Brikolase.com – Kesepakatan budaya Indonesia dan Belanda menjadikan kedua negara membangun kembali hubungan yang telah lama retak. Kesepakatan ini memungkinkan terjadi setelah pemerintahan Presiden Soekarno berakhir dan digantikan oleh Presiden Soeharto. Di awal era Orde Baru, Indonesia mulai membangun kembali hubungan dengan Negara-Negara Barat. Terbukanya hubungan dengan Barat membuat Indonesia mendapatkan akses modal dan beragam kerjasama dengan Negara-Negara Barat, antara lain dengan Belanda. Model kerjasama yang cukup menonjol yakni IGGI (Inter-Governmental Group on Indonesia) yang dibentuk pada tahun 1967 dengan 16 anggota donor dan 5 lembaga internasional yang kemudian diketuai oleh Belanda. IGGI dibentuk dengan tujuan memberi pinjaman dan mereorganisasi sistem ekonomi Indonesia (Posthumus, 1972:55-56).
Dalam kerangka kesepakatan budaya, Belanda mengirim para peneliti/akademisinya ke Indonesia. Salah satunya, yakni seorang antropolog bernama Huub de Jonge yang meneliti tentang Madura. Dalam penelitian doktoralnya, Jonge menganalisis perkembangan ekonomi-budaya Madura, khususnya perdagangan tembakau, di Desa Parindu, Kecamatan Paraga, Kabupaten Sumenep. Jonge merupakan akademisi dari Universitas Radboud, Nijmegen dan peneliti di Pusat Kajian Asia Pasifik (The Centre for Pacific and Asian Studies–CPAS). Sejak 1985-1987, Jonge bekerja sebagai konsultan di Pusat Kajian Madura yang baru didirikan di Universitas Negeri Jember (UNEJ). Jonge bertugas mempromosikan dan mensupervisi penelitian di kalangan orang Madura di Madura dan Jawa bagian timur. Lingkup kajiannya seputar hubungan antara orang Madura dengan kelompok penduduk lain (Jonge, 2019: xvi).
Jonge tak bekerja sendiri. Ia turut dibantu oleh peneliti lokal bernama A. Latief Wiyata. Latief kebetulan juga seorang yang berasal dari Madura, tepatnya lahir di Desa Parsanga, Sumenep. Sejak tahun 1974, Latief memulai karir sebagai dosen di Fakultas Ilmu Sosial dan Politik (FISIP) UNEJ. Latief menyelesaikan penelitian doktoralnya tentang budaya Carok Madura, yakni pertarungan antarlelaki, satu lawan satu atau banyak orang dengan motivasi membela gengsi, kehormatan dan harga diri (Wiyata, 2013: 251). Sejak menulis desertasi, Latief merasa lebih mengenal Madura. Sejak tahun 1970an, ia gelisah pada kelangkaan penelitian tentang Madura, terutama yang dilakukan oleh orang Madura sendiri. Penelitiannya ini dilakukan dengan maksud supaya orang luar bisa melihat Madura secara lebih proporsional dan kotekstual, tidak terjebak pada stereotip-stereotip negatif.[1]
Baca juga: Rijsttafel: Miskinnya Khazanah Kuliner Belanda, Diperkaya Kuliner Nusantara
Pendirian dan Program Pusat Kajian Madura
Pendirian Pusat Kajian Madura didasari akan dorongan untuk melahirkan penelitian-penelitian terkait permasalahan dan budaya lokal. Di Universitas Leiden, ada sejumlah mahasiswa Indonesia yang melakukan penelitian doktoralnya tentang budaya lokal yang turut menjadi faktor pendorongnya. Pusat Kajian Madura berangkat dari usaha untuk memperbaiki kualitas data dari pusat penelitian lokal di seluruh Indonesia. Awalnya, ia akan didirikan di Malang, Jawa Timur, tetapi karena ada masalah lokal dan beberapa gesekan, Pusat Kajian Madura akhirnya dipindah ke Jember. Pusat Kajian Madura memiliki program yang fleksibel, yang berbasis pada ilmu sosial dan, tidak terlalu ketat, antropologi. Metode penelitian cenderung dilakukan dengan wawancara yang berakhir terbuka (open ended interviews). Jadi tidak ada angket yang kaku yang bisa mengarahkan informasi pada kesimpulan yang telah dikerangkai oleh peneliti: “dengarkan saja apa yang informan katakan padamu.”[2]
Di awal pendirian, Huub de Jonge menjadi konsultan penelitian sampai tahun 1987. Setelah itu, Jonge harus kembali ke Belanda, ke pekerjaan asalnya sebagai pengajar di Nijmegen. Posisi Jonge sebagai konsultan kemudian digantikan oleh Robert Wessing, yang juga seorang antropolog kelahiran Amsterdam, Belanda. Sebelum menjadi konsultan di Pusat Kajian Madura, Wessing ditugaskan sebagai tenaga ahli selama dua tahun di Pusat Latihan Penelitian Ilmu-Ilmu Sosial di Banda Aceh.
