appear to a wider audience.
33
Therefore, in translating Edensor 2007, the content is also arranged for the purpose of international market. The international agent
responsible for the overseas market, according to Hirata, is Amer Asia Co. Ltd. from Tucson, Virginia, in the United States. Additionally, the agency has already
signed deals to release the books in German, China, Vietnam and Egypt.
34
In February 2011, he signed a contract with New York-based Kathleen Anderson
Literary Management, which oversees the publishing of his novels outside Indonesia.
35
The Rainbow Troops 2009 has been marketed in some countries. The promotion of the international edition is also printed behind each book cover
of The Laskar Pelangi Quartet that is published in Indonesia. The English versions or international editions are: The Rainbow Troops 2009, The Dreamer
forthcoming, Edensor 2011 and Strange Rhythm forthcoming. The advertising of The Laskar Pelangi Quartet is unceasing whether for Indonesian or
overseas market.
3. The Term “Native”
The Rainbow Troops 2009 and Edensor 2011 as the English version of the two novels of the quartet use the term native to translate the Belitungese. The
main character describes who the Belitung people are:
We Malays generally are simple individuals who acquire life’s wisdom from Koranic teachers and elders at the mosque after magrib prayer. […] Ours is an
old race. We have heard various definitions of our race, and there are some experts who say that Belitong Malays are not Malay. We don’t put much stock
into that opinion for two reasons: Belitong people themselves don’t understand such matters; and because we aren’t eager to be primordial. To us, people all
along the coast—from Belitong up to Malaysia—are Malays, based on a mutual obsession with peninsular rhythms, the beating of tambourines and rhyming.
33
Andrea Hirata, Translating Laskar Pelangi Into The Rainbow Troops. 3 September 2010. http:www.iwp-uiowa.edu
34
Andrea Hirata Novels Hit Overseas Bookstores. thejakartapost.com. 26
th
March 2010 http:www2.thejakartapost.comnews
35
Andrea Hirata Home His Parents. thejakartapost.com. 16
th
October 2011 http:www2.thejakartapost.comnews
Our identity is not based on language, skin color, belief systems or skeletal structure. We are an egalitarian race. TRT: 127
Malays are their identity because of the location of the Belitung Island, “To us, people all along the coast—from Belitong up to Malaysia—are Malays” Ibid..
Therefore, the Belitungese is Belitung Malays. Then, in the translated version it is translated into “the natives of Belitong” TRT: 30, “the native Belitong-Malays”
TRT: 39, and “the Malays” TRT: 42. For other ethnics who live in Belitung, he mentions Chinese and Sawang.
In Indonesian version, the Chinese is written as orang Tionghoa, and it is translated into “the Chinese” TRT: 128 and “the Chinese-Malays” TRT: 41.
They live side by side with the Belitungese for hundred years:
The Chinese-Malays, as they sometimes are called, have lived on the island for a long time. They were first brought to Belitong by the Dutch to be tin laborers.
Most of them were Khek from Hakka, Hokian from Fukien, Thongsans, Ho Phos, Shan Tungs, and Thio Cius. That tough ethnic community developed their
own techniques for manually mining tin. Their terms for these techniques, aichang, phok, kiaw, and khaknai, are still spoken by Malay tin prospectors to
this day. TRT: 41
It shows that the Chinese is seen as other inhabitants of Belitung, not originally part of the Belitung people although they live in Belitung. Their existence is as a
migrant. Although they live in Belitung, the main character does not include them as the Belitung-Malays but as the Chinese-Malays.
Then, for Sawang people, he observes them as having primitive culture that live near the Belitungese:
I got goosebumps thinking about how close our community was to primitive culture. […] Next to the Malays—and even more so next to Chinese—the
Sawangs have a very different appearance. They are like the native Australian inhabitants, the Aborigines: dark skin, strong jaws, deep eyes, thin foreheads,
Teutoniclike cranial structures and broom-like hair. TRT: 128
From the Sawang’s appearance, he sees them as different from the Malays and the Chinese. Furthermore, how they spent their money becomes the main character’s
concern:
They spent like there was no tomorrow and borrowed like they’d live forever. Because of their money management problems, the Sawangs often became the
victims of negative stereotypes in the circles of the Malay majority and the Chinese. TRT: 129
Sawang becomes the minority with their attached negative stereotypes in Belitung. Not only do they spend their money on particular way, their culture is
also seen as different from the Belitung-Malays, as he states:
The Sawangs were quite happy to marginalize themselves. For them, life consisted of a foreman willing to pay them once a week and hard jobs that no other race was
willing to do. They didn’t recognize the concept of power distance because there was no hierarchy in their culture. People who didn’t understand their culture would
consider them impolite. The one and only exalted one among them was the head of the tribe, usually a shaman, and the position wasn’t hereditary. TRT: 129-130
The primitive culture that the main character has mentioned earlier about the Sawang is described clearer in this quotation, such as: they marginalize
themselves, do the hard jobs that other races do not want to do, and their leader is written as “the head of the tribe”.
Therefore, the term native in The Laskar Pelangi Quartet refers to the Belitungese, that to be specific is Belitung-Malays people with their Malay race
and Islam religion. As the main character has mentioned: “We Malays generally are simple individuals who acquire life’s wisdom from Koranic teachers and
elders at the mosque after magrib prayer” TRT: 127. Meanwhile, for the Chinese and the Sawang, they are not part of the native. They are seen as other races that
live in Belitung but are not included as the Belitung-Malays. According to Chow, “[…]seeing become overwhelmingly important ways of
talking, simply because “seeing” carries with it the connotation of a demarcation
of ontological boundaries between “self” and “other”.
36
“Native” in the quartet is the main character’s construction based on his “seeing” to categorize who the
Belitung people are. Thus, the quartet as a text may contradicts the “real” understanding of the dynamic population in Belitung.
B. Previous Study
