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'Bendera' picks on national identity
The so-called "Chinese problem" epitomizes all the problems and complexities of Indonesian nationalism in the post-independence era
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The so-called "Chinese problem" epitomizes all the problems and complexities of Indonesian nationalism in the post-independence era.
For decades, sociologist Melly G. Tan says, Chinese-Indonesians have been struggling to resolve the issue. And when the country celebrates the 63rd anniversary of its independence this year, the problem will apparently still remain.
Kita Punya Bendera (We Have a Flag), a film by Kunstler-Concept Indonesia, shows how the problem of national identity -- especially regarding ethnic Chinese -- has not been fully settled.
The film brilliantly raises the issue through the mind of an elementary student named Timmy.
Timmy, played by talented newcomer Paulus, is a 10-year-old ethnic Chinese student at an Indonesian public school who becomes confused when he has to fill out an identity form, in which he is asked to state his descent or ethnicity.
His na*ve friend Jarwo (Bima Anggara) comments that Timmy was born in Jakarta and the city is part of Java island -- so Timmy writes on his form that he is Javanese.
Knowing that young Timmy has written the wrong ethnicity on the form, Bu Mira (Nurul Hidayati), his teacher, talks to him and tells him that he is Chinese and not Javanese.
Timmy becomes upset over the incident and asks his teacher why the school needs to differentiate its students by their ethnicity, a question that many young Indonesians today still want answered.
Bu Mira gives him a short answer; that is because we are different.
Indonesia is ethnically and culturally diverse, and when the country's founding fathers vowed to fight against Dutch colonialism under the banner of Indonesia as an imagined community -- as defined by Benedict Anderson --, they proudly announced the slogan of "unity in diversity".
However, in public schools, diversity means the existing local cultures representing a number of provinces from Sabang to Merauke. This is a huge problem for Timmy because when he looks up the atlas of Indonesian cultures, he does not find a chapter for Chinese culture. He suddenly feels different and alienated.
"Are we really Chinese?" he asks his grandfather, Tan Siaw Hong who is played by senior actor Hengky Solaiman.
Timmy is part of a group known as Chinese peranakan. According to Melly, members of this group are usually of mixed descent and do not speak Chinese as their mother language. This encompasses the majority of young Chinese-Indonesians today who have a cultural orientation that leans more towards the dominant culture of the area where they live.
Paulus, an ethnic Chinese, displays rare talent in his role portraying Timmy. In the movie, Timmy is shown struggling with an identity crisis: He feels different when he is around his pribumi (native Indonesian) friends and has very vague knowledge of his own ethnicity and culture.
In the midst of the crisis, his three best friends -- Jarwo, who is of Javanese descent, Romi (Taufan Bahtera Ismangun), of Batak descent and Nia (R. Grace Martha Ulibasa), of Balinese descent -- decided to help Timmy become a real Chinese by learning Chinese culture together.
"This film is not only about Chinese-Indonesians. It is about the philosophy of unity in diversity, and the search for self-identity," the film's director and writer, Steven Purba, told journalists after the movie's press screening at Blitz Megaplex Grand Indonesia.
He said the idea of writing the film actually came from his own experience. Growing up in a Chinese-dominated residential area, Steven, of Batak descent, said he knew what it felt like to be Timmy.
"I studied at a school dominated by Chinese. What I experienced was the reverse of Timmy's experience," Steven said.
The film shows Timmy's father, who runs a noodle shop, pondering over whether or not to send Timmy to a private school after learning about his son's confusion.
Kita Punya Bendera is Steven's debut on the big screen.
"I usually make documentary films," he said.
Having rushed finishing the movie, he said he was not really content with the end result and acknowledged the film was not flawless in many aspects.
Guitarist-composer Jubing Kristianto, who directed the movie's score, fortunately saves the movie from some cliche' patriotic songs. An ethnic Chinese from Semarang, Central Java, Jubing himself is an example of how his ethnicity does not make him less Indonesian.
A master of improvisation, he attractively rendered a Javanese traditional song, "Suwe Ora Jamu", into a lively guitar solo.
The movie is a breath of fresh air compared to other movies in the same genre, as it goes beyond respecting national heros and singing patriotic songs.
The film deals with the one question that some of the country's top thinkers and historians, like Muhammad Yamin and Soedjatmoko, have attempted to answer: What makes us Indonesian?
