NATIONALISM DISCOURSE OF IDENTITY POLITICS IN ACEH 

Zulfiadi Ahmad Husein
(PhD Student Political Science University of Gazi)

 The discussion about the topic below will analyze the discourses of nationalism that continues to evolve in the course of political history of contemporary Aceh. Aceh for being part of the Republic of Indonesia political to be degraded that refract Indonesian nationalism in the minds of the Acehnese. Reconstruction of Aceh's identity and then transformed into a new ethnically-based of nationalism. The objectives of this study is to look at the reconstruction of Aceh's identity that integrate with Indonesia's overall identity within the framework of the establishment of Nationalism. This is related to the dynamics of Acehnese identity related to negotiations between ethnic nationalism that was given by the “nature” with civic nationalism that was constructed by Indonesian State.

 Identity is a symbol to identify a community. Identity then restricted community with the concept of self and others. The existence of those communities must begin by maintaining its identity by way of reconstructing the differences between communities. Then nationalism formed based on the collective consciousness that arises from a number of communities to unite. Then how a community positioned itself between civic nationalism and ethnic nationalism.

Aceh's identity tries to integrate with the national identity to form Nationalism. The identity of is the basis the Acehnese to defend itself from any threat, even though the State. Nationalism in Aceh faded when the State fails to be present in the process of forming civic nationalism in Aceh since Old Order regime, New Order regime until the Reformation era. So that the hegemony of ethnic nationalism intensified in Aceh and destructive nationalism civic construction. The resistance against Indonesian nationalists disappointed then expanded so destructive nationalism that had been built previously by the strong, and ultimately become a threat to Indonesian nationalism itself. Aceh's independence, as a new social imaginary, the more crystallized and hegemonic political discourse in Aceh as a result of interpretation of ethnic nationalism. Ultimately the hegemonic discourse of ethnic nationalism also marked the dissolution of discourse the civic nationalism of Indonesian in the minds of the Acehnese.

  Tema di atas memfokuskan pada kajian wacana nasionalisme yang berkembang dalam perjalanan sejarah politik Aceh. Wacana nasionalisme yang sejatinya hanya sentralistik di level nasional kemudian bergeser pada level lokal, pergeseran hegemonik wacana nasionalisme ini terjadi akibat dari kondisi sosial politik yang berkembang secara tidak menentu di Aceh. Lalu pergeseran wacana ini menjadi masalah baru pada tingkat nasional karena mengganggu keutuhan negara. Nasionalisme kemudian dinilai mendasari perlawanan bersenjata di Aceh. Jika diselami lebih jauh, pewacanaan ini sebenarnya adalah suatu keniscayaan karena sebagai suatu imagined community, nasionalisme memiliki dinamika tersendiri.

Kealpaan Pemerintah dalam memahami bekerjanya imajinasi kolektif yang disebut sebagai nasionalisme tersebut justru berpotensi memperumit keadaan di berbagai wilayah di Indonesia. Nasionalisme mempunyai makna beragam dan pemaknaan tersebut dimanfaatkan menurut sudut pandang dan kepentingan masing-masing pengusungnya. Apalagi dengan adanya mobilisasi sentimen nasionalistik yang telah mendasari perlawanan terhadap kolonialis ataupun struktur yang mapan. Hanya saja yang menjadikan nasionalisme tersebut memiliki signifikansi politik adalah karena watak ideologis yang melekat dalam imajinasi kolektif tersebut.

Diskusi tentang tema tersebut nantinya akan menjelaskan landasan kuat tentang bagaimana identitas berkembang dan menjadi faktor utama dari terbangunnya sebuah imajinasi tentang komunitas baru. Penelitian nasionalisme berdasarkan sudut pandang politik akan memetakan wacana nasionalisme di Aceh, kemudian akan berusaha menjelaskan arena dinamika lokalitas yang bersifat otonom dan gejolak-gejolak internal etnisitas akan sangat menarik untuk dilihat, terlebih lagi karena pergerakan-pergerakan pada tingkat lokalitas bisa jadi bersumber dari dalam atau mungkin juga sebagai pengaruh penyebaran ide-ide dari pusat. Perkembangan internalisasi nasionalisme ini yang kemudian menghasilkan tumbuhnya chauvinism orang Aceh terhadap dirinya, dan menutup diri dari keberadaan Indonesia.

