Dimas Setyawan

CCU Class 3
1610302089

REGIONAL FOLK TALES AS A CULTURE AND NATION

IDENTITY
Regional culture is a nation's wealth that needs to be taken seriously and
handled seriously, especially in entering regional autonomy and the era of
globalization. Believe it or not, the importance of the existence of regional culture,
because this culture in fact contributes greatly to the formation of national identity, and
also to the regeneration process of our nation.
In this regard, we must immediately realize the "negligence" and "fascination"
of foreign cultures that have been going on for a very long period of time, and now we
must be more concerned with our own culture, namely Indonesian culture - which
includes a variety of regional culture.

However, here, we are by no means ignoring the existence of foreign cultures;

foreign culture remains our concern in its capacity as a comparison for the development
of our own culture. Van Peursen (1985: 196) said, "Without the outside world there is
no inner experience, we cannot speak of the meaning of the world or the existence".
What is clear is that we now need to reposition proportionally the existence of various
regional cultures in the context of foreign cultural cultures.

Earlier, we should also be aware - with all my heart - that Indonesia as a very
diverse (plural) nation is a necessity, which is inevitable. For this reason, we must take
into account all elements of diversity in the nation building efforts in accordance with
the conditions of the times. Realistically, the diversity of our nation can be seen in
terms of ethnicity, religion, race, class, language and culture.

In this paper, the discussion is only focused on the element of "culture". In this
culture specifically we will talk about "folk tales" that are inherent in these cultural
elements. If the diversity of this nation is a necessity, cultural pluralism is automatically
a necessity. So, when we refer to "Indonesian culture", which is referenced and
included in our cognition is "a variety of regional cultures" that are scattered throughout
the territory of Indonesia (whether Javanese, Balinese, Lombok, Minangkabau,
Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Maluku, Irian, cultural etc).
 Thus, regional culture actually presents itself in a very pluralistic configuration.
In the concept of pluralism, diversity is a wealth that should be preserved and
developed conductively. Pluralism also recognizes that reality is not "single", so that
the diversity of Indonesian culture does not need to be united. In a sense, the
development of various cultures is still based on pluralistic principles.

During this time, the existence and development of regional culture received
less attention. Regional culture, which is actually very important and a cultural base
for the nation, is only considered to be merely a "supporter" of what is called "national
culture". For this reason, the existence of regional culture in the context of national
identity formation needs to be repositioned and seriously thought about its existence
and role in Indonesian society. That is, there needs to be an effort to give meaning so
that regional culture becomes something meaningful (meaningful) for the community
and also gets the right reward in its pluralistic characteristics.

Moreover, in order to enter into the enactment of regional autonomy and the
globalization era, regional culture should be the "root" and "source" for the formation
of national identity and the nation's regeneration process. Here we must be able to
return to our own cultural roots. If not, it can be predicted that it is very possible in the
midst of a global climate, we will not have an identity that truly grows out of our own
culture.

On that basis, regional culture is very important for the formation of national
characteristics. Abdul Hadi W.M. (1998: 8-9) have also stated that elements of tradition
remain a source of inspiration both in the formation of the nation's soul and the source
of the creation of new works. In poetry, for example, we see it in the works of Amir
Hamzah, Sutardji Calzoum Bachri, Emha Ainun Nadjib, Zawawi Imron. In the work
of prose, for example, we see it in the prose of the lyrics by Linus Suryadi AG,
Danarto's short stories, short stories and Umar Kayam novels, Ahmad Tohari's novels,
and Y.B. Mangunwijaya. In drama work, for example, we see it in the works of Arifin
C. Noer and N. Riantiarno. Likewise in other works of art such as painting, visuals,
dance, we see so many new works departing from the source and roots of tradition. The
reality of this culture proves that tradition is still an important foothold in creation.

For this reason, with efforts to empower regional culture, it means that we have
tried to function our regional culture for their respective communities. If we agree to
consider that regional cultural empowerment is important, now we must immediately
think about how to empower and revitalize regional culture.
 When viewed in the picture, the process of national identity formation in the
context of regional culture and foreign culture must actually be based more on the
culture of the region itself and not on foreign culture. In the formation of national
identity, it is regional culture that plays its role more, while foreign culture functions
indirectly to enrich the culture of the area.

