OLEH NASRUL AZWAR
HARIAN Jurnal Nasional yang terbit di Jakarta, semenjak tanggal 1 Januari dan rencananya hingga 31 Desember 2007 setiap hari menerbitkan semacam kilas balik perjalanan sejarah pers nasional. Tulisan tentang pers itu hadir berkaitan dengan peringatan seabad pers nasional yang jatuh pada tahun 2007 ini. Dalam pengantar yang ditulis Taufik Rahzen disebutkan, tarikh ini dihitung sejak Medan Prijaji terbit pertama kali pada Januari 1907. Medan Prijaji adalah tapal dan sekaligus penanda pemula dan utama bagaimana semangat menyebarkan rasa mardika disemayamkan dalam dua tradisi sekaligus: pemberitaan dan advokasi. Dan dua kegiatan itu menjadi gong yang ditalu dengan nyaring oleh hoofdredacteur-nya yang paling gemilang di kurun itu: Raden Mas Tirto Adhi Surjo.
"Pada 1973, pemerintah mengukuhkan Raden Mas Tirto Adhi Surjo sebagai Bapak Pers Nasional. Sementara pada 2006, Presiden Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono menyempurnakan gelar itu menjadi Pahlawan Nasional atas jasanya menggerakkan kesadaran merdeka lewat jalan organisasi modern dan pergerakan nasional," tulis Jurnal Nasional. Namun, dalam pengantar itu tidak dijelaskan alasan mengambil tarikh tersebut, yakni Januari 1907 sebagai awal terbitnya surat kabar Medan Prijaji dan titik awal mengukur usia kehadiran pers di negeri ini.
Sepanjang pembacaan saya terhadap sejarah pers (dan pers juga identik dengan penerbitan), dan juga hasil bacaan saya terhadap disertasi Sudarmoko yang dipertahankannya di Universitas Leiden, Belanda (2005) dan beberapa artikel Suryadi yang juga mengajar di Universitas Leiden, mengesankan, semenjak abad-19, pertumbuhan surat kabar dan dunia penerbitan di Minangkabau (Sumatra Barat) sangat signifikans.
Menurut Suryadi (2004) orang Padang bukan kemarin sore mulai membaca koran. Sejak 7 Desember 1864—hampir satu setengah abad lalu—orang Minang untuk pertama kalinya membaca surat kabar berbahasa Melayu. Pada bulan itu, edisi perdana Bintang Timoer diluncurkan. Itulah koran pribumi pertama (vernacular press) yang terbit di kota yang sudah berusia tua ini. Minangkabau memang merupakan kota pers tertua di Sumatra, dan termasuk kota Indonesia yang awal mengenal surat kabar. Karena mendapat respons dan pasar yang baik, maka manajemen Bintang Timoer menerbitkan menjadi mingguan setiap Rabu yang dimulai sejak 4 Januari 1865.
"Ketika di tempat lain di pulau ini orang baru mengenal naskah (manuscript) beraksara Jawi yang berisi sastra pagan, di Padang orang (Minangkabau) sudah membolak-balik halaman kertas lebar bernama surat kabar yang berisi informasi dari luar dunia lokalnya," tulis Suryadi (lihat di www.ranah-minang.com). Sejumlah surat kabar yang terbit di Minangkabau setelah Bintang Timoer antara lain, Pelita Ketjil (Padang, 1892-1894), Warta Berita (Padang, 1895), Tjahja Sumatra (Padang, 1906).
Tokoh pers yang menonjol saat itu antara lain, Mahyoeddin Datoek Soetan Maharadja, anak nagari Sulit Air, Abisin Abbas, Dja Endar Muda, dan Syekh Achmad Chatib. Tokoh pers itu hadir mewarnai dinamika pemikiran, arah kebijakan publik, dan dunia keintelektualan.
Khairul Jasmi (Pantau, Februari 2002) menulis, saat itu, kepiawaian menulis atau mengeluarkan pendapat orang Minangkabau berpendaran di halaman-halaman surat kabar. Media massa jadi sarana melancarkan perbincangan dan polemik. Mula-mula tentang kebangkitan Asia, Jepang, lalu format masa depan negara. Tak luput juga tentang bagaimana agama Islam seharusnya dipahami dan dijalankan. Pesertanya kaum tua dan muda. Perdebatan agama inilah yang malah berlangsung tajam.
