Comparing Logics: Think Before You Tweet
If you are Indonesians, and happens to follow @KeiSavourie or his tweets somehow appeared in your timeline by RTs or whatever, I take it that you're aware of what happened today in twit-verse.
it all began with these tweets:
Setiap ke Surabaya, selalu geleng-geleng kepala ngeliat benturan budaya yg terjadi di sini. Surabaya krisis identitas.— Kei Savourie (@KeiSavourie) January 28, 2013
Mall raksasa, lifestyle nongkrong, fashion modis, tapi ngomongnya medok Jowo. Otak gue gak bisa terima kontras ini.— Kei Savourie (@KeiSavourie) January 28, 2013
Surabaya gak semodern Jakarta, tapi orang-orangnya sok modern. Gak setradisional Jogja, tapi sok jowo. Kentang.— Kei Savourie (@KeiSavourie) January 28, 2013
"Emang kalo medok Jowo kenapa?" | Ya gpp, tapi kalo mau jadi kota megapolitan kayak Jakarta ya gak bisa gitu.— Kei Savourie (@KeiSavourie) January 28, 2013
Semakin modern dan maju sebuah kota, ya semakin plural penduduknya. Kalo plural ya jelas gak bisa pake bahasa daerah.— Kei Savourie (@KeiSavourie) January 28, 2013
As a person who has been living in Surabaya for my whole lifetime, I can't help but being offended by his tweets and judgements.
As per when does eliminating local languages make a modern city? His brain works some logics that mine can't make sense of.
First of all, has he visited ALL cities in Indonesia for him to be credible enough to say that Surabaya was experiencing identity crisis?
Why only mentioned Javanese? What happened with all other local languages? Betawi, Batak, Papua, Medan, Makassar - Indonesia has hundreds of local languages embedded in the heart of its residents. You grow and automatically speak the language where you are, right? But the most important thing is that you never forget the national language, Indonesian, and are able to finely speak of it, no matter how bad your dialect will come right through it. Indonesian or Bahasa is the language that makes us and united us as one. But we can never put aside the facts that local languages are a part of a city/region's identity. To put it simply in a way human logics work, not in the way the so-called 'relationship' guru's work:
in Surabaya, koen-aku is one of our ways of saying anda-saya. Isn't it the same as how the people in Jakarta uses gue-elo? It's your local languages, and you are not complaining about that. I travel to Jakarta, only to find my heart stunned, mesmerized, but sad at the same time. It's the face of our country. Luxuries on one side, poverties on the other side. A city with a too-high level of social discrepancies. The city where the people are so proud of talking in their own made-up languages that are considered the right Indonesian words. Where the people are so heartless, and machine-like, and looking down on people from other smaller cities like Surabaya. The place with no-rules to be obeyed, so stuck in an unexplainable traffic, and sometimes drowned in water or just simply garbage. Please don't be offended. As an outsider, I'm just stating my point of views.
In spite of all the flaws in Jakarta, I admit your city is the most modern in Indonesia. As the capital city, it's only normal that things must develop more rapidly in your place, compared to the others. But the city also lost its unique touches, right? Sacrifices need to be made to make ways for fancy city lights and skyscrapers. In this case, Jakarta also lost its initial identity as Batavia. Immersed in a fake identity, wanting to be as glamorous as NYC or Tokyo. Social imitation at first, and now has become a social identification.
Secondly, Surabaya has NO intention to become the second Jakarta. We can see how rigged and messed up Jakarta is. Why should we repeat the same mistake just to prove how 'megalopolitan' we are? We love where we are going right now. We wanna show you how developed we can be without losing our humanities in the way. Without having to deal with endless big floods every year. Surabaya is not Jakarta, and not trying to be. We want to be Surabaya, a modern city that's better than Jakarta. Deal with it, bro.
Surabaya isn't as modern as Jakarta, but we are modern in a good way. We don't try to be Jogja, Solo, Bali or whatever it is. But we know who we are. Arek-arek Surabaya with a pride. Like how you're proud of yourself as a resident in Jakarta. How can you blame a city for being proud of itself? FYI, we know how to speak the correct Indonesian. The real bahasa, with our own touch of dialect. It's what makes us us. It's what makes you you, right?
In conclusion, I feel that it's unfair that a city is being judged by its citizens' use of a certain local language. Local languages are a part of our inheritance. As long as we don't forget how to speak the national language, it's fine with me. I'm fine with people in Jakarta speaks in their own non-understandable languages, or people in Bali with their Balinese, for example. So deal with us, who lives in Surabaya, who speaks our own language too. You don't know how hard it is to be in Surabaya without knowing how to speak our language. Just like I don't know how difficult it will be to be in Jakarta without knowing how to speak Betawi or some slangs they made.
We are the same in some ways and also different in other ways. Why can't you live with that? Swallow your pride, reflects on yourself, and do a research before you say some 'logics', which many can't accept. Think before you tweet, Mr. Know It All. :)
