Javanese domination

written by : Gabriela Davita Amelia

Do you realize that Indonesia is dominated by the culture of Java?

Have you ever why is this happening?

Indonesia has more than 1.200 ethnic groups spread all over its territory. With such number of ethnic groups, Indonesia was known to be multicultural country and has very high tolerance towards other ethnics. Even the nowadays we are now experience the lack of tolerance among some societies, we could not denied the fact that we have rich culture and great nations. However, along the development of Indonesia, only several ethnics group which is dominated the country. Especially, Javanese culture.

It's not without reason that Javanese culture is dominating. The first reason is that most populations of Indonesia are Javanese. Javanese covered about a half of Indonesia's populations. During colonization era, the Dutch were also focused on the development of Java, rather than any other land. After the independence, our founding father were also - most of them - Javanese. Besides that, there were also slogan Indonesia which mostly coming from Javanese culture. For example : Bhineka Tunggal Ika and Tut Wuri Handayani. During New order era, President Soeharto applied transmigration policies, in such way, Javanese people have to move around Indonesia in order to balance the population. This may be seen as cultural "forced". Soeharto was born in Jogjakarta, Java. And he spent his life in Java, thus he adopted javanese norms, values, and culture. His cultures was reflected on his leadership. Development concentration was mostly in Java island, making javanese people are more advance and prosperous rather than other ethnics groups. 

After Soeharto regime, he was replaced by B.J. Habibie whom also Javanese, as well as President Abdurrahman Wahid, President Megawati Soekarno Putri, and the current President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. As we can see, our presidents are all Javanese. Our governmental systems were influenced by Javanese political culture, because most of people's representatives were all Javanese. The power structure are also in Javanese's hands. In addition, central government of Indonesia is also located in Java island. 

Therefore, the tendencies of Indonesia's policies and political culture are mainly coming from Javanese culture. This may shape perspective of young people towards Javanese culture. This explains why somehow people non-Javanese, adapted themselves towards Javanese values and norms, and making javanese values as their basis politics perspective.