Di Indonesia, politik identitas lebih terkait dengan masalah etnisitas, agama, ideologi, dan kepentingan-kepentingan lokal yang diwakili pada umumnya oleh para elit dengan artikulasinya masing-masing. Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (GAM) dapat dipandang sebagai salah satu wujud dari reaksi kegelisahan politik identitas itu atas ketidaksetaraan politik sentralistis Jakarta. Isu-isu tentang keadilan dan pembangunan daerah menjadi sangat sentral dalam wacana politik, dan sangat sensitif jika bersinggungan dengan politik identitas. Dalam hal ini, identitas mampu merusak nasionalisme itu sendiri sekaligus juga mampu membangkitkan etnonasionalisme yang menjadi dasar perlawanan baru terhadap negara.

Identitas menjadi instrumen penting yang membentuk sebuah rasa bersama yang hadir untuk melepaskan diri dari kolonialisasi. Di Aceh, identitas menjadi hal yang paling dipertahankan oleh masyarakatnya. Identitas pula yang membangkitkan semangat nasionalisme untuk melawan kolonialisasi. Dalam sejarahnya, persoalan keinginan bersatu dan berpisah adalah hal yang sangat biasa. Masyarakat Aceh bisa bersatu dengan kelompok manapun, namun identitas yang mengakar secara kuat oleh keyakinan beragama tidak dapat diganggu oleh siapapun yang kemudian menjadi hal paling prinsipil yang tidak boleh diganggu oleh siapapun. Jiwa nasionalisme masyarakat Aceh yang menjadi bagian dari Indonesia merupakan satu nafas dalam perjuangan mereka, walaupun pada akhirnya “kegagalan” nasionalisasi itu sendiri yang menjadi dasar perlawanan mereka terhadap keberadaan Indonesia.

By: Unknown On 10:12 PM

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The “People’s Science”:  Contextualising Public Health Policy to Curb Epidemic Diseases

By: Mathew Ncube

It is generally very rare for people these days to discuss or be willing to listen to anyone talking about the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Probably because it has become a notorious “gospel” that we “know” too well. Interestingly a researcher, Heald (2002) recalls in the early1990s seeing a billboard with the message: “Avoiding AIDS is as easy as A..B..C (Abstain, be Faithful and Condomise).” Yet one may ask: if it so easy to avoid HIV/AIDS why are we still battling with an epidemic that was discovered as early as the 1980s in some countries, for example 1985 in Botswana? Each year statistics are released concerning this subject and one is tempted to vehemently dismiss any simplicity to the subject. It is undeniable that much has been invested and done in research and medical intervention to curtail the effects of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. For example no one can deny the great impact of Anti-Retroviral drugs (ARVs) in saving many lives across the world.

The aim of my discussion is NOT to engage with the HIV/AIDS statistics, but is to lead a discussion into understanding the dilemma of public intervention strategies that heavily rely on the biomedical approach and disregard the “people’s science”. Scientific research is very important and that is undeniable, we probably all go to doctors when we fall ill. The focus of the discussion is on how interpretation of official (biomedical) messages at the local level can affect reception (or otherwise) of the intended messages and hence the people’s health-seeking behaviour. The interpretations at the local level pertain to how messages about a disease are defined and redefined in prevailing cultural idioms of ordinary people (Heald 2002:1). It is Heald’s conviction that anthropological approaches are needed to contextualise alternative discourses of HIV (Heald, 2002:1). As future leaders or policy makers, I believe it is beneficial for us to engage in these issues from an anthropological perspective especially given that we are sometimes very eager “to go out there and save the world.”

I have just taken HIV/AIDS as a case study, and I use research conducted in South Africa but I encourage you to read widely even about other diseases as well including e-bola and TB. I have provided below a list of the main sources I would use for my discussion. Participants are strongly encouraged to read widely on this subject.

