CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Around 2006, I read an article in a daily newspaper about a best-selling novelist Andrea Hirata whose works have made me become increasingly curious
to read all his works. Moreover, the news about the number of copies sold and the education issues for the poor in his novels made him more popular. Hirata’s most
well-known novel is Laskar Pelangi 2006 that has reportedly inspired and influenced readers.
1
Furthermore, after being translated into English as The Rainbow Troops 2009 and into other foreign languages, the book has entered
international market and received several awards such as ITB Buch Award 2013 in Berlin
2
and New York Book Festival 2013.
3
Hirata who previously works in PT Telkom Indonesia The State Telecommunication Company before the
success of his first novel Laskar Pelangi 2006 that has made him one of the famous Indonesian writers, soon becomes the guest on several talk shows and
forums discussing Indonesian literature. Writing the sequels of Laskar Pelangi to make them a quartet, Hirata
states that the novel is his memoirs.
4
As mentioned in the acknowledgements to his second novel Sang Pemimpi 2006, the story begins with Laskar Pelangi,
when Ikal as the main character, is at the first grade of elementary school until the third grade of junior high school. The second novel tells about the struggle of the
1
See Nurhady Sirimorok, Laskar Pemimpi: Andrea Hirata, Pembacanya dan Modernisasi Indonesia Yogyakarta: Insist Press, 2008 pp. 1-61
2
Tim Berita Antara, Novel “Laskar Pelangi” Raih Penghargaan ITB Buch Award di Berlin. 12 Maret 2013 http:www.indonesiaproud.wordpress.com
3
Yudha Manggala Putra, Novel “Laskar Pelangi” Raih Penghargaan di New York. 23 Oktober 2013 http:www.republika.co.id
4
Andrea Hirata, Translating Laskar Pelangi into The Rainbow Troops. 3 September 2010. http:www.iwp-uiowa.edu
characters at the senior high school as teenagers, who dare to dream and how the power of dream helps them gaining unpredictable achievements. Then, Edensor
and Maryamah Karpov: Mimpi-mimpi Lintang are the last two novels in the The Laskar Pelangi Quartet which become his personal art projects for his hometown,
Belitung. For Maryamah Karpov: Mimpi-mimpi Lintang, this novel is particularly about his appreciation for women.
5
My interest in exploring Laskar Pelangi 2006 as a quartet with the other three novels: Sang Pemimpi 2006, Edensor 2007 and Maryamah Karpov:
Mimpi-mimpi Lintang 2008 rather than as a single novel lies on the argument that Andrea Hirata putatively explores some education issues in his works.
Showing that quartet comprise of three novels as continuation of the first novel, he shows upgrading of the characters’ education level. The time setting supports
mainly the main character’s journey and at the same time shows the issue of education remains the concern of the The Laskar Pelangi Quartet.
Hirata also explains that Laskar Pelangi is a memoir written in an attempt to balance and associate personal issues with more global ones concerning
government policies on education, natural resources management, and human rights. In addition, he mentions about the discrimination held by a state-owned tin
company in Belitung that has ignored the wellbeing of the natives.
6
However, I am interested to explore deeper the four novels from postcolonial perspective, to
observe the extent to which education for the natives remains his biggest concern.
5
See Andrea Hirata, Sang Pemimpi Yogyakarta: Bentang Pustaka, 2006 pp. 274-277
6
See Hirata, Translating Laskar Pelangi Into The Rainbow Troops. 3 September 2010. http:www.iwp-uiowa.edu
Hirata’s first novel Laskar Pelangi 2006 or The Rainbow Troops 2009 tells about the life of Belitung people who live side by side with the tin mining
company staffs. Being the legacy of the Dutch colonial government, the company continues to maintain colonialist mentality in the management system. Most of
the natives or Belitungese works in the company as a coolie with the lowest position and salary. Ikal as the main character, is the son of a coolie. Here, Hirata
portrays the gap between the natives and the company staffs based on their economic condition. The lowest class is the natives who live in poverty, whereas
the company people who live in prosperity are the highest class. By contrasting the life of the natives and the company people, Ikal observes the inequality that
brings him to find the way to confront his poor condition. He follows the step of the company people to gain better life by taking up higher education, since the
company people are the only role model he is familiar with. The
sequel Sang Pemimpi 2006 or the forthcoming English version The
Dreamer portrays Ikal as a teenager who struggles to harbor his ambitious dream in raising his social rank and setting himself free from the poverty trap. Following
the figure of well-educated company people who graduate from favourite educational institutions in Java and worldwide, he enrols on a prestigious State
Senior High School in Belitung. Being influenced by Mr. Balia, his teacher, who motivates his students by taking European people and culture as the best example,
Ikal attempts to reach his dream by studying in Europe. He believes that Europe is the place where the world famous scientists study as to change civilization.