Wessing memiliki ketertarikan utama pada Asia Tenggara, sistem nilai, realtias simbolik dan agama. Tahun 1970, Wessing memulai penelitian lapangannya di Jawa Barat, selama 18 bulan. Wessing melahirkan beberapa tulisan tentang Jawa Barat, antara lain “Some Comments on Channels of Communication in Rural West Java”, “The Social Structure of Economic Behavior in West Java, Indonesia”, “Spirits of the Earth and Spirits of the Water: Chthonic Forces in the Mountains of West Java”, “A Change in the Forest: Myth and History in West Java”, “The Sacred Grove: Founders and the Owners of the Forest in West Java”, “The Position of the Baduj in the Larger West Javanese Society”, “Cosmology and Social Behavior in a West Javanese Settlement”, “Parameters of Economic Behavior in West Java” dan “Electing a Lurah in West Java”.
Sejak bergabung dalam Pusat Kajian Madura tahun 1987, Wessing turut menjalankan program yang tak jauh berbeda dengan Pusat Latihan Penelitian Ilmu-Ilmu Sosial di Banda Aceh. Program Pusat Kajian Madura turut didanai oleh KITLV, Leiden, lembaga yang juga mengontraknya sebagai konsultan. Program dijalankan dengan merekrut orang-orang ke dalam suatu angkatan, yang dilatih untuk melakukan penelitian lapangan. Topik penelitian diserahkan kepada peserta angkatan dengan bidang kajian yang fleksibel. Pilihan topik yang sudah disetujui kemudian dituliskan dalam bentuk proposal penelitian. Proposal kemudian ditinjau sekaligus dikritik oleh konsultan untuk kemudian direvisi oleh peserta.
Sebelum terjun ke lapangan, para peserta dibekali dengan materi tentang metode penelitian, analisis data dan penulisan laporan. Setiap peserta memiliki topik penelitian masing-masing. Jadi diskusi topik tidak dilakukan secara kelompok. Secara umum, pendekatannya sangat praktis dan intensif. Topik yang diangkat peserta yakni seputar slametan tahunan untuk roh penjaga desa pantai sampai ke adopsi anak-anak.
Setelah didiskusikan secara matang, kemudian peserta melakukan tinjauan awal dengan mengunjungi tempat-tempat yang akan dipilih sebagai lokasi penelitian. Peninjauan awal ke lapangan ini kemudian ditulis dalam sebuah laporan, yang lalu dikritisi kembali oleh konsultan dan direvisi oleh peserta. Setelah diperbaiki dan dianggap sudah cukup siap, peserta kemudian langsung pergi ke lapangan untuk menggali data dalam waktu yang lebih lama dari sebelumnya. Dalam masa ini, staf program mengunjungi mereka di lapangan untuk melihat kondisi jalannya penelitian dan memberi masukan kepada mereka.