Recommended references:

Ashforth, A & Nattrass, N. 2006. The Quest for Healing in South Africa’s Age of AIDS. Centre for Social Science Research AIDS and Society Research Unit. Working Paper No. 155.

Dickinson, D. 2014. Chapters 1 and 2 of: A different kind of AIDS: folk and lay theories in South African Townships. Johannesburg: Fanele.

Heald, S. 2002. It’s never easy as ABC: Understandings of AIDS in Botswana. African Journal of AIDS Research. 1: 1-10.

Jonny Steinberg. 2008. Three Letter Plague: A young man’s journey through a great epidemic. Cape Town: Jonathan Ball.

By: Unknown On 5:10 PM

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Does Our Language Shape the Way We Think?

Leen Gharaibeh
(University of Jordan –Erasmus Student in Hacettepe University-)

From her Article that was based on her research; Lera Borodistky starts with:

“Humans communicate with one another using a dazzling array of languages, each differing from the next in innumerable ways. Do the languages we speak shape the way we see the world, the way we think, and the way we live our lives? Do people who speak different languages think differently simply because they speak different languages? Does learning new languages change the way you think? Do polyglots think differently when speaking different languages?”

Here are some findings on how language can affect thinking (Article from the Wall Street Journal):

1.      Russian speakers, who have more words for light and dark blues, are better able to visually discriminate shades of blue.

2.      Some indigenous tribes say north, south, east and west, rather than left and right, and as a consequence have great spatial orientation.

3.      In one study, Spanish and Japanese speakers couldn't remember the agents of accidental events as adeptly as English speakers could. Why? Japanese and Spanish language speakers would likely say "the vase broke" or "the vase was broken" when talking about an accident.

4.      The Piraha, whose language eschews number words in favor of terms like few and many, are not able to keep track of exact quantities.

- Culture and expressions: can you translate the expressions you use to sound just like how it is?

Safyah Almutairi commented : in my experience, I think that our responds are affected by the cultural background of the language we use for example, when someone tells me some good news about him/her, my respond to it in Arabic would be "masha'a Allah" meaning "god's will" or " mabrook" meaning "congratulations". on the other hand, my response in English is something like " that's great news", "good for you", "let's throw a party". so, I have adopted the culture of the English language although i am not a native speaker of English and my response in Arabic was also controlled by the conservative and religious background of the Arabic society and its culture. The English respond might have suggested a social gathering or a party to express happiness where the Arabic version of the same response suggested praise to god for allowing this news to happen, that's what the Arabic response implies in meaning. 

- I should tell a funny Arabic story, remind me to!

❝If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.❞ ‒Nelson Mandela-

By: Unknown On 1:57 PM

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Impact of Globalization on African Cultures

By: Abdoulie Sawo

Many scholars, opinion leaders and political analysts have expressed divergent and dissenting views on globalization. It could be seen as a process of an increase in interaction among the world’s countries and peoples facilitated by progressive technological changes, political and military power, knowledge and skills, as well as interfacing of Cultural values, systems and practices. It encourages interaction among nations by breaking down barriers in the areas of culture, commerce, communication and several other fields. Simply, it is a term used to describe the changes in societies and the world economy that result from dramatically increased international trade and cultural exchange.

The history of globalization in Africa could be linked to slave trade, the scramble and partitioning of Africa and the structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) in 1984. This was when Africa was numbered into different states by European power: Britain, France, Italy among others. While demarcating the continent-the map-they took little or no account of the numerous traditional African societies that existed on the ground. Consequently, it cut through hundreds of cultural groups which enclosed hundreds of diverse and independent groups with no common history, culture, language, or religion. The era of slave trade, colonialism and the SAPs of 1980s led to the relative stagnation and decline of traditional cultural pursuits in Africa. African ways of doing things became primitive, archaic and regrettably unacceptable in public domain. These distorted and retarded the pace and tempo of cultural growth and trend of civilization in Africa.  

