Time to take stock and strengthen kinship ties

Tasyriq Hifzillah , Yogyakarta | Sat, 09/27/2008 11:58 AM | Opinion

Mudik (exodus) is when millions of Muslims return to their hometown or kampong to celebrate Lebaran (Idul Fitri) with their families or relatives. The highly respected Muslim scholar, the late Nurcholish Madjid, once described mudik as the peak of Indonesian Muslims' socio-religious experiences.

Another Muslim intellectual Jalaluddin Rakhmat in his book Islam Aktual (1997) argues mudik Lebaran is a savvy translation of Islamic idioms into Indonesian culture.in Indonesia do we find such phenomenon - mudikwhich often relates to tired faces, jostling, and happiness as they are going home," he said. Lebaran itself, Rakhmat adds, differs from Idul Fitri as it can only be found in Indonesia and among Muslims in Southeast Asian countries.

For that reason, amongst the Indonesian Muslims, "Idul Fitri" and "mudik" possess the same meaning for "return". Idul Fitri, however, is closer to the divine concept as Quraish Shihab has said that Idul Fitri is a returning of a person to his/her purity, free from any sins and faults.

But we also need to acknowledge that mudik offers an opportunity to show off the migrant's progress in their economy or social life.

The mudik tradition is beautifully described in a novel entitled Mudik (1997) written by Mustofa W. Hasyim. This novel depicts an atmosphere of social conditions in a slum alongside a railway track in Jakarta. The inhabitants' longings for their hometowns increase when trains move in an easterly direction. The yearning for their relatives, erstwhile friends, tranquil homes and beautiful remembrances of their past flings in their hometowns is inexorable.

Mudik carries many symbolic values among Indonesians. One of them is to trace back to the dawn of history their roots in their native land. It is just like a journey to the past, as an effort to look again at their origin.

Thus, they spare at least once a year to mudik, no matter how busy they are in the cities. Similar to the Javanese, with their slogan sangkan paraning dumadi (remembering one's origin), they view mudik as a manifestation of ferreting out their past, where they came from and how to relate it to their future.

Starting from this point, mudik is often viewed as a means to be friendly with "time" andThat is, the space to ruminate over one's history in three dimensions of time: Past, present and future. Likewise, it is a medium to investigate their past which shapes the present and determines their future.

On that point, the present appears to be the connector between the past and the future. Then a question appears: Have we reached our dreams that we had in the past?

Taking a look at the social values borne within mudik, it shows the importance of the strong bond between Indonesians which encourages people in the cities to return to their homeland at least once a year, and Idul Fitri or Lebaran is the right time.

That day, all family members from all over the archipelago gather with their extended families to celebrate this sacred moment by talking about their lives and economic welfare in the big cities.

Ties of kinship with relatives and erstwhile friends in the hometown may be a strong enough motivation to mudik for Lebaran. To some extent, this occasion can also be used to gain information on job vacations and other efforts to obtain better economic welfare and dignity rather than to continue living in the village. When a person is able to provide a better living in big cities, their ties of kinship become stronger, and mudik Lebaran is inevitable.

Ties of kinship amongst the mudikers do not solely occur amongst the living people, but with all elements of life -including the dead peopleand within as well. Mudik activities usually include meeting relatives, sungkem (asking for parent's blessings by kneeling) and pilgrimage to ancestors' graveyards.

The above facts show that Lebaran is part of a cultural activity, which has become an inveterate part of Indonesian culture and society. Principally, Lebaran and Idul Fitri are the same thing, but the difference is due to the cultural background.

However, these two concepts can still walk with each other, even though cultural clashes happen many a time.

Summarizing the above argument, mudik is a medium to raise the awareness of kinship and friendship in Indonesian society. People who earn a better living in the big cities are naturally eager to return to their hometowns, gather with their extended families and find overwhelming joy with former friends in their native land.

That is the time when parents fulfill their deep yearning for their sons after a long time of being separated. And sons give respect to their parents and so the parents feel they are still respected and loved.

Likewise, mudik Lebaran is a means of strengthening ties of kinship which begin to fade because of the huge wave of individualism developing in cities. Having close kinship and friendship is a necessity for everyone.

In the cities people begin to suffer from loss of kinship and friendship as a consequence of individualism, and on Lebaran day, they can fulfill their yearnings for their hometowns while strengthening ties of kinship with relatives, families, friends and the surrounding community.

The writer is a research staff in the Center for Research and Development of Ma-lay Culture, Yogyakarta. He can be reached at tasyrique@ hotmail.com

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