As more and more young Indonesians adopt elements of foreign cultures, many people have expressed concern about the fate of local culture. The Jakarta Post intern, Australia National University international student Safira Mardjono, interviewed culture observer, author and journalist Goenawan Mohamad about the mixed-culture phenomenon via email. Below are the excerpts.
Question: On Jan. 24 last year, a band from Yogyakarta called Melancholic Bitch performed at the Salihara Theater (Goenawan Mohamad is a cofounder of Komunitas Salihara — ed.). The band’s songs carried messages on politics and romance and were sung in English. What is your opinion on this mixed-cultural music phenomenon, and what does it represent?
Answer: I think they are excitingly fresh — responding to the new cultural setting in which they grew up, an expression of Indonesia as an eclectic entity.
How does it contribute to Indonesian culture itself?
It is a creative impulse — and every creative impulse is a positive contribution to our cultural life.
How would you define the conception of “culture”?
I am allergic to definition. But if you insist, I think culture is an ongoing expansion of artistic and intellectual energy.
Does it mean it is an open process, such as in the same manner of the making of history?
It is definitely an open process.
Do you believe that there is such a thing as authenticity, especially in regard to culture? How does it relate to this mixed-cultural phenomenon?
Authenticity is a myth. Or it is a political construction. No culture — Greek, Islamic, Chinese — is a creatio ex nihilo. No culture is born out of nothing. It has always had different sources; it always has windows and corridors from which other articulations enter into its being. “Mixed culture” is a pleonasm.
Do you have a personal opinion or expectation for our young generation regarding Indonesian cultural awareness?
Every generation is an abstraction of a multiplicity of trends. You cannot judge it easily. There are those who shape their lives as men and women of indifference — I mean both socially and intellectually. But there are others who are committed to changing the world. When I meet the young generation, normally I meet the latter — and this gives me hope.
When you say “changing the world”, what sort of change do you hope to see?
A change that will make Indonesia a country where people live without fear of being humiliated by poverty, paralyzed by terror, marginalized by intolerance, misled by blind faith and brainwashed by constant media lies.
Melancholic Bitch is a pop/pop punk/trip hop indie band formed in a rural area of Yogyakarta in 1999. The band’s second and newest album, called Balada Joni dan Susi (The Ballads of Joni and Susi), was released in 2009. What makes this band distinct, however, is that its lyrics not only convey mere love messages but also its views on Indonesia’s political and social state, where everything, according to the band, can and has become politicized.
The band’s front man, Ugoran Prasad, is the main writer of the album’s lyrics. Other members include Yennu Ariendra, on guitar and synthesizer, Josef Herman Susilo also on guitar, Teguh Hari on bass and Septian Dwi Rima on drums. For the Balada Joni dan Susi album, however, there were additional contributors, namely Richardus Ardita on bass and Wiryo Pierna Haris on guitar.
Some of the band’s music can be heard on its website, http://www.myspace.com/melancholicbitch as well as http://www.last.fm/music/melancholic+bitch.
— Safira Mardjono
