Yogyakarta’s Batik on the History Path of Cultural Politics in the Indonesian Reformasi Period

Abstract

 This research article aims to study the history path of cultural politics of Yogyakarta batik during the Indonesian Reformasi period, which results from UNESCO recognition of Indonesian batik as a world heritage in 2009. This achievement is like creating an official identity for the Indonesian nation. However, this operation is full of culturally political movements with the conflict about the ownership of batik culture between Indonesia and Malaysia. The reason for choosing the batik of Yogyakarta city in this study is its being regarded as "Classical batik or traditional batik" of Indonesia. The batik of Yogyakarta city, in turn, becomes the representative image of the Indonesian batik. In addition, Yogyakarta city is important in terms of Indonesian political and cultural history. From the perspective of political history, Yogyakarta was an important city in the Indonesian state which was once the capital of the Indonesian capital during the independence claim. This city has been designated as the Yogyakarta Special Administrative Region until the present. As for the perspective of culture, the city of Yogyakarta is a city that still preserves traditional Javanese culture, one of which is the culture known as “batik.” From the perspective of Javanese culture, Batik of Yogyakarta city is more than just a valued way of dressing. It also reflects Javanese society as well as the whole of Indonesian society. In addition, the Javanese, who are the main population of the country, have enhanced Javanese prominence through arts and culture. Javaneseness transmitted through the batik of
Yogyakarta city was therefore part of Indonesian national identity. The implications show that politics and culture cannot be separated from each other.