From the picture it can be understood that these regional cultures should be the
main fundamentals in the formation of national identity, not foreign culture. The so-
called identity here is nothing but the characteristics of the nation's soul that are sourced
from their respective cultural roots. Regional cultures that shape the characteristics of
their respective communities, by themselves will also give identity to every child of
the Indonesian nation. In the process of modernization or in any situation the national
identity must remain.
In addition, we also need to realize that globalization simultaneously must have
brought two impacts, namely positive and negative impacts. Therefore, in entering the
era of globalization, the real challenge we must face is strengthening the moral and
national culture.

At present, this cultural challenge now seems to be neglected. Realistically, so

far we are still more inclined to be concerned with other challenges which in fact are
also important in globalization namely increasing competitiveness (economy) and
increasing mastery of science-technology. What is clear, these three big challenges, are
all related to the quality of human resources. Moral, cultured, highly competitive and
science and technology human resources, we build primarily through education, both
formal and non-formal education.

Because the most fundamental threat of globalization is cultural globalization -

which in this case coincides with economic globalization - the strategy that must be
prioritized is cultural strategy, which is actually not less important than economic
strategy.

In connection with this, the urgent problems that need to be questioned at this
time are: What is our cultural strategy so far? Has our cultural strategy been able to
provide opportunities for regional culture empowerment? If not, what kind of strategy
should we use so that regional culture can be proportionally empowered? These are the
fundamental problems which are actually the problems of our nation and which we
want to study here.
Role of Regional Culture
Almost all of our cultural observers have stated and even agreed that the
existence of regional culture cannot be ignored, especially in the lives of their
respective citizens. That said, because local culture has a very decisive role in the lives
of its people. Regional culture - and also including historical awareness - can basically
be seen as the basis for the formation of a nation identity. Edi Sedyawati (1994: 8)
states that regional culture - as a national cultural heritage - is what makes a nation's
culture have "roots".

Haviland (1988: 223) also states that cultural traditions (regions) can determine
the norms for regular behavior, and verbal art in general continues the customs and
cultural values of the region (nation). Every form of regional culture can add to the
close ties of the community's solidarity. Bascom (Danandjaja, 1997: 19) states, there
are four roles of regional culture namely:
(a) As a projective system is a reflection of the imagination of a collective,
(b) As ratification of institutions and cultural institutions,
(c) As a children's educational tool (pedagogical device), and

(d) As a means of control so that the norms of society will always be obeyed by
their collective members.

Then, what needs to be held here is that every person who has a local culture
and adheres to his values, must be able to expand himself to understand himself as an
Indonesian; rather than holding tight to the original values. That is, each person who
was originally directed by the "cultural area" of his own area and tribe, then needs to
expand the cultural area into the territory of Indonesian culture.

For example, the Javanese, without losing the characteristics of "Javanese"

must be able to feel as an Indonesian; Balinese people without having to lose "Balinese"
must be able to feel as an Indonesian. Likewise so on what happened to Sundanese,
Minangkabau, Batak, Lombok, Bugis, Maluku, Irian, and so on. According to
Yampolsky (1995: 702-8), in an effort to develop the culture of the region itself, narrow
feudal and regional attitudes and negative foreign cultural influences need to be
prevented.
 As Indonesians, each person in the regions does not have to lose their own
indigenous roots. Only each of them needs to broaden their cultural views and attitudes,
not change and replace indigenous cultures with Indonesian culture. The
distinctiveness of each region or ethnic group can be a "root" for the personal
development of each individual. Therefore, the root must be maintained.

Having a personality or self-identity is an absolute human interest. People who

do not have personality or self-identity, can be likened to as if someone who is blessed
by their characteristics because they feel there is no root. So, once again, the
peculiarities of the elements of each regional or tribal culture itself are very important
to be maintained - moreover if in the future there will truly be regional autonomy and
the global era with the local culture.

