Awaken the Submerged Stems
Illustration: Handining
Every year we commemorate National Awakening Day. The date of May 20 was set as National Awakening Day because that date in 1908 saw the establishment of an organization which was named Boedi Oetomo at the Stovia Batavia building. The building constituted a medical education institution, the School ter Opleiding van Indische Artsen.
The establishment of Boedi Oetomo was spearheaded by several young men, including R Soetomo and R Goenawan Mangoenkoesoemo.This organization was born as a fusion between the national spirit against colonialism and intellectual awareness of progress through "modern" education.
This event was not a coincidence, nor without a local historical background. It came from a cluster of Indies people who had developed their own “classic” educational system. Already elaborating a set of knowledge on the "kawruh" axis and detailing the "kawruh lahir" (real knowledge) and "kawruh batin" (inner knowledge), ”ngelmu lahir” and ”ngelmu batin".
"Kawruh lahir" is knowledge whose objects are real things and the power being used is real power, such as knowledge about nature like tanem tuwuh, pranata mangsa, and kanuragan (by human physical force).
"Kawruh batin" is knowledge whose objects are inner things and the power being used is inner power, such as "kawruh" on life and the living and relations between humans and God, kawruh kasukman.
There is a gradation (unda-usuik) between the real kawruh and inner kawruh, but there is no barrier separating the two, there is even a kind of continuity being interwoven. Inner kawruh on life and the living, the problematic of dumadi (origin), dependence, the attitude of saderma (obedience to God\'s rules), and things which are bener (correct) and pener (appropriate), ngerti (understand) and wasi (intelligent), up to the Kang Murbeng Gesang (the One God).They are all products of processing inner kawruh, concretely based on the concrete experience that occurs in the sphere of real kawruh.
Even though there are differences, not infrequently there is assimilation, even the occurrence so that the position of the inner kawruh is the same as the real kawruh. Tanem tuwuh (cultivating) and pranata mangsa(season calculation), for example, which are initially the real kawruh, later become the thought of inner kawruh, when the reality reveals an inner meaning about life, the living, dumadi, purwa-madya-wasana (the beginning, intermediate, last part), and up to the dependence of life of Kang Paring Gesang (the One God), Kang AmongTuwuh.
Closely related to the kawruh learning, it also expressed the gradation of its understanding with typical terms: weru (to know), ngerti (understand), sumurup, miyat, tampa, nampa, ngrasa, pana, pengerten, panampa, pangrasa, ngelmu, wikan, dong, dunung.
All of them show how a process of diligent and careful observation has taken place in knowledge and its mastery level, in such a way until the establishment of the terms have their own significance. Compared with the predicate of graduation of university examinations which have a gradation of six comprehensions/mastery of materials tested: doubtful, good, satisfying, very satisfying, cum laude, summa cum laude.
Nearly all of the various kawruh have been written in books. Governor-general Raffles referred to the book of Serat Centini as ”the Javanese Encyclopaedia” because it contained various forms of knowledge; from things like how make food/beverages, medicines (jamu), through the meaning and form and the way to present -- nasi tumpeng, bubur sumsum, sajen— up to sexual education.
Even though it is so comprehensive, it turns out ”kawruh” could not compete with the Dutch ”scientific knowledge”, which was learned through the "modern " education system. The Western knowledge gave the power to the Dutch and with its intellectual power it conquered the Indies. In fact, the windmill country was only as big as West Java, the population less than one third of the population of Java.
Therefore, the educated Javanese youths from Boedi Oetomo concluded that the most important road that had to be taken to liberate the nation was to master this "scientific knowledge" through the "modern" Western education system. The first step to this was the formation of ”Studie fonds” (Study Funds). Their attitude really reflected the awareness of "awakening the submerged stems" and deserves to be called National Awakening.
Rewriting the history
Meanwhile, with their scientific knowledge the Dutch wrote our history, which was taught in formal education. If we meditated critically, according to the spirit of scholarship, there was a deliberate intention not to narrate the natural nature of our earth of birth and, related to it, our past advantages, aside from the ugliness and defects, which were greatly highlighted.
We once had a female admiral, Malahayati, who was able to expel the Portuguese fleet from the waters around Aceh, including the Malacca Strait.
We are a nation of sailors. It is not a coincidence that our ancestors coined the term "Tanah Air" (Motherland) whose equivalent in the West is ”Moederland”, ”Lapatrie” and ”Heimat”. Two thirds of the total surface of Indonesia is composed of water (oceans). All the kingdoms that once prevailed here were closely related to the sea. A British sailor reportedly claimed to have witnessed the existence of a formidable navy from the Kingdom of Ternate. In Borobudur Temple, which was built in the ninth century there are reliefs of three-masted outrigger ships, which according to their sizes at that time were classified as "ocean-going vessels".
We once had a female admiral, Malahayati, who was able to expel the Portuguese fleet from the waters around Aceh, including the Malacca Strait. While Portugal, with its fleet, was then recognized as the "world power".
