The title above, which means “Makassar
Great Expectation”, is the tagline or capital of South Sulawesi Province which
was recently launched. The launch of the motto, which was held at the same time
as its 398th anniversary, November 2 2005, was considered by many parties to be
a new spirit and a prospective step forward in proving to others that Makassar
was indeed different. Behind all this, there are quite a few people who are
pessimistic about the brand and consider it a passive concept whose
implementation and reality are questionable. Even more than that, there is an
opinion that this slogan has been 'uprooted' from its own cultural roots.
There are various assumptions and
perceptions regarding this tagline, if we want to have a big heart, we don't
need to be sad about it, instead we accept it logically, such as understanding
culturally the plurality of ethnicities that inhabit this city. However, there
are differences in viewpoints regarding the meaning of "Makassar Great
Expectation", not the influence of ethnicity. On the other hand, the
rationale that underlies the birth of perception is different, so equalizing
perception is a common task.
First, an optimistic view of
Makassar's prospects and a strong desire to make it a city full of hope, of
course coming from the ranks of the city government and the design team from
Professional Makassar. From these parties, the idea of a new spirit for
Makassar was born, which of course each had a vision and mission (although it
was still just a discourse). Thus, when we ask people who are directly involved
in the process of developing this new idea, they will definitely be able to
explain it in as much detail as possible.
But what if the question
regarding the tagline is aimed at people outside the design team? Are they also
able to understand after a month after launch? It would be even more ironic (I
hope not) if it turns out that within the ranks of the city government itself,
there are still those who don't understand or are still unclear about this new
spirit.
Second, those who view this
tagline are pessimistic and nothing more than just discourse, starting from the
vagueness and still vague understanding of this concept. What hopes do Makassar
have and what is different (distinctive), so we have to invite outsiders to
come and tell about Makassar. It is these variables and indicators that need to
be operationally defined so that people avoid confusion in their meaning. Apart
from that, the cause also stems from a series of realities that lie before the
public that community-based city development has so far not been successfully
implemented.
Third, pessimism is born because
it is based on the idea that the roots of one's own culture have been uprooted
from the concept garden because the owner is reluctant to water and is more
tempted by the beauty of the flowers outside the garden. This means that the
use of slogans with foreign terms, understood to have the same meaning as pride
in local idioms or expressions, has gradually become easier. This is also a
warning of the danger of being pushed to the margins of our cultural pride
because of the insistence on westernization in the use of terms. However, this
does not mean that we have to be allergic to foreign words, but instead just
adopt them as complementary/companion terms to enrich the terms.
In the midst of the pros and cons
in the face of optimism and pessimism in welcoming the new spirit (if it can be
called that) of the city of Makassar, there is an interesting phenomenon that
needs to be placed as a discourse on the "Makassar Great Expectation"
discourse. The problem in question is the cultural anxiety complained about by
one of the South Sulawesi cultural observers, Ishak Ngeljaratan. In a talk show
held at Phoenam Coffee Shop (12/8/2005), he rejected the Makassar logo. The
main reason put forward in the talk show held with the Mayor of Makassar, Ilham
Arief Sirajuddin, was because the word was considered unrealistic and floating.
Apart from that, according to
Ishak Ngeljaratan (Fajar Daily, 9/12/2005) that brands should start from their
own culture and accommodate their home base in Makassar. For example, he calls
for the importance of Siri' (self-respect) which has a double meaning, namely
being ashamed of doing injustice, being dishonest and lying. Then Siri' also
means shame for not doing good. The phenomenon of marginalizing one's own
culture was apparently denied apologetically by the mayor of Makassar that the
use of a logo depicting a rooster means not abandoning Bugis-Makassar culture.
Observing the strong desire of
the city government to make Makassar full of hope by making the motto labeled
in a foreign language, from a cultural perspective it does not seem familiar.
Don't remember, it's already difficult to just recite it, let alone want to
implement it.
For some time, this beloved city
has had a number of titles. such as: Anging Mammiri City (The City of Blowing
Winds), Kota Daeng (City of the Nobles, Daeng), and Makassar Teduh Bersinar (Makassar
Shady Shines). The first two names reflect cultural symbols in the form of
adopting Bugis-Makassar terms, while the next name does not use local terms but
still uses Indonesian.
Let's try some areas that have a
tendency to adopt cultural heritage as well as perpetuate local wisdom, such
as: Maros with "Butta Salewangang" (Autonomous Land), Bantaeng (Butta
Toa, Old Land), Bulukumba (Butta Panrita Lopi, Land of Boat Experts), Enrekang
(Massenrengpulu), Selayar (Tana Doang, Land of Prayer), and names with other
local characteristics. Even though this appears to be just a label, based on
the perspective of symbolic interactionism theory, this is the initial process
of an effort to recognize the symbolic meaning of this term.
Apart from that, without reducing
our respect for the good intentions of the city government to make Makassar
more 'marketable' with its foreign slogan, what needs to be discussed further
is whether the main measure for appearing competitive is absolutely the use of
foreign languages? If this is accepted, then of course it is not correct and
even tends to be wrong.
Let's look at how Cristian Pelras
fell in love with Bugis culture, Shelly Erington admired the values of siri',
Leonard Andaya was interested in the issue of Bugisan which he labeled the
Heritage of Arung Palakka, Cristian Heersink was enthusiastic about discussing
the issue of society in Selayar, and others.
This interest in foreign
researchers shows that unique things are not much more valuable than modern
things. For this reason, the effort to make Makassar full of hope is to revive
local values (local wisdom) so that this becomes a differentiator from other
cities. Why isn't the essence of siri' used as an element to form a motto as
well as its philosophical meaning?.
So... to welcome the big tourism
event next November, we will not introduce this city with the phrase "This
is a New City" with a number of touches of modernity ornaments. On the
contrary, it shows "This is New Makassar" wrapped in its own culture.
[Published in the Fajar Daily,
December 19 2005]