With a solid root, which is a guarantee of cultural continuity, the development

of national character is guaranteed to be able to deal with situations in all ages. The
influence of globalization - as it is often feared can eliminate the personality of the
nation - will be dealt with without fear. It is precisely human beings whose strong roots
in their own culture will be more able to accommodate that influence selectively
according to their personality.

Such a person can be said to be a person who has the strength of character and
identity, so that he is not easily deterred. Thus, he is able to expand the range of life in
accordance with the times, without having to lose his personal character. He is also
able to face or conduct modernization and innovation in various aspects of his life. For
example, in an artist, the strength of his identity will be seen in his artistic expression.
Culture Strategy Update

Regarding the cultural strategy, we can find out through article 32 of the 1945
Constitution which reads: "The Government advances Indonesian national culture."
The short phrase explicitly shows that our focus seems to be more on improving and
developing "national culture". National culture "it has not been clear so far, aka still
blurred. The concept of what is actually meant by" national culture ".
Furthermore, if we look at the explanation of the article in it it says:

The nation's culture is culture which arises as the fruit of the efforts of the
Indonesian people as a whole. The old and original culture which was found as the
culmination of culture in regions throughout Indonesia was counted as national culture.
Cultural efforts must lead to the progress of adab, culture, and unity, by not rejecting
new materials and foreign cultures that can develop or enrich the nation's own culture,
and enhance the humanity of the Indonesian people.
 If the article and explanation are examined carefully, it seems that there is a
lack of clarity on how to understand regional culture and national culture. However,
what is clear, "regional culture" here seems to have no significance. Coupled with the
use of the term "national culture" in the article, it can be considered truly not neutral.
Why? Because the term seems more a political ideology than a neutral term that refers
to cultural concepts.

In other words, the term "national culture" is more likely to be a political slogan
which during the New Order regime (Orba) was often used as a political tool for the
government to suppress local genius. Even if it is deemed necessary, Orba indirectly
has also germinated the seeds of the growth of all the local energy of our nation's
culture.

What is clear, the New Order does have an interest in all that, which is based
on two reasons, namely:

(1) To obtain certainty that regional loyalty does not threaten national unity and
at the same time an assessment of diversity and diversity should not lead to
national disintegration.

(2) The culture deliberately wants to be perceived as the creator of a good

condition to accelerate economic and technological growth. Then
sloganistik expressions such as "fostering culture" clearly indicates how
the Orba government ceaselessly always eager to put everything related to
national culture into the "grip" of government control.

For all that, the term "national culture" here can be considered irrelevant to
examine the phenomenon of Indonesian cultural pluralism. In addition, we can also
witness a "cultural tragedy" in the form of the fact that the New Order regime in the
past has become a real example of the engineering of a national culture that is carried
out through violent and physical political processes.

For this reason, the term "national culture" - as stated in the article - now should
not be used again. A very fundamental reason is that the phrase is systematically carried
out through a bureaucratic path that tends to repress the critical power and appreciative
power of society.
 In this case, the interests of the bureaucracy often intervene and hegemony
culture, making the culture not have the freedom to develop themselves naturally. One
concrete example is that many performing arts (whether puppet art, folk theater, or
others) during the New Order regime only became "bureaucratic vehicles", which can
be clearly seen from the messages conveyed, which tend to be tendentious.
Consequently, traditional arts cannot display themselves as a whole as art creations.

With the term national culture, it is also often the value of plurality that is not
valued; regional cultural diversity as if its growth and development were curbed. It
seems as if it does not have a clear space in its community environment. Culture tends
to lead to a monolithic centrality.
In such conditions, regional culture automatically does not become an
important element. Regional culture does not get serious attention. So it is not
surprising if many of our regional cultures (traditions) are difficult to develop and even
experience dead culture. Should our regional cultural destiny be left in that position?
What is clear, we must reposition the cultural position of the region, so that the culture
of the region can develop proportionally.