Setelah selesai penggalian data di lapangan, mereka kembali ke program untuk menulis laporan yang kemudian juga dikritisi kembali dan direvisi. Perbaikan turut menyisakan beberapa pertanyaan yang belum terjawab, yang kemudian mengharuskan mereka kembali lagi ke lapangan untuk mencari jawaban terakhir dalam waktu yang lebih singkat dari sebelumnya. Setelah itu, mereka menulis laporan penelitian lanjutan, dikritisi kembali, sampai pada revisi terakhir. [3]
Berakhirnya Pusat Kajian Madura
Pusat Kajian Madura bertahan selama 7 tahun, sampai tahun 1992. Kesepakatan budaya Indonesia dan Belanda tak bisa lagi dilanjutkan karena hubungan kedua Negara kembali retak. Hal ini dipicu oleh kritik Belanda terhadap pelanggaran HAM oleh pemerintah Indonesia di Timor-Timur, terutama kasus Dili pada tahun 1991. Sembari Belanda juga menggantungkan kasus HAM dan kejahatan perang yang dilakukanya selama menjajah kepulauan Nusantara dan melakukan agresi militer ke Indonesia. Dari sisi Indonesia, Belanda, sebagai ketua IGGI, terlalu banyak mengatur Indonesia dalam program pembangunannya dan banyak ikut campur soal urusan dalam negeri Indonesia. Menteri Kerjasama Pembangunan Belanda, Jan Pronk, dengan gayanya yang blak-blakan dan ofensif dalam mengritik membuatnya disebut sebagai simbol kepongahan dan paternalisme ala kolonial Belanda terhadap Indonesia (Baehr, 1997:374). Pada akhirnya, IGGI dibubarkan pada tahun 1992. Berdasarkan laporan dari Belanda sendiri di tahun 2004, terkuak fakta bahwa melalui IGGI, Belanda membuat Indonesia untuk membayar sejumlah 689 juta gulden atas kesepakatan pengakuan kedaulatan Indonesia (Soevereiniteitsoverdracht) tahun 1949 (Rapport, 2004).
Koleksi Unggulan Budaya Jawa Timur, Perpustakaan Univ. Jember. (Dok. Yongky G.P.)
Setelah bubarnya Pusat Kajian Madura, Wessing masih tetap rutin berkunjung ke Jember dan melakukan penelitian. Keterikatan antropologis dirinya dengan lingkungan penelitiannya tidak terbatas pada program kerjasama budaya Belanda dan Indonesia. Dalam masa penelitian antropologis di Jember dan sekitarnya, Wessing menghasilkan beberapa karya yakni “Bangatowa, Patoguand Gaddhungan: Perceptions of the Tiger among the Madurese”, “The Last Tiger in East Java: Symbolic Continuity in Ecological Change dan “Nyai Roro Kidul in Puger: Local Applications of a Myth”. Wessing turut melahirkan karya antropologis, khususnya tentang Banyuwangi antara lain, “A Dance of Life: The Seblang of Banyuwangi, Indonesia”, “Celebrations of Life: The Gendhing Seblang of Banyuwangi, East Java”, “The Osing Agricultural Spirit-Medium”, “Hosting the Wild Buffaloes: The Keboan Ritual of the Using of East Java, Indonesia”, “When the Tutelary Spirit Objected: Conflict and Possession among the Using of East Java, Indonesia”.
Wessing resmi berhenti sebagai konsultan penelitian pada tahun 1992. Selama terlibat dalam program di Pusat Kajian Madura, Wessing hanya mengelola satu angkatan peneliti yang kemudian berhenti setelah kerjasama terputus dan Pusat Kajian Madura ditutup setelah dia pergi. Bagaimanapun juga, Pusat Kajian Madura bersumbangsih terhadap lahirnya penelitian-penelitian berbasis lokal, terutama di Jember dan sekitarnya. Dorongan ini terlihat dari beberapa peneliti lokal yang berminat/memfokuskan penelitiannya pada budaya lokal, seperti (Ayu) Sutarto dengan kajian Tengger dan Latief Wiyata dengan kajian Madura. Berbagai kumpulan karya, makalah, jurnal, tugas akhir, buku-buku dan dokumentasi audio-visual tentang budaya lokal tersimpan dalam ruangan khusus Koleksi Unggulan, Madura, Using dan Tengger di Perpustakaan Pusat, Universitas Jember.