Karena demikian bagusnya kondisi pers saat itu, surat kabar Pelita Ketjil mampu menempatkan seorang korespondennya di Kota Mekkah, yang tugasnya mengirimkan berita perkembangan Islam untuk pembacanya di Sumatra Barat. Hal serupa tidak lagi kita temukan dalam manejemen surat kabar sekarang. Berita dari luar cukup dikutip dari kantor-kantor berita yang bertebaran itu.
Selain koran mainstream di atas, seperti Bintang Timoer, Pelita Ketjil, Warta Berita, Tjahja Sumatra dan lain sebagainya, di tingkat nagari dan etnis juga muncul berbagai penerbitan berkala. Media komunitas hadir dikesankan sebagai ruang komunikasi dan silaturahmi bagi masyarakatnya. Dalam catatan Sudarmoko (2005) beberapa penerbitan "pers" komunitas saat antara lain, Barito Koto Gadang (Fort de Kock, 1929-32), Boedi Tjaniago (Fort de Kock, Drukkery Agam, 1922), Soeara Kota Gedang (Fort de Kock, Vereeniging Studiefonds Kota Gedang, 1916-17), Al Achbar (Padang, 1913-14, dalam bahasa Arab), Al I'laam (Koto Toeo, Ampat Angkat, 1922-23), Moeslim India (Padang, Moeslim India, 1932), Algementeen Advertieblad (Padang, Padangsche Snelpres, 1921, dalam bahasa Belanda), Bintang Tiong Hoa (Padang, Tiong Hoa Ien Soe Kiok, 1910-15).
Dari catatan sejarah dan tarikh keberadaan dunia pers di Sumatra Barat, tampaknya, kehadiran surat kabar Medan Prijaji (1907) yang lahir di Bandung (Jawa Barat) masih muda dibanding surat-surat kabar yang sudah terbit di Minangkabau sebelumnya. Lalu, pertanyaan selanjutnya, alasan apa sesungguhnya menempatkan awal lahirnya Medan Prijaji tahun 1907 sebagai tarikh lahirnya pers nasional, yang kini (tahun 2007) diperingati sebagai "satu abad pers nasional"?
Apa artinya kehadiran Bintang Timoer yang lahir pada 7 Desember 1864, Pelita Ketjil (1892-1894), Warta Berita (1895), Tjahja Sumatra (1906) itu? Dan kita tidak mengetahui pula, siapa atau lembaga apa yang memutuskan dan melegetimasi satu abad pers di Indonesia ini dimulai hitungan tahun 1907? Bagaimana mekanisme dan prosedurnya, apakah ditetapkan dengan Surat Keputusan Pemerintah, atau Surat Keputusan Presiden, dan lain sebagainya? Apakah Persatuan Wartawan Indonesia (PWI), atau lembaga pers lainnya ikut serta melegitimasi tahun kelahiran surat kabar Medan Prijaji 1907 sebagai awal lahirnya pers nasional? Selanjutnya, di mana suara sejarahwan Sumatra Barat yang jumlahnya tidak sedikit itu: Apa sesungguhnya yang terjadi di negeri ini, sehingga fakta sejarah bisa saja diubah dan diklaim sesuka hati?
Pertanyaan serupa bisa dilebarkan lagi. Tapi, yang jelas, dari titik berangkat sejarah pers Indonesia, sudah diambil orang, sejarah itu sudah dianjak orang lain. Sejarah sudah berada di negeri orang lain. Kita yang berbuat, orang lain yang hebat. Berteriaklah kita sekuat tenaga, bahwa pada pertengahan abad-19 orang Minanglabau sudah baca koran, dan banyak surat kabar yang terbit di sini, dan lain sebagainya, jelas tak ada gunanya.
Para sejarahwan yang bertebaran di Unand dan UNP, dan di perguruan tinggi di kota-kota lainnya, yang diharapkan bisa menjelaskan duduk perkara fakta sejarah ini, tampaknya lebih tertarik menyelesaikan proyek penelitiannya yang tidak akan pernah habis-habisnya. Karena proyek itu terus mengalir sepanjang bangsa ini terus memakai APBN (D) dan proyek penelitian memang banyak di sana.
Sementara, tokoh pers di daerah ini dan juga lembaga pers terkait lebih asyik dengan dirinya sendiri. Padahal, di pundak mereka tanggung jawab itu kini berada. Fakta sejarah pers telah diplintir orang lain, kita diam saja. Dikatakan orang lain bahwa pers berawal di Bandung, kita di sini seolah mengangguk balam saja. Entahlah, entah apa yang salah di negeri saya ini: Semua seperti sudah tergadai, termasuk harga diri itu.