For all that, the term "national culture" here can be considered irrelevant to
examine the phenomenon of Indonesian cultural pluralism. In addition, we can also
witness a "cultural tragedy" in the form of the fact that the New Order regime in the
past has become a real example of the engineering of a national culture that is carried
out through violent and physical political processes.
For this reason, the term "national culture" - as stated in the article - now should
not be used again. A very fundamental reason is that the phrase is systematically carried
out through a bureaucratic path that tends to repress the critical power and appreciative
power of society.

In this case, the interests of the bureaucracy often intervene and hegemony
culture, making the culture not have the freedom to develop themselves naturally. One
concrete example is that many performing arts (whether puppet art, folk theater, or
others) during the New Order regime only became "bureaucratic vehicles", which can
be clearly seen from the messages conveyed, which tend to be tendentious.
Consequently, traditional arts cannot display themselves as a whole as art creations.

With the term national culture, it is also often the value of plurality that is not
valued; regional cultural diversity as if its growth and development were curbed. It
seems as if it does not have a clear space in its community environment. Culture tends
to lead to a monolithic centrality.
 In such conditions, regional culture automatically does not become an
important element. Regional culture does not get serious attention. So it is not
surprising if many of our regional cultures (traditions) are difficult to develop and even
experience dead culture. Should our regional cultural destiny be left in that position?
What is clear, we must reposition the cultural position of the region, so that the culture
of the region can develop proportionally.

Therefore, article 32 of the 1945 Constitution needs to be reformed (amended)

so that it can substantially accommodate the existence and interests of regional cultural
development. Political terms, such as "national culture", should be replaced with other
expressions, which are more neutral and truly represent the cultural substance itself.
For example, the term "national culture" might be more neutral if it were replaced with
the term "Indonesian culture", because we felt we could interpret more about the values
of "Indonesian-ness" and covered by various regional cultures throughout Indonesia.
With the concept of "national culture", then what we can interpret, of course, is very
unclear.

On that basis, today, our cultural strategy should need to be redirected to

regional cultural empowerment (tradition), which is widespread in all corners of the
country. Preservation and development of regional culture has an important meaning,
because it is with culture that we can shape national identity.

Folk Story: Its Conservation and Development

Folk stories are part of regional culture and at the same time as an element of
Indonesian culture. This folktale actually still lives in each of the communities. It's just
that, because there is no protection, folklore seems to have died.

In fact, in some areas folklore is still very popular. Just one example, in the area
of Bali, folklore is still often spoken in the community. Folk stories are still considered
as part of functional regional cultural elements for the mental formation and personality
of the community.

In the position of regional culture, folklore is one form of oral tradition

(folklore) that exists in Indonesian society which influences the social change of the
supporting community. In folklore it is often reflected in the social phenomena of the
people.
 Overall, Danandjaja (1997: 22) classifies oral traditions into six forms, namely:
(a) folk language, (b) traditional expressions, (c) traditional statements, (d) poems in
folk poetry, (e) folk prose stories, and (f) folk songs. However, based on observations
in the field, among these forms the story of people's prose has the most influence on
the social life of the community.

According to Bascom (Danandjaja, 1997: 50), the prose story was later
classified again into (a) myth (b), (b) legend, and folklore (folktale). These folktales
spread in all regions of Indonesia. For example, we know the story of Dewi Rengganis
in Lombok society, Jayaprana in Balinese society, Walisanga in Javanese society,
Makyong in Minang community, Bini-bini in Rote, Rara Anteng and Jaka Seger in the
Tengger community. Then in Makassar there was the Sinlirik tradition, in Kalimantan
there was the Kaharingan tradition, and so on.
Oral traditions or stories of oral prose as such play an important role, an
effective means for means of moral education in a family (non-formal) environment.
For this reason, folklore as part of regional culture needs to be preserved and developed.

Referring to the term "preservation", preservation is not given the meaning "still
as it was, unchanging, eternal" (as it is still very dominant in the meantime). It should
be realized that the concept of "preservation" actually contains the notion of "continuity
and change" (Singleton, 1974: 29).