Africa is the world’s second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. It is bigger than US, India and China and most of Europe combined. Africa is endowed with immense natural and human resources, as well as great cultural, ecological and economic diversity. In terms of natural resources, Africa is the world’s richest continent. These are what western media silenced about Africa.

There is no single culture that can be selected and defined as an African culture. Africa consists of various and numerous different cultures within the same country and beyond. Culture can be conceived as the way of life of the members of a society, the collection of ideas and habits which they learn, share and transmit from generation to generation. The globalization trend has eaten so deep into African cultures and tradition vehicles serious threat to the survival of various Africa’s rich and diverse culture and people heritage. Globalization could be blame for the extinction and dilution of African cultures, entrenching of poverty –widening the gap between the rich and the poor.

The Impact of Globalization on African cultures has both positive and negative impacts. Positively, it opens people’s lives to other cultures which allow the flow of ideas and values. It eases communication- global village- among countries and peoples. Negatively, it has diluted several African cultures. As a result of the cultural domination from outside, several languages and cultural practices are rapidly losing their taste.  

In conclusion one can state that globalization, as a double-edged sword, has impacted both positively and negatively on the African cultures. However, the later carries more weight. 

By: Unknown On 7:57 PM

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MUSLIM IDENTITY IN EUROPE
By: Mughzi Abdillah

There is strong pressure today on Muslims living in European countries. The wave of immigration which started after the Second World War brought number of Muslims refuges to west European countries.  Some of them face the difficulty of regular practice of Islamic rules, the trouble of being part of minority often labeled as foreign, different, if not Barbarian, fundamentalist, and fanatic. Even if they try to hold on this permanent pressure, the situation influences their thoughts and actions; suggests their consciousness in order to protect themselves from non-Islamic environment and finally determine their identity in contrast with western culture.  On the other hand, alternatively some of them forget their origin and religion or try to erase their identity to fuse themselves in society and thus become one of theirs.

In both cases, we have one notice that Muslims do not define their Islamic identity by their selves, from inside. It is true not only for those who has an extremist attitude, but also great majority of Muslims who has difficulties in merely saying who are we. Why should it be so? Is there any inherent difficulty in defining Muslims vis-à-vis Western civilization? Is this the result of modern or European context? Each of this assumption carries part of truth.

Before being means of protection, however, Islam is an affirmative Faith which carries within itself a global understanding of creation, life, death and humanity (Tariq Ramadan; 2010).  This understanding should be basic of Islamic rule of thinking and behavior. In order to understand the Islamic identity, firstly, we must know the global vision of Islamic faith and the consequences of diverse field of human life. Moreover, we have to understand exactly the essential principle of Islamic rules and make them understandable in the light of context within European society. This is the way to contextualize Islamic teaching in European context.

Todays, the increasingly accessibility of the media, including satellite television, the internet and others, contribute to fragmentation of the traditional structure of religious authority. They serve as a vehicle to diffuse the concepts of individual and society, freedom and morality. On the other hand, many of the emerging of new voices and leaders of movement emerging in public sphere of the contemporary of Muslim world claim to interpret or inspired by basic religious text and idea. Unfortunately, many of them protect themselves from the loss of their loss tradition, interpret religious text textually and legitimate their thought as an absolute truth. In the manner of media, this religious argument and practice fostered the emergence of public sphere, and it has taken place in some countries.  

Mass media plays an important role in contributing to fragmentation of the public opinion. Some cases related to violence correlating with the name of Islam, such as September 11 attacks, Charlie Hebdo shooting, and Terror in Paris, have had a tremendous effect on people’s view of Islam in Europe and given rise to the negative perception which are so widespread. Moreover, the reporting of mass media on the crisis, violence and killings in Middle East assumed as the image of Islamic countries has engendered a climate of fear. “Islamophobia” emerged in public sphere as the European society’s fear of Islamic movement.  They assumed Islam as a terrify religion, so most of them presumed that the presence of Muslims immigrant to their countries is the potential threat to their culture, social and political live. Therefor, todays, European Muslims have a double burden both to seek their identity and to solve Islamophobia issue.  

By: Unknown On 7:19 PM

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