Selain itu, Pusat Kajian Madura juga menjadi penanda hubungan baik antara Indonesia dan Belanda, terutama dalam bidang penelitian sosial-budaya. Meskipun program ini masih bersifat paternalistik dengan peran Belanda untuk memperbaiki kualitas penelitian lokal Indonesia, namun setidaknya melalui Pusat Kajian Madura, penelitian lokal berhasil diangkat dan mendapat signifikansinya. Penelitian berbasis lokal menjadi penting dan terinternasionalisasi dengan membangun kerja sama dengan para peneliti/akademisi asing. Pusat Kajian Madura turut menjadi penanda bahwa kinerja kebudayaan tak semestinya bersinggungan dengan kepentingan politik praktis. Pusat Kajian Madura menjadi contoh bagaimana sebuah program kebudayaan yang dibangun selama 7 tahun, berakhir karena hubungan politik yang retak antara Indonesia dengan Belanda. Dalam hal ini, kepentingan politik praktis tak sejalan dengan, atau bisa mengancam kemajuan kebudayaan Indonesia.
Catatan akhir
[1] Wawancara dengan Latief Wiyata, dikutip dari https://ariyamadura.id/2018/06/08/a-latief-wiyata-penulis-dan-peneliti-madura, (akses 1 Mei 2021).
[2] Korespondensi penulis dengan Robert Wessing, 16 April 2021.
[3] Korespondensi penulis dengan Robert Wessing, 1 Mei 2021.
Rujukan
Baehr, Peter R., 1997, “Problems of Aid Conditionality: The Netherlands and Indonesia”, Third World Quarterly, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Jun., 1997), pp. 363-376.
De Jonge, Huub, 2019, Mencari Identitas: Orang Arab Hadhrami di Indonesia 1900-1950, Jakarta: Kepustakaa Populer Gramedia.
Posthumus, G. A., 1972, “The Inter-Governmental Group on Indonesia”, Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, 8:2, 55-66, DOI: 10.1080/00074917212331332048
Rapport Nederlandse regering, 2004, Financieleovereenkomst uit 1966, To forget the past in favour of a promise for the future: Forget the Past in Favour of a Promise for the Future. Nederland, Indonesië en de financiële overeenkomst van 1966.
Korespondensi penulis dengan Robert Wessing, 16 April 2021 dan 1 Mei 2021.
Wawancara dengan Latief Wiyata, dikutip dari https://ariyamadura.id/2018/06/08/a-latief-wiyata-penulis-dan-peneliti-madura, (akses 1 Mei 2021).
Wiyata, Latief, 2013, Mencari Madura, Jakarta: Bidik-Phronesis Publishing.
Sumber foto cover: https://hadiakmallubis.gurusiana.id/article/2020/4/tradisi-rokat-tase-2010442?bima_access_status=not-logged
_________________________________________________________
English Version:
The Beginning and the End of the Madura Research Center in Jember
A cultural agreement between Indonesia and Netherland had made the two states rebuild the long broken relationship. This agreement was possible to happen after President Soekarno regime ended and was changed by President Soeharto. In the beginning of the new order, Indonesia started to rebuild relation to Western Countries. An open relation to Western made Indonesia get access of capital and various cooperation with Western countries, including Netherland. A prominent model of cooperation is IGGI (Inter-Governmental Group on Indonesia) founded in 1967 with 16 donor members and 5 international institutions which is then chaired by Netherland. IGGI was founded to give a loan and reorganize Indonesian economic system (Posthumus, 1972:55-56).
In the frame of cultural agreement, Netherland sent some researchers/academics to Indonesia. One of them is an anthropologist named Huub de Jonge who researched Madura. In his doctoral research, Jonge analysed development of economic-culture of Madura, especially tobacco trade, in Parindu village, Paraga district, Sumenep municipality. Jonge is an academic from Radbound University, Nijmegen and a researcher in The Centre for Pacific and Asian Studies (CPAS). Since 1985-1987, Jonge had worked as consultant in Madura research center newly established in University of Jember (UNEJ). His duty was promoting and supervising research among Madurese people in Madura and eastern Java. The research scope was about relation between Madurese people and other population groups (Jonge, 2019: xvi).