This concept can also be attributed to Herskovits's (1956: 18) statement on one
of the basic natura of cultures that the paradox that always exists in the culture itself is:
"Culture is stable, yet culture is also dynamic, and manifests continuous and constant
change ". That is, a culture has in itself at the same time a stable state and an everchange
state.

Through this way of thinking, we can now free ourselves from the paradox of
meaning in that "sustainable" sense. What is clear, the problem of conservation and
change is not "absolute", but rather "relative".

In reality, we never find a culture that is truly static (except dead culture)
because in it there will definitely be an element that changes. On the contrary, there is
no culture that contains an element of dynamic (change) and sich, because surely there
will be in it elements that are sustainable, for example there are fundamental values of
the nation (values of religiosity, solidarity, tolerance, courtesy, etc.).
 For this reason, in efforts to preserve and develop regional culture, especially
in folklore (fairy tales), there are several efforts that can be proposed here.

(1) Socializing folklore in children from an early age dynamically, both within
the family, community, and school. With this socialization in the early
hours, children first know their own culture, before being strained with
foreign cultures through electronic media on television, the internet, or
satellite dishes.

(2) Revive "cultural breaches" or "cultural sacred bags" within the respective
cultural communities of their respective regions, both outside and inside
the school. Especially in extracurricular activities, students should be
invited to recognize, understand and appreciate their own culture, both in
the form of reading, telling, and staging stories of the area (in the form of
dramatic creative or children's drama).

(3) Establish reading gardens to foster a culture of literacy, with dominant

reading material about folk culture in the region. The ease of obtaining
regional cultural reading material and habituation of children in reading
regional cultural works, by itself will be able to foster children's love for
their own culture. Are not children today not much introduced to their own
culture? Are not now children already introduced to foreign cultures first?

(4) Making folklore the main material in television or radio broadcasts

(especially in children's shows), pictures, story books, toys, and so on. To
be able to realize all this, there needs to be mutually beneficial cooperation
between local governments, (owners) of the mass media, educational
institutions, communities, publishers, and all other relevant institutions.

(5) Promote and develop children's literature in Indonesia. So far, Indonesian

children's literature is not advanced and is not sought after by children's
readers because it has never involved "emotions" and "cognition" of
children, except the desire of the author and storyteller to lecture and teach
something that is not a child's problem (Kompas, 15 November 1999).

Children's stories or tales will become the mainstay of the Indonesian children's
literature again if the community is able to refresh the fairy tale with various
modifications, so that the tales are not abandoned because of their naivety. In other
words, we must deconstruct it in order to be able to compete in a sea of awesome pop
texts. Modifications for example can we do in the characterization, structure, and
discussion.
 Conclusion
With several efforts to empower regional culture (folklore), it is expected that
later generations of our nation will better recognize, understand, and live their own
culture. All of that is important for the formation of national identity and the nation's
regeneration process. Thus, national identity is not formed from foreign cultures (as
seen in the phenomena that occur today in our nation's children), but should be from
our own regional culture.

Our nation's children who are now very fond of a foreign culture - and seem to
have lost their identity - become a very serious nation's problem, which we must
overcome as wisely as possible. We know, their identity now seems not to be built from
their own culture. It is evident in their daily lives that they always identify themselves
with foreign idol figures.

They don't seem to know the characters in their local culture at all, let alone
moral messages or their noble cultural values. They seem to be loose and so alien to
their own culture. That fact is certainly an ironist that they live in the cultural
environment of their own region, but tend to live in foreign cultures.

This cultural reality is of course a concern for us for a long time, as if it has
been taken for granted, and sometimes escapes our awareness as a nation that should
have its own identity.

If such a cultural reality is not immediately anticipated, it is certain that our

future generations will lose their "roots", "resources", and "footholds". A further
consequence is that they will not have a clear national identity, they will lose "feeling,
soul, and regional spirit", even "sense, soul, and spirit of Indonesian’s" because in him
never grows and never implanted regional values (traditions) or Indonesian values.
If allowed to drag on like that, in turn, the term "Indonesia" - fast or slow - will
only become a pile of symbols without meaning, without soul, and will only become a
mere slogan.
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