Until the fall of the Dutch Kingdom due to the invasion of Hitler\'s Nazi soldiers, the Academy of the Dutch Navy (Den Helder) did not want to accept Indonesian cadets, even though the Academy of the Army (Brede) had long accepted them. The Dutch seemed to consciously want to turn off the spirit of our maritime affairs. We were really fascinated by the teachings of Dutch history, which was said to be all scientific, until we were negligent after independence in building sea power. The national resilience doctrine we devised was highly land-based.
Therefore, it is time for us to rewrite our own biographical history, giving meanings to the life events in order to stir up the submerged stems. This effort is a challenge of its own for our historians.
This work is not easy. People are recognized as "historians" if they earn their degrees from scientific educational institutions. While there is still the assumption that the "history" is not a science (IP), but something close to "humanities", at best, it is classified as social science in which it is judged the "least scientific". Meanwhile, the field of the government is frequently termed "political science" and the economy is associated with "economic science", the department of historical learning is rarely called the "department of historical science".
People are used to imagining IP with experimental methods, which define the objects strictly so that they can become objects of experiments that can be repeated in the laboratory, regardless of the prevailing political, ideological and social conditions.
However, the term IP which is the equivalent of the word "science", comes from the Latin word "scire" (to know) and "scientia” (knowledge), which is obtained through any method that is considered appropriate with a certain field being assessed.
The discussion of history is an intellectual activity which has never been stale even if always about the same theme. Instinctively there is always a tendency in the human self to know the past of the human and based on the knowledge to hope to learn lessons in order to predict the coming of one’s humanity.
The word "history" is used according to two different meanings and indeed quite confusing, namely according to the subjective and objective meanings. Initially this subjective meaning is used. The Greek word "historia" means "investigation" and hence can be used to express something about anything. The use of the meaning is reflected today in the term ”natural history”which in the West means an investigation of the state of non-human being living in the world.
However, over time the Greeks themselves arbitrarily restricted here and there the subjective notion of ”historia ” to the investigation of things that have happened on human life. Then through a shift of understanding from the subjective usage to objective usage, the word ”historia ” was also used to show the past in the life of humanity itself. The dual use of the word ”historia ” or "history” is indeed sometimes quite confusing.
Moh. Saleh with Boedi Oetomo friends at the STOVIA Building yard in 1908. Sitting from left to right: Goenawan Mangoenkoesoemo, Latoemeten, Moh. Arsjad and Angka Prodjosoedirdjo; Standing from left to right: Moh. Saleh, Soesilo, Soetomo and Goembrek.
Reality is closely related to fact and each historian will surely use the word "fact" without hesitation. For historians, the facts of human past are the treasury of their works. However, it is good for historians to ask themselves what is meant as "facts" that are assumed to be "realities" and where they get them from. Is what is regarded as facts-realities an object outside of itself, such as a stone or a piece of wood being met and can be quoted along the path of human life? Are the facts-realities really not the results of the creation of his or her own mind without any counterpart in the life outside his or herself?
Consciousness of values
Education in the field of history clearly plays a role in providing awareness of the values, ways of thinking, views of life, and ancestor temperament in the realization of national culture (value system) throughout its life as a nation.
Indonesia may be said to have been born in August 1945, but when proclaiming its independence the Indonesian nation had one culture that had been inherited for a long time. The Indonesian nation at that time clearly had a long history, both if it is seen from the angle of every region and ethnicity as an independent element and when those territories are viewed in the unity of the nation.
The knowledge about the glory which has been achieved by the nation in the past, as well as, even the awareness of the suffering of the nation in fighting for independence against the colonial power, will inspire pride in Indonesian children in the role of the nation in all of its presence among mankind on earth and strengthen the sense of honor as a member if this nation. Indonesian children at every moment of every generation need to be given an awareness of their nation\'s overall life as the background of their own births. Familiarize them as important elements in a series of continuity of the nation since ancient times.
Historical narratives greatly assist in the cultivation of the awareness of this long struggle in our students, about their position as the chains between the past times and the future. As points which form growing lines, whichever points are taken, it is always a point between two points, namely the preceding point and the point that follows. And, as a point in between, as a generation between the past and the future, the Indonesia Nation-State should be seen not only as a "heritage" but also as a "promise". As an inheritance that is accepted as such, but as a promise that has to be nurtured to proceed further.
It is this awareness which needs to be raised, awakening the submerged stems, and then nurtured in the characters of the students through the history of the struggle of the nation and its culture. National Awakening Day as one of the milestones of society, nation and state, constitutes a typical concern from whoever who feels to have been called to cultivate the field of history. La noblesse oblige! We can be creatures who are randomly thrown among a great number of materials and stars, but despite remaining confined there, we are able to create a strong enough self-image to reject our "nothingness" and at the same time, declare that we are "something". And history, thanks to the performance of historians, can help the realization of this ability.
History studies about human community can be carried out equally scientifically with studies on anything and anytime, by teaching what has shaped the modern world and what has the potential to shape our future.
DAOED JOESOEF
Alumnus of Universite Pluridisciplinaires Pantheon-Sorbonne
