About Beha, Susu Bendera, Kampungan and Apology

Being in the Netherlands, whenever Indonesia's sacred month "August" enters the calendar, I have always gotten the urge to rant about the Dutch-Indonesian relationship. It is nearly two years that I have lived in the Netherlands, and what's interesting about it is tha I have arrived in the Netherlands exactly at Indonesia's 59th Independence day. Now, I'm not going to talk about about my membership in the new "kumpeni", because that was written in my previous piece last year. Today, I'm going to rant about other things, from Bahasa-Dutch-Indonesian-taal, Dutch-Indonesian food, the famous "Susu Bendera", to the word "Kampungan" or "Boeren" as defined in the Dutch language.

Before I came to the Netherlands, I didn't know any Dutch words. Therefore, I didn't know that Bahasa Indonesia took a lot of words from the Dutch. All this time I thought that Bahasa only took many words from Malay/Melayu, Sanskrit and English. However, when I got here, I found out that there are too many Indonesian words that are the same with the Dutch that it's almost impossible to deny... and these are sometimes really funny words too...

Here are the examples:
Karcis from Kartjes
Handuk from Handoek
Bioskop from Bioscoop
BH from Beha (hehehehe...)
Montir from Monteer
Persneling from Persnelling
Velk from velg
Permak from Vermaak
Beken (as in the slang word for famous) from Bekend
Koran from Courant
Kado from Cadeau
Persis from Precis

There are of course many other words such as: wortel, "toch" (The Javanese people usually says it as "toh", or "ta"), perboden (verboden), kopling, tante, oom, pinset, "dag" (as in dadaaah), teken, rekening, saldo... (hahh... masih banyak..., and I won't write them all... because I'm still learning Dutch and I will find many more similar words as I learn...)

Also, the food... Holland is really different from any other places in the world (at least the places that I have been to). It is really easy to find Indonesian food in the Netherlands. Although the quality is not exactly the same, but it is enough to satisfy your desire to eat Indonesian food when you really miss it. The words such as sambal, bumbu, krupuk, nasi goreng, bami goreng, pangsit goreng, mihoen, ketjap, babi-panggang (ahahaha...!) are familiar to many of the Dutch people just as the words panekuk, biterbalen, kroket and povercis are familiar to our Indonesian ears.

Although I have only been to the Indonesian Embassy in Den Haag three times throughout my stay here in Holland, but I have passed by the embassy's gate (where the Red-and-White flag is raised) many-many times as one of my best friends lives very close to it. Everytime we went out from his place, we always took the road that would pass by the Indonesian Embassy. And, whenever I passed by the flag, a big excitement ran through my veins... I would raise my right hand up to give respect. Apparently this habit of mine, although in the beginning was a bit annoying to my friend, became slightly "understandable". My friend, who is a mix between Portuguese and Dutch (a very "un-attractive" combination for an Indonesian girl to hang out with, considering he has the nationalities of all the countries who used to occupy Indonesia) - and who in the beginning has always mocked me whenever I raised my hand to give respect to the flag - lately has always slowed down in front of the gate to give me time to give respect. It was such a great feeling to see the flag being raised in the very country where it used to be banned.

A friend of mine - an Indonesian friend - used to tell the story to my Dutch friends about how Indonesians ended up with the Red and White Flag. He said Indonesians were not very creative, because we practically only took-out the blue part of the Dutch Flag and used only the Red and White part (apparently what he was describing was connected to the incident at "Hotel Oranje" when we ripped-off the blue part out of the Dutch Flag and raised only the Red and White part). I went into a little bit of argument with him then (hehehe... sorry Yoks!), and said that Indonesians have already chosen the color red and white, long before that incident in "Hotel Oranje". Bu Fat (Alm. Fatmawati Soekarno), was the one who sewed the original Red and White Flag to be raised at the Independence Day August 17th, 1945. And following the chronological order, these Red and White colors were already chosen before the "Hotel Oranje" incident. So, eventhough Indonesians appeared not to be very creative in choosing our Flag colors, we have been true from the beginning.

And speaking about flags... this reminds me of the famous "Susu Bendera". Aaah, Susu Bendera is the milk that practically brought up millions of kids in Indonesia. I think there is nobody in Indonesia who doesn't know the tune of the famous song: "Suusuu saaayaaa, susu benderaaa....". What we probably don't know is that this Frisian Flag brand (or what is called in Holland as the "Friesche Vlag") indeed came from an area in the Netherlands which is called Friesland. Now, from what I have heard/learned from many of the Dutch people, people from Friesland are very proud of themselves. They have their own flag, they speak their own language and they think they're different from other 'Nederlanders'. Other Nederlanders, of course, think differently about the people from Friesland. I have heard that many Nederlanders associate the people from Friesland as the "boeren" people which means the farmer. And usually, they connotate this "boeren" expression as people coming from the village (with "norak" attitude) the same way we, Indonesians, would address "Kampungan"people. This connotation is something that I have never found in the English language - nor in other cultures that I have been exposed to.

When I told this story about the similarities between Indonesia and the Netherlands to my friends or my colleagues at work, their comments were most of the times: 'Wow, you guys didn't hate us that much after all, I thought everything related to Holland were banned from your lives when you got your independence'. I was only smiling whenever someone said this. I think there is no point in holding any grudge (since I am now working and living in Holland hahaha!). But I remember something really funny happened when one of my good friends, whose grandfather fought in the Indonesian war, said to me: "FS, on behalf of all the Dutch people I would like to apologize for everything that our ancestors did to your ancestors during the colonial times. I hope you guys can forgive us". Oooh..., how touching! Of course, I accepted the apology, although I said to him, "G, I personally accept your apology, but I cannot accept it on behalf of all Indonesians" hahahaha...!

Happy 61st Independence day!!