For Indonesians, batik is a matter of national pride
[Batik print shirts like the one worn by Mr Sihhanto, owner of a wayang kulit handicraft shop in Solo, Indonesia, are popular in the nation. Both batik and wayang kulit are cultural traditions Indonesians seek to preserve. PHOTO: ATIYYAH MOHAMED SAID]
by Lynn Lee
WHEN it comes to their culture, Indonesians are full of pride - and they want the world to know it.
Recently, the country's bid to get batik on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation's (Unesco) list of "intangible cultural heritage" got a boost, when a six-country team at the UN body gave a thumbs-up to its painstakingly prepared proposal.
A 24-country committee will decide in September if batik - fabric decorated with intricate patterns in hot wax and then dyed - should be considered among the world's living cultural traditions worthy of preservation.
A go-ahead from the committee means batik will be the third item - after Javanese wayang kulit and the kris - that the Indonesian government has to ensure never becomes extinct.
There are currently close to 100 items on the list, with approval pending for around 70 others, including batik.
Indonesia's deputy ambassador to Unesco, Mr Dindin Wahyudin, said he is optimistic that batik would make the cut.
So are the self-styled batik activists, who wax lyrical about how batik is intertwined with Indonesia's history. Back then, it was worn by anyone from shopkeepers to sultans, with the quality of fabric, colours and motifs signalling one's station in life.
Today, batik prints are still common - as work gear or at formal events - with local designers targeting the youth market by churning out trendy batik garments.
Batik expert Gaura Mancacaritadipura - who helped put together Indonesia's Unesco bid - said batik is found in 19 of Indonesia's 33 provinces, from Aceh to Papua, with each area having designs unique to it.
"Batik motifs in Indonesia carry much symbolic meaning. For instance, the patterns that are worn change through the course of a person's life, from birth when the baby is swaddled in batik cloth, to marriage and even to death," he told The Straits Times.
Unesco's recognition of batik will "stimulate" efforts to safeguard the tradition of batik-making, he added.
Ms Larasati Suliantoro, from the Indonesian Batik Lovers Association, also hopes that it will educate buyers on the difference between real batik and batik- printed fabric. "What's been happening (in recent years) is a boom in textiles with batik patterns... so it's our responsibility to encourage a reawakening to real batik," she told The Jakarta Post.
Indeed, Indonesia's age-old batik industry has always been under threat from foreign copies.
Dr Farish Noor, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, points out that one factor which contributed to the nationalist movement in the 1920s was collective action from Javanese batik producers against Dutch and Western imported batik imitations.
In recent years, producers have had to battle mass-market copies from China, for instance.
Indonesia's Industry Ministry estimated last year that foreign batik made up 10 per cent, or 290 billion rupiah (S$41 million), of the 2.9 trillion rupiah domestic market.
Local producers have been urging buyers to stay local and calling for the Trade Ministry to protect the industry.
But their words have not had much effect, seeing as how China-made batik retails for between 10,000 rupiah and 100,000 rupiah a piece, about half the price of local cotton batik, according to The Jakarta Post.
But another sentiment seems to be driving Indonesia's Unesco bid: a deep-seated need for the batik tradition to be recognised as belonging to Indonesia.
A press release by the Ministry of Information and Communication on June 10 hinted at this, when it said batik was Indonesia's "intellectual property" and that if it did make it on the Unesco list as the "genuine cultural heritage of Indonesia, no other country can lay claim to it".
Malaysia had previously claimed that batik was also part of its cultural heritage, resulting in a public outcry in Indonesia and straining diplomatic ties between both countries.
Till today, the batik dispute still ranks among the unresolved tiffs between both neighbours that could rear its head again, just like the ongoing dispute over the oil-rich region of Ambalat near their borders.
Mr Gaura, however, insists that the aim of getting batik on the Unesco list is not to put a "patent" on its production. "What we are seeking is just recognition that it's a living cultural heritage worthy of preservation."
Mr Dindin also said that the issue has "nothing to do with Malaysia taking out copyrights on batik", adding that Malaysia had claimed that some patterns originated from the country.
Dr Farish is sympathetic to the Indonesians' claim, as batik is "intimately connected" to their identity.
"In Malaysia, most Malaysians don't even realise that what is sold as Malaysian batik is either Indonesian- imported batik or local imitations. For the Indonesians, this is seen as another instance of a foreign country 'stealing' their traditional patterns and motifs and claiming them as theirs," he said.
Meanwhile, the Indonesian pride in batik is thriving, especially abroad.
Responding to queries from the local communities, the Indonesian embassies in Namibia and Qatar recently held talks on the batik tradition.
Ambassador Rozy Munir, who is based in Doha, met around 50 members of the American Women's Association, and highlighted the difference between handmade and machine-printed batik, among other things.
"I also told them, you can find batik anywhere in the world today. But just go back to ancient literature, and you will know that it is definitely from Indonesia."