***
Nasrul Azwar seorang penulis, tinggal di Padang, naskah ini mulanya muncul di harian Padang Ekspres edisi 16 September 2007
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TALE OF RANAH MINANG, A STOLEN NARRATION
Halo Mas Andreas dan Angk Azwar, saya senang sekali membaca blog dan tulisan anda, maka jadilah reply kecil in yangternyata panjang sekali. Hahah maafkanlah…
The story is long and grey but by at least the 14th century, as further transported from Aceh Pasai, Islam steadfastly reached down lower Sumatera region. It replaces local a variety of religious belief and animism growing there. Entering 18th century, Minangkabau had transformed into one of most powerful Islam’s stronghold in Asia.
To read, write and to learn is Quranic greatest command for the faithful. Entering the new gate of time, the 19th century shall be ready to accommodate an intellectual cultivation (later historians examine this as a sort of intellectual flowering) that will be happening within its span. The foregoing 18th century had served well its role as formative years of Islam’s establishment on land and in identity of local folk. Entering 19th century, the local faithful now had been the class of religiously and secularly erudite intellectuals. As what happens in Umayyah palatial court, right one century after Prophet Muhammad deceased, the great projects of knowledge transfer and construction began in Sumatera, various scholarly projects like translation, poetry composition, work of art or palatial intrigues and much other of serious subject were written and copied there. Thus, the faithful Minangkabau had been already at that time, as does as what Quran aspires: the intellectual classes who read in the name of their Lord, the Cherisher who has taught them the use of pen.
Now, it comes to us in the form of matured manuscripts or naskah tua; one of the seriously unobserved Sumatera Barat`s great heritages. Yes, they are the fragile jaune manuscripts, written in flowery Arabic character. This lettering is known as Arab-Malayan characters, a tradition once grows and fosters in Indonesia when Dutch and other trespassers still hold dominion on Indonesia, two and three centuries ago. This Arab-Malayan character originates from Islam itself. It is a Quranic script, the sanctified book of Islam. In Nusantara up to the 13th century, Sanskrit was used in writing the dozens of local languages existed throughout the islands, as the sophisticated Hindu and Buddha were the two principal religions and at its pinnacle at those times. By the 14th century with the coming of Islam, Arabic script began to replace Sanskrit by the peoples who had come into Islam. Then Malayans and Minangkabau people adopt this alphabet for their own use besides pious purposes, as none who becomes a Muslim could escape at some least amount use of Arabic.
These manuscripts actually I find sighing of a steadfast commitment and sincere faith of generation at that time; faith to Allah and knowledge bestowed upon lives of men and women. These ancient manuscripts cover every aspect of human endeavor, the manuscripts are indicative of the high level of education and I think we modestly agree that it is not like the greatest ones as civilization attained by Musulman classmates during Middle Ages, but this presents undeniable attestation of a serious and committed Sumatran literary tradition.”
I imagine every time little Minang girls and boys come to mosque to attend mengaji (Al Quran learning class), they are in fact learning and slipping this Arab-Malayan alphabet into their small collective brains and as they advance in years, they are expected to adeptly write and read in this script. Now, entering farther 20th century, this alphabet has declined in use and I am in subterranean dismay and find this very saddening, for it is once practical in transforming Sumatera more culturally islamized and its religious emotional use has been in great service as fuel in gaining independence from Dutch.
As comically written by Andrea Hirata in his highly acclaimed Edensor; Laskar Pelangi`s third volume, on the value of surau (pastoral small mosque) in Malayan’s identity where he depicts with strong allusion on youth recollection of joyous Bangka kids who play, learn and sleep in surau, in reading surau`s identity for Minangkabau people, pleasurable childhood memory founded in Andrea`s literary landscape provides perfect illustration to the very panorama of Minangkabau people’s life centuries in the past. For kids, to attend mengaji every afternoon until late night, sleep and play were the established tradition in Minangkabau-19 century days.
In Minangkabau, Surau once considerably serves as a pedagogic, moral and socio-cultural institution for local folk as modern school now does. In surau, intellectual activity fosters and cultivate. Surau serves as nestle for the luminous, bewildered and turbulent young Minang minds. From discussion activities, it then moves further and matures into writing and reading practice once they join various independence or religious movements and parties which flowers in those times.
Now, we come to 19th century; a moment of revolutionary and thinker cultivation. Their sophisticated parents were already dead, but still along time we have elegant boys and girl, educated in Western (Dutch) manner. These folks shall come out in Nusantara history for their finery, sacrifice and dedication transporting this archipelago into the new political entity as we are living at the present; i.e. Indonesia. Their involvement shall be in various conduct; state assignment, blood, death, sacrifice, books, struggle against imperial Dutch, Japan and Ally for independence. One shall be discussed here is newspaper. Yes, papers from one century ago.
