JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) offended Indonesians who he called inlanders because they were 'too submissive to Caucasians'. Even though a few days ago, Mr. Jokowi also shared his sadness because other countries respect Indonesia, while the Indonesian people themselves belittle their country. Why should our attitude towards the country be compared with the views of other countries? Apart from being irrelevant. Isn't that the nature of inferiority?
"I don't want this inferior mental, inlander mentality, the colonized mentality to still exist, still entrenched in the mentality of our nation," said Jokowi when giving a speech at the tenth anniversary of the Nasdem Party.
"Meeting Caucasians is like meeting anyone, I see. Sad we are. We sometimes look up too much like this. Wong is the same as eating rice too," he said while gesturing.
Jakarta State University sociologist, Achmad Siswanto sees this as a statement that deserves appreciation. Jokowi is right. We have been confined to feeling inferior to foreign nations for too long. Yes, although not suddenly. This is a social phenomenon that is formed as a historical legacy.
"We should appreciate this statement from the President. At least there is an effort to align our historical experience which was interpreted as inlander by the Dutch colonialists," said Siswanto to VOI, Friday, November 12.
And this inlander mentality, which is closely related to the inferiority trait, is a symptom that is consciously nurtured and unconsciously nurtured. Jokowi invites us to look within the framework of orientalism in order to rise from that feeling of inferiority.
"I think this statement has something to do with orientalism's frame of mind. Why is this inlander condition sustainable to this day."
"In the framework of orientalism, we can understand that this is preserved. How the West places the East. What is considered good by the West, must be considered good by the East. That is the framework of orientalism."
Historical heritage
In everyday conversation, the word indigenous is not a new term. The word indigenous permeated like a racist colonial legacy that persists to this day. History records the birth of the word native from the womb of Dutch colonialism.
At that time the Company made a caste in the form of a racial classification of the population in the Dutch East Indies. At first glance, it doesn't look like the caste system in Hinduism. The Company divided it into three levels according to the Colonial Act 1854.
As stated by historian JJ Rizal, the contents of the law stipulate that the number one citizens of the Dutch East Indies are Europeanen or white Europeans. The number two citizen belongs to the Vreemde Oosterlingen Group – the Foreign East – which includes Chinese, Arabs, Indians, and other non-Europeans. And citizen number three is an inlander. Indigenous people themselves, which includes local communities, especially those who are Muslim.
As explained in the MEMORI article entitled The Origin of Indigenous Words and the Inlander Mentality, it is explained that the Merriam-Webster dictionary records the word inlander as a term that has been used since 1610. Based on the dictionary, the term inlander consists of two elements, namely inland and the -er suffix which means "one who lives in the inland."
While inland itself is defined as an area that may be a kind of hamlet or village. So it is natural that the Big Indonesian Dictionary (KBBI) also adopted the word inlander as a derogatory term for the natives in Indonesia by the Dutch during the colonial period. The proof can be seen in the early days of the Dutch conquering Jayakarta and changing it to Batavia in 1619.
“The Governor General of the VOC (1619-1623 and 1627-1629), Jan Pieterszoon Coen was very fond of the Chinese, who were considered diligent, tireless, and highly skilled. And, he despises indigenous people, who he says are lazy, unruly, and untrustworthy,” said Alwi Shahab in the book Robinhood Betawi: The Story of Betawi Tempo Doeloe (2002).
Perhaps Coen's opinion regarding the natives is the best known. But long before Coen, the view that looked down on Indonesians had begun in the first decades of the 17th century. Bernard HM Vlekke in the book Nusantara (1961) reveals a British explorer named Edmund Scott wrote many observations on local residents in Banten in 1603-1665. In his notes, Scott generalizes that Indonesians are lazy.
"They were all poor, for they had many slaves who were even lazier than their masters, and who ate faster than their pepper and rice grew."
Even though they understand that the term inlander is a mockery, strangely some people still think of the Dutch and Europeans as classy and great nations than the Indonesians. Along with that, some Indonesians also want to work like the Netherlands, go to school like the Netherlands, and speak Dutch.
Not surprisingly, there is what is called an inlander mentality. Quoting Mustakim in an article entitled Inlander (2019) in Tempo Magazine, he explained that the inlader mentality is the right sentence to describe the condition of the Indonesians who worship the Dutch people too much, so they want to try to align themselves with European-style life.
“From there, it seems that the seeds of inferiority, low self-esteem, or an inlander mentality appear, loss of self-confidence as a dignified nation. This attitude then permeated most of the Indonesian people as a colonized nation. That kind of low self-esteem has been passed down from generation to generation to this day.”
President Jokowi's inferior attitude
Up to here, all really just fine. We can absorb President Jokowi's enthusiasm as positive energy. But, if you remember a few days ago, Jokowi has just shown his inferiority.
He admits that he is sad, when the international community appreciates Indonesia, there are many people who belittle the state. Jokowi's statement comparing the perception of other nations with the people's view of their own country is considered irrelevant.
Other nations, however, do not experience the process of social reality that occurs. Meanwhile, society, its attitudes and views towards the state grew out of social reality. And it happens organically.
Apart from being irrelevant, Jokowi, who today wants us to get rid of the inlander mentality, has actually just shown his own inlander mentality. Jokowi's thinking is considered inferior. Why are the perceptions of other nations more important than the views of their own citizens?
"If we translate the President's statement, on the one hand he is trying to subsidize the public's confidence. But on the other hand the President also enters into the dominant reading of Western thought itself. He sees Indonesia from a Western perspective as well. Externally."
"So there are two things if we look at these symptoms in the framework of orientalism. So on the one hand the President wants his citizens to have confidence, but on the other hand he also evaluates from an international point of view as well."
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