JAKARTA — Dompet Dhuafa and Bina Trubus Swadaya held a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) on Culture and Empowerment at Bentara Budaya Jakarta (BBJ) on Wednesday (29/5/2024). Titled “Revitalizing the Brilliance of Local Culture in Building National Character as a Means of Community Empowerment”, the FGD which was held from 09.00 to 16.00 WIB was attended by national figures in formulating Indonesian culture as an effort to empower the community.
In his speech, Rahmad Riyadi as the Chair of the FGD event, said that the meeting and discussion were needed to understand cultural changes and build a network of friendship between cultural activists and community empowerment. And in relation to community empowerment, culture is realized as one of the important elements in empowerment. In addition, Dompet Dhuafa and discussion participants need to know the practice of cultural empowerment originating from local initiatives that have been successful in a sustainable manner both ethically and mythically.
“This was motivated by the concerns of Dompet Dhuafa initiators and discussions with Bina Trubus Swadaya. Indonesia is rich in natural resources, islands, provinces, diverse tribes, cultures and languages. This wealth can be potentially positive as a national advantage, but also potentially negative due to the threat of disintegration. Therefore, a community empowerment strategy based on local cultural wisdom is needed in nation building. There are still many opportunities,” said Rahmad Riyadi.
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Giving the keynote speech, Parni Hadi as the Initiator and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Dompet Dhuafa Republika Foundation expressed his concern about the poverty and progress of Indonesia. He also said that Indonesia has Pancasila, which is noble, great and beautiful. But there seems to be no real impact. He also touched on the corrupt mentality and signaled the decline of character.
“Poverty is increasing, what is wrong? Is it possible that this nation is only good at talking? Can talk but cannot implement. There is a lot of talk and writing but it doesn’t seem to be implemented in real life. I am really sad, when corruption, cheating, lying, cheating and prioritizing personal interests over the interests of the nation and state have become commonplace, in my opinion it is a sign of deterioration of character,” said Parni.
“Let’s look for practical ideas, we should not only talk but not do. Let’s dissect and unpack today’s FGD, then formulate and come up with concrete steps that can be accepted and practiced,” she said.
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Also present was the Founder and Chairman of the Bina Trubus Swadaya Foundation, Bambang Ismawan. In his keynote speech, he stated that his commitment through Bina Trubus Swadaya in fostering and empowering the community continues. Bina Trubus Swadaya, which has been established for 57 years, feels that it has not been empowered, which also encourages Bina Trubus Swadaya to open itself and want to learn to cooperate, especially by building a culture with Dompet Dhuafa.
“So take care, foster and love. This is what Bina Trubus Swadaya uses. In our opinion, we always try to use wise steps but it is not mandatory, what is mandatory is to go down to the field. Real action, just do it, from there conclude theories, then formulate these theories. I feel that by being here, let’s learn from each other based on our shared cultural experiences. Thank you Dompet Dhuafa, there are always new things we can learn,” said Bambang Ismoyo.
Then the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Suluk Nusantara Foundation, Bambang Wiwoho, in his next speech also expressed his gratitude in his struggle to preserve the culture of the archipelago which received concrete support from Dompet Dhuafa. He said that Suluk Nusantara is not only a forum for cultural preservation, but also a forum for activities for the elderly to stay healthy in old age. But he is also concerned about the erosion of empathy, courtesy and national ethics that were once glorified. On the streets, the wrong person is reprimanded and gets angry.
In the first discussion session moderated by Wahyu Wiwoho, Senior Journalist of Media Group and raised the theme ‘Reflection on Local Culture in the Context of Community Empowerment and Government Strategy’. There were also four speakers, namely Restu Gunawan as Director of Development of Cultural Personnel and Institutions, Director General of Culture of the Ministry of Education and Culture; Nurhayati Rahman as Professor of Hasanudin University; Garin Nugroho Riyanto as Film Art Practitioner; and Yudi Latif as Member of the Board of Trustees of Dompet Dhuafa.
Restu Gunawan presented a map of the cultural development index in Indonesia. The astonishing thing in the data is that awareness of national culture is very low. He cited examples such as traditional herbal drinks, skincare cosmetics and batik clothes.
Jamu has become a world cultural heritage that has been recognized by UNESCO, but sadly, do modern people today drink jamu when they are sick, or drink jamu to maintain their health? In fact, herbal medicine is slowly being abandoned and replaced with modern medicines. The same goes for skincare, people are more confident in using external skincare rather than traditional skincare ingredients.
On the same occasion, Nurhayati Rahman, an academic who researched and reconstructed the local wisdom culture of the Bugis tribe reflected through ancient manuscripts, explained that Indonesian culture is a very large culture, even the only country in the world that has 1,000 tribes in one country.
He proved this by transcribing the ancient I La Galigo manuscript written on pre-Islamic era palm leaves, an ancient manuscript recorded in several countries, such as Amsterdam and the Netherlands, but which was confirmed by UNESCO as Memory of the World in 2011. Unfortunately, the existence of these ancient manuscripts is actually cared for abroad because Indonesia has not been able to care for ancient manuscripts, it is feared that they will be damaged if they are not properly cared for.