Jonge was not working alone. He was helped by a local researcher named A. Latief Wiyata. Latief happens to come from Madura, specifically was born in Parsanga village, Sumenep municipality. Since 1974, Latief started his career as a lecturer in Faculty of Social and Political Science, UNEJ. Latief finished his doctoral research about Madurese culture, carok which was a fight among men, one on one or with many people motivated by defending prestige, honor and pride (Wiyata, 2013: 251). Since writing his dissertation, Latief felt to know Madura better. Since 1970’s, he had worried about scarcity of research about Madura, mainly done by Madurese people. His research was done to make outsiders could see Madura better proportionally and contextually, not being stuck in negative stereotypes.[1]
Establishment and Program of the Madura Research Center
Establishment of the Madura Research Center was based on encouragement to conduct research about local problems and culture. In Leiden University, there were Indonesian students conducting doctoral research about local culture which also became its driving factor. The Madura Research Center came from an effort to improve quality of data from local research center throughout Indonesia. In the beginning, it would be established in Malang, East Java, but as there were local problems and some frictions, the Madura Research Center finally moved to Jember. The Madura Research Center had flexible programs based on social science and not strictly, anthropology. Research method tended to conduct by open-ended interview. Therefore there was no rigid questionnaire (angket) which might lead information to conclusions pre-conceived by the researcher, “go and listen to what folks really have to tell you.”[2]
In early establishment, Huub de Jonge became research consultant until 1987. After that, Jonge had to come back to Netherland, to his former work as a lecturer in Nijmegen. Jonge’s position as consultant was replaced by Robert Wessing, an anthropologist from Amsterdam, Netherland. Before working as consultant in the Madura Research Center, Wessing had worked as an expert for two years in Social Research Center in Banda Aceh.
Wessing was mainly interested to Southeast Asia, value system, symbolic reality and religion. In 1970, Wessing had began his field research in West Java for 18 months. Wessing wrote some works about West Java such as “Some Comments on Channels of Communication in Rural West Java”, “The Social Structure of Economic Behavior in West Java, Indonesia”, “Spirits of the Earth and Spirits of the Water: Chthonic Forces in the Mountains of West Java”, “A Change in the Forest: Myth and History in West Java”, “The Sacred Grove: Founders and the Owners of the Forest in West Java”, “The Position of the Baduj in the Larger West Javanese Society”, “Cosmology and Social Behavior in a West Javanese Settlement”, “Parameters of Economic Behavior in West Java” dan “Electing a Lurah in West Java”.
Since joining in the Madura Research Center in 1987, Wessing also run its program which was similar to Social Research Center in Banda Aceh. The Madura research center program was also funded by KITLV, Leiden, the institution which also hired him as consultant. Its program was run by recruiting participants to be one batch which were trained to conduct field research. Research topic was left up to participants with flexible field of study. Topics having been approved were then written in form of research proposal. Proposals were then reviewed and critiqued by consultant and then revised by participants. Before the first trip to the field, the participants were having lectures dealing with research methods, data analysis and report writing. Every participant had their own topic. Therefore their topics were not discussed in groups. Generally, its approach was very practical and intensive. Their topics dealt with things like the annual feasting of the tutelary spirit of a coastal village, to the adoption of children among families.
After topic discussion, the participants came to possible field site as a short orientation and wrote a report which was then critiqued by consultant and they rewrote. After revising and quite ready, the participants then went into the field for a longer time to gather their data. During this time, program staff visited them there to see how things were going and to give advice.
After gathering data in the fields, they return to the program to write reports which was then critiqued and rewritten. The revision could leave some unanswered questions which were then followed by a final short trip to the field and they wrote a report, being critiqued and ended with a final rewrite [3]
The End of the Madura Research Center
Madura Research Center had lasted for 7 years until 1992. The cultural agreement between Indonesia and Netherland could not continue any longer as the two countries relation was cracked up again. It was triggered by Netherland criticism to human rights violation by Indonesia government in East Timor, especially Dili case in 1991. While Netherland has been also hanging cases of human rights violation and war crimes during the Ducth colonization in Nusantara archipelago and military aggression to Indonesia. For Indonesia side, Netherland as the chief of IGGI was excessively controlling Indonesia in the development program and too much intervene in Indonesia domestic affairs. Minister for Development Cooperation, Jan Pronk, with his confrontational and direct way of speaking to criticize Indonesia was called the symbol of Dutch intransigence and paternalism (Baehr, 1997:374). Finally, IGGI was dismissed in 1992. Based on Dutch report in 2004, the facts revealed that the Netherland by means of IGGI made Indonesia pay 689 millions guilders for recognition of Indonesian independence in 1949 (Rapport 2004).