Edensor 2007 the third novel translated into English with the same title tells about Ikal as a young native Indonesian who succeeds in exploring and
studying in Europe. His single-minded dream comes true. Ikal meets people from different countries and interacts with them as students and also friends. He proves
his teacher’s statement about the superiority of Europe through its people and culture. However, at the same time, he realizes the inferiority of the Belitung’s
natives along with his acknowledgment of the European superiority. The last novel Maryamah Karpov: Mimpi-mimpi Lintang 2008 or the
forthcoming English version Strange Rhythm, is about the ending of Ikal’s journey. After pursuing education and experiencing life abroad, he returns to his
hometown. Confidently he performs himself as a Europeanized “native”. Physically, he is a Belitungese, but his attitudes have been influenced by the
European values. He attempts to adopt European ideas after his journey on shaping his life mosaics through studying and experiencing life outside Belitung.
Thus, by reading The Laskar Pelangi as a quartet, it can be seen that each novel captures the influence of colonialism. The tin mining company in Belitung
becomes the extension of colonial rule. After the Dutch expulsion from Belitung, the Indonesian government takes over the company. However, under the different
ruler, the discrimination held by the state-owned tin company keeps continuing. The wellbeing of the natives is still being ignored:
That great natural resource was exploited by a company called PN Timah, PN stands for Perusahaan Negeri, or state-owned company, Timah means tin. PN
operated 16 dredges. … The enterprise absorbed almost the entire island’s workforce. It was a pulsing vein with a complete power monopoly over the
whole island of Belitong.
7
The Indonesian government took over PN from the colonial Dutch. And not only were the assets seized, but also the feudalistic mentality. Even after
Indonesia gained its freedom, PN’s treatment of its native employees remained very discriminatory. The treatment differed based on caste-like groups. TRT:
32
7
Andrea Hirata, The Rainbow Troops Yogyakarta: Bentang Pustaka p. 31; All subsequent references to this work, abbreviated TRT, will be used in this thesis with pagination only.
The feudalistic mentality, as the legacy of the Dutch colonization, is captured on the company’s treatment that discriminates the native employees based on caste-
like groups. Colonialism is not only about occupying a country’s region. In its
development, colonialism is also an exploitation of the natural and human resources of the country that being invaded. In relation to European colonialism,
Ania Loomba in ColonialismPostcolonialism 2005 presents a categorization of colonialism based on Marxist thinking: earlier colonialisms were pre-capitalist
and modern colonialism was established alongside capitalism in Western Europe.
8
Therefore, the exploitation of the natural and human resources had been done through restructuring the economies of the colonized that produced economic
imbalance. The economic imbalance was necessary for the growth of European capitalism and industry. Furthermore, the exploitation as the way to restructure
the economy is also spilled over into the issue of oppression that relates to class or other structures of oppression.
The setting of time of The Laskar Pelangi Quartet is after the Dutch colonization. However, the tin mining company is the extension of colonial rule
that restructure the workings of class and ideology among the Belitungese. This raises a question on how colonial rule affects the colonized. For that reason,
postcolonial perspective is used in this study to explore further the colonizers’ values implanted in The Laskar Pelangi Quartet through colonial discourse.