Unlike South Korea, he said, which systematically designs creative industries based on local culture including film, culinary and music by gathering the best people in their fields so that their products are loved, especially by teenagers in various parts of the world including Indonesia.
“Those who dominate the state and political stage here are popular politicians, religious figures who have large masses, the military and political thugs who join in. Figures who understand the humanities do not even appear,” he said.
Meanwhile, Yudi Latif highlighted budi pekerti, which is translated as Budi which means culture and pekerti which means material printed as behavior. That is why many movements in the country were spearheaded by movements inspired by ethics, such as the youth oath movement and others.
In the second discussion session moderated by Fatchuri Rosidin, Director of IMZ and Historical Novel Writer, and raised the theme ‘Best Practice of Community Cultural Development’ also presented four speakers namely GKR Mangkubumi from the Yogyakarta Palace, Maria Loreta from the Flores Agro Sorghum Foundation, Andi Makmur Makka as a Member of the Board of Trustees of Dompet Dhuafa and Bone Representative, Ilham Khoiri from Bentara Budaya Kompas.
GKR Mangkubumi talked about the revitalization of the Yogyakarta Palace area. She explained the three philosophies used in the philosophical axis of the order. The three philosophies are (1) Sangkan Paraning Dumadi: is the main credo of Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono l, with the ultimate goal being Gusti Allah but it is important to humanize humans; (2) Hamemayu Hayuning Bawana: maintaining harmony of life with nature; (3) Manunggaling Kawula Gusti: leaders and people unite. Javanese culture prioritizes obligations over rights, tolerance and harmony and humanizes humans, not only in mind, but also in feelings and denies the pursuit of power.
“We (the sultanate) try to participate in organizing and proclaiming our customs and philosophy, following the times as in social media. Now we want to open as awareness this is our custom so that culture is not buried by itself. Culture is identity, self-confidence. We prioritize obligations without asking for rights. It emphasizes harmony. But it’s all about how to humanize people. Because of that respect, sensitivity arises. In Java there is a saying ‘sing bener durung tentu pener (what is right is not necessarily right)’, so don’t just be right but fitting,” said GKR Mangkubumi.
Another speaker, a sorghum planting activist in Flores, East Nusa Tenggara, Maria Loretta, admitted that she struggled to invite people to plant sorghum in the NTT region where the soil is dry and rocky, and cannot be planted with rice, corn or other crops.
She regretted that the government program of planting rice or corn in Flores seemed forced because it could not grow well on dry land covered with rocks. She develops community empowerment from the economic side in the cultural aspect of the Lamaholot tradition.
With the help of the media, according to Maria, she managed to get the sorghum seeds she needed, and now her business has succeeded. The harvested sorghum is processed into various snacks or rice substitutes. She also said that community empowerment empowers her.
“Don’t generalize that the east is poor, that viral NTT is poor, stunting, no water, even though we have Flores coffee, a lot of potential sea fish, sorghum, and many others. We do this with our rules, evoke romance, fairy tales, the role of women in sacrifice to produce seeds. Rituals and traditions as empowerment, consume young corn, sorghum (watablolo), use traditions to repel pests,” said Maria.
Andi Makmur Makka reiterated, in Bugis culture, if you have spoken that is what you must do, you must not be arrogant about intelligence and courage. The concept of community and leader, people follow because of willingness, people can leave the leader.
Ilham Khoiri presented the message ‘Being Indonesian in the Midst of Cultural Transition’. This is done by Kompas Group in making local wisdom in a more modern form through Bentara Budaya. In his analysis, there are several influences in the cultural transition, among others: only 13% of people come to the library, education is less of a priority, political plagmatism is increasingly banal, corruption is rampant and law enforcement is weak, and the media is increasingly pressured.
“So our efforts (Kompas Group/Bentara Budaya) as a solution, these are our proposals and actions, namely no longer depending on the government to make ourselves cultured in ourselves, maintaining art collections, traditional and modern exhibitions, staging performing arts, book discussions and presenting the Bentara Award for art figures,” said Ilham.
The purpose of the Culture and Empowerment FGD is of course as a national gathering among supporters of culture and community empowerment in the archipelago. From there, this FGD collects traces of thought, noble feelings and commendable attitudes of observers of culture and community empowerment, as well as identifying noble cultures, formulating cultural characters in the archipelago, as well as formulating the goodness of culture in the archipelago for community empowerment efforts. In addition, it is also expected to make higher education and civil society play a role in building a positive culture of society and getting a model of community transformation through culture.
The series of FGDs and post FGD discussions will be documented in the form of proceedings and / or books as a policy brief for parties both government, Higher Education, civil society organizations and cultural organizations in order to build a positive culture of society. (Dompet Dhuafa)
Text: Dhika Prabowo, IMZ
Photo: Dhika Prabowo
Editor: Dedi Fadlil