Mahyudin Al Mudra. Mahyudin often emphasized cultural similarities between Indonesia and Malaysia. Academicians, cultural experts, and intellectual figures from Malaysia express their cordial appreciation for Indonesian people`s efforts, including MelayuOnline.com, to develop Malay culture.

Now we can see that setting harmonious relations with Malaysia can be conducted if both seek to view those efforts through cultural point of view. So far, MelayuOnline.com has made harmonious relations with other institutions from Malaysia.

 “Indeed, the raise of political tension between Indonesia and Malaysia should be the consideration to intensify Malay cultural preservation more frequently. So far, the involvements of Indonesian government in cultural preservation are still low. Besides, from those efforts hopefully the new awareness of multiculturalism among the teenagers can tighten up national solidarity,” Mahyudin said.

Mahyudin added, “Culture must be used to bridge political clashes. If there are few differences, we should accept them as media to create harmonious living. For instance, a beautiful garden is a garden where numerous flowers with various colours grow up.” (RI/brt/11/12-07)

(NI/ter/09/07-08)

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