Since, postcolonialism is not simply after colonialism, but as Loomba contends, “…more flexibly as the contestation of colonial domination and the legacies of
8
Ania Loomba, ColonialismPostcolonialism, Second Edition London: Routledge, 2005 p. 9
colonialism”
9
that keep continuing to affect the ex-colonized after the colonization era.
To link the colonialism and colonial discourse, postcolonial studies becomes the way to be placed within two contexts. The first is the history of
decolonization itself and second is the revolution, within “Western” intellectual tradition.
10
The first context is related to intellectuals and activists who fight against colonial rule with its continuing legacy on the process of making their
voices heard and second context is the revolution inside the “Western” intellectual thinking on the definitions of race, culture, language and class.
11
Hence, colonialism becomes the vehicle for language on articulating experience, on
showing how ideologies work, how human subjectivities are formed, and on constructing or defining the meaning of culture. Then, colonial discourse shows
how language is used in particular way to maintain colonialist thinking. Thus, The Laskar Pelangi Quartet as an Indonesian literature can prove the traces of
colonization in Indonesia and its influence towards Indonesian literary texts. This research aims at raising readers’ awareness as to see whether the quartet affirms
or challenges the colonialist values. Meanwhile, Sugirtharajah states that there are two aspects in
postcolonialism. The first is to analyze the diverse strategies by which the colonizers constructed images of the colonized, and second is to study how the
colonized themselves made use of and went beyond many of those strategies in order to articulate their identity, self-worth and empowermen.
12
Therefore, postcolonialism in this study is considered appriopriate to find the colonialist
9
Loomba, p. 16
10
See Loomba, p. 22-23
11
Ibid.
12
R.S. Sugirtharajah, The Postcolonial Biblical Reader UK: Blackwell Publishing, 2006 p. 7
values through colonial discourse that the colonizers have produced. To construct the image of the colonized through colonial discourse is one of the colonizers’
strategies to maintain their colonialist values towards the colonized. Furthermore, postcolonialism as the contestation of colonial domination
and the legacies of colonialism
13
can be seen as a theoretical attempt to engage the colonial aftermath whereby the contemporary resistance to colonialism and to
dominant colonizers’ culture included. Through colonial discourse that the colonizers have produced, they maintain their domination towards the colonized.
Then, education as a means to strengthen the colonialist control becomes the powerful discourse for imparting and maintaining the colonizers’ values towards
the colonized. In brief, colonial discourse joins power and knowledge together as the
colonizers’ way to maintain their domination over the colonized. Those who have power can control knowledge through what is known and the way it is known.
Therefore, postcolonialism is considered appropriate to uncover the ongoing effects of colonialism towards the colonized on constructing their image and
articulating their “self” which is influenced by the colonizers in The Laskar Pelangi Quartet.
When Laskar Pelangi is read as a quartet rather than a single novel, the issue of education is no longer dominant. Through postcolonial perspective, the
education issue is completed with the issue of colonialism, which shows the ongoing effects of colonialism in The Laskar Pelangi Quartet. Education is
observed as the colonialist’s tool to maintain and impart the colonizers’ values to the colonized.
13
Loomba, p. 16
This study begins with the portrayal of inequality, which is seen as the effects of exploitation on natural and human resources that have been done by
modern colonialism practice. Inequality becomes the main character’s way to define Belitung society and his identity as a Belitungese. It is also a trigger to
improve his “self”. Thus, education becomes his choice as a ladder to enhance his social rank and to construct his identity. However, through colonial discourse,
education is seen as a potential discourse that legally imparts the colonizers’ values to the colonized. Education becomes the way to maintain their values and
to control the society. For that reason, colonialist ideology is explored to examine how the main character is described to harbor colonialist thinking by affirming the
colonizers’ values. Thus, this study hopes to show an undisclosed issue inspite of The Laskar
Pelangi Quartet’s popularity by using the postcolonial perspective. It is expected to enable readers to be more critical and aware of the issue that the writer brings
through the story. Specifically, it aims to reveal how The Laskar Pelangi Quartet reinforces the colonizers’ values and shows the ongoing effects of colonialism.
B. Research Questions
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