As their parents read paper, the children read and write more. Even they generate their own newspaper store. Thus this is the research subject of committed Angku Suryadi and Uda Koko (Sudarmoko). Suryadi states (2004) Padang folk read papers one century in the past. Long in 7 Desember 1864—can you imagine at that time what our land and people act-they make their own Malaya- Bintang Timoer- a first time and pridely vernacular press emerging in Mysterious East. Thus by the presence of this papers, we identify Padang as the ancientest journalism town across Nusantara. The local reader was fine women and man, so fine that the paper office accept good praise that they make public their papers every Wednesday and this weekly paper was waited wholeheartedly since on its anniversary in 4 January 1865. "Ketika di tempat lain di pulau ini orang baru mengenal naskah (manuscript) beraksara Jawi yang berisi sastra pagan, di Padang orang (Minangkabau) sudah membolak-balik halaman kertas lebar bernama surat kabar yang berisi informasi dari luar dunia lokalnya," Suryadi can not restrain in his towering satisfaction and delight describing how urbanized, cosmopolitan and sophisticated Minangkabau people was (see www.ranah-minang.com).
Entering the new century, Minangkabau began adopting Western education school on the manner of class and teacher standing in front of them. Here like surau and modern colonial school, papers serves as institution of debate and learning as depicted by Khairul Jasmi (Pantau, Februari 2002). In the course of time, we shall see the gracious attendance of other company, to mention some: Pelita Ketjil (Padang, 1892-1894), Warta Berita (Padang, 1895), Tjahja Sumatra (Padang, 1906). Superimposed by the genius angku mudo (smart guy) Sudarmoko (2005); some other follows Barito Koto Gadang (Fort de Kock, 1929-32), Boedi Tjaniago (Fort de Kock, Drukkery Agam, 1922), Soeara Kota Gedang (Fort de Kock, Vereeniging Studiefonds Kota Gedang, 1916-17), Al Achbar (Padang, 1913-14, in Arab), Al I'laam (Koto Toeo, Ampat Angkat, 1922-23), Moeslim India (Padang, Moeslim India, 1932), Algementeen Advertieblad (Padang, Padangsche Snelpres, 1921 in Dutch), Bintang Tiong Hoa (Padang, Tiong Hoa Ien Soe Kiok, 1910-15). The very name of this papers speak nuance of passé colonial roman and romance. It also speaks the majesty, valor and cerebral character. Like Barito Koto Gadang; Barito- it means news; a Melayu lexicon- Koto Gadang defines the locality; a prominent village located at the foundation of Indonesia’s grandest canyon bearing out many celebrated international figure for this nation; to name Haji Agus Salim. These papers, they all were born of genius standing of local men like Mahyoeddin Datoek Soetan Maharadja from Sulit Air, Abisin Abbas, Dja Endar Muda and Syekh Achmad Chatib. They all are the offspring of their deceased sophisticated parents.
Nasrul Azwar laments for the history has been torn and distorted. But he mistakes none. Despairingly it might sound; it is very often the local fellow countrymen who pay not attention for their own historic bequest. The fact shows many our good man historians sitting in local UNP and UNAND are highly preoccupied by their research and zending ammunitioned by APBN(D) funding. So we can not simply blame Central Government for the misrepresentation of times past.
We can hope a study on press distribution line in Sumatera can be traced here, then it is hoped documentation of these historic structures can lead into a local and history sensitiveness. There is no insist here. History is not a fixed entity. Its revision and escalation is always on the way. There is too much unfair and poor and minor mention in discourse of our history annals. To close while thanking Angku Azwar for his such compelling and revealing lettering and on this such huge matter, let me quote his finality: Sementara, tokoh pers di daerah ini dan juga lembaga pers terkait lebih asyik dengan dirinya sendiri. Padahal, di pundak mereka tanggung jawab itu kini berada. Fakta sejarah pers telah diplintir orang lain, kita diam saja. Dikatakan orang lain bahwa pers berawal di Bandung, kita di sini seolah mengangguk balam saja. Entahlah, entah apa yang salah di negeri saya ini: Semua seperti sudah tergadai, termasuk harga diri itu.
Abrar Haris
Staff Kerjasama Luar Negeri; Menkokesra
Yang senang sekali baca buku dan jalan-jalan, sanaaang bana
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