After the end of the Madura Research Center, Wessing was still regularly visiting Jember and doing research. An anthropologic engagement between himself and field research are not limited to cultural agreement between Netherland and Indonesia. In times of anthropologic research in Jember and its around, Wessing wrote some works such as “Bangatowa, Patoguand Gaddhungan: Perceptions of the Tiger among the Madurese”, “The Last Tiger in East Java: Symbolic Continuity in Ecological Change and “Nyai Roro Kidul in Puger: Local Applications of a Myth”. Wessing also wrote anthropologic works focused on Banyuwangi such as “A Dance of Life: The Seblang of Banyuwangi, Indonesia”, “Celebrations of Life: The Gendhing Seblang of Banyuwangi, East Java”, “The Osing Agricultural Spirit-Medium”, “Hosting the Wild Buffaloes: The Keboan Ritual of the Using of East Java, Indonesia”, “When the Tutelary Spirit Objected: Conflict and Possession among the Using of East Java, Indonesia”.
Wessing officially quit as research consultant in 1992. In times of his involvement in the Madura research center program, Wessing only managed one batch of researchers and then quit after the end of the cultural agreement and the Madura research center closed after he left. However, the Madura research center had encouraged birth of local research, especially in Jember and its around. This trigger was shown in some local researchers interested/focused on local research like (Ayu) Sutarto with Tengger studies and Latief Wiyata with Madura studies. Various collection of works, papers, journals, final projects, books and audio-visual documentation about local culture are now well saved in a special room, featured collection: Madura, Using and Tengger in the Library University of Jember.
Besides, the Madura research center also became a sign of good relationship between Indonesia and Netherland, especially in sociocultural research. Although this program looked paternalistic with Dutch’s role to improve quality of local research in Indonesia, but at least by means of the Madura research center, local research could be lifted and significant. Local research became significant and internationalized by building cooperation with foreign researchers/academics. The Madura research center also became a sign that cultural works should not be entangled with practical political interest. Madura research center became an example of how a cultural program which had been built for 7 years ended due to broken political relation between Indonesia and Netherland. In this case, political interest was not in line with or could threat development of Indonesian culture.
Footnotes
[1] Interview with Latief Wiyata, quoted from https://ariyamadura.id/2018/06/08/a-latief-wiyata-penulis-dan-peneliti-madura, (access 1st May 2021).
[2] The writer’s correspondence with Robert Wessing, 16th April 2021.
[3] The writer’s correspondence with Robert Wessing, 1st May 2021.
Refference
Baehr, Peter R., 1997, “Problems of Aid Conditionality: The Netherlands and Indonesia”, Third World Quarterly, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Jun., 1997), pp. 363-376.
De Jonge, Huub, 2019, Mencari Identitas: Orang Arab Hadhrami di Indonesia 1900-1950, Jakarta: Kepustakaa Populer Gramedia.
Posthumus, G. A., 1972, “The Inter-Governmental Group on Indonesia”, Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, 8:2, 55-66, DOI: 10.1080/00074917212331332048
Rapport Nederlandse regering, 2004, Financieleovereenkomst uit 1966, To forget the past in favour of a promise for the future: Forget the Past in Favour of a Promise for the Future. Nederland, Indonesië en de financiële overeenkomst van 1966.
Wiyata, Latief, 2013, Mencari Madura, Jakarta: Bidik-Phronesis Publishing.
Bacaan terkait

Pemred Media Brikolase
Editor in chief
Email:
yongky@brikolase.com / yongky.g.prasisko@gmail.com