Chinese-made batik has been flooding the local market in recent times, as reported by this paper this week, and the government swiftly put the blame on Indonesian businessmen whom it claims have smuggled the product into the country.

It is easy to blame others -- the practice is like a national past-time, however, what we have to ask ourselves is this: Was it really due to smuggling or is this phenomena simply a market mechanism?

The latter seems to have more truth than the former, as products with the right price will flow into a place where demand is high in this globalized world.

Rising demand for batik is a welcome trend, as more and more Indonesians are now wearing batik (which until now has never enjoyed wide popularity in the country, let alone become a nationwide fad).

Indonesians are acutely foreign brand-minded, in clothing and otherwise. When batik clothing proliferates in government offices or organizations, it is often due to an instruction from their respective leaders.

This is true of government ministries, as well as organizations like the Young Indonesian Entrepreneurs Association (HIPMI).

In trading commodities like batik, which is part of our cultural heritage, one could also go beyond its implications to trade as the issue of property rights is also involved.

The recent surge of batik popularity in Indonesia, interestingly, has not come from leaders but from our neighboring country, Malaysia.

Thanks to its recent claim of ownership over some Indonesian traditional cultural wealth such as the reog dance, the traditional Indonesian song Rasa Sayang-sayange and batik, locals reacted by donning batik as if they wanted to say batik belonged to us and would stay with us.

Nationalism is playing a part in the background, but it is debatable if that should be the right basis for a surge in batik sales.

When it comes to the promotion of Indonesian batik abroad, no one could come close to Nelson Mandela in terms of effectiveness and magnitude of influence. Not a single soul in this country of 230 million people could beat him -- not even our President, who likes to don batik shirts.

This is simply because Mandela has a more impressive international stature. Revered throughout the world for his magnanimity, which has been mirrored in his willingness to shake the hands of his political adversaries, the former president of South Africa is in fact the icon of Indonesian batik.

So great is his love for batik, he once refuted a request made by officials at Buckingham Palace by insisting on wearing batik during a meeting with the Queen.

The next day, the Western media reported the meeting and added that Mandela had worn a batik shirt with an African motif to the occasion.

This shows that Indonesian batik is less known in other countries although batik itself may have enjoyed some international popularity.

Perhaps we cannot claim that batik comes from Indonesia but that our country has been the biggest producer of batik.

The right response for Indonesia should have been a preparedness to tap into the rising demand both in local and overseas markets rather than lamenting the flooding of our markets with international products.

Locally produced batik must be able to compete with foreign-made batik, not only from China but also from Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore. There is no other way.

When Indonesians find foreign products that are more affordable, we need to look at reasons why we should shun our own products.

Local hand-made batik prices could reach up to Rp 8 million (about US$800) apiece. But there are good local products whose prices are affordable to many.

Our homework here is to find ways to increase our efficiency, improve our discipline in production lines, material procurement and pricing strategies and find better distribution mechanisms for products.

On top of that, we are hopelessly weak in matters related to patenting and intellectual property rights protection. Much of our cultural wealth like sambal, batik, wood and silver carvings, coffee and tempe have been patented by other countries.

We are have also been weak in unveiling the rich history behind our traditional batik motifs, which could shed some light into our past.

We need to right all this. At the very least the government can spur our businesspeople to produce competitively priced batik in the market and come up with draft laws to protect our cultural heritage.

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