Fight for the claims of Angklung rights

(Picture taken from :web.sitcom.pl)

Last night (16 September 2007) I watched Metro TV news and found out that Malaysia is trying to get the paten rights for Angklung. And I said “WHAT???” Since I was a very little child and may be since our ancestor, we have already played angklung, to prove it just see some Sudanese traditional ceremony they use angklung as one of their music instrument. And through out the world Indonesian people have already well known for their Angklung as traditional music instrument from West Java. Isn’t it weird that now Malaysia claims angklung as their music instrument by giving it the new name “Bamboo Malay” meanwhile the reality is that Bamboo Malay does not have any difference from angklung?

Malaysia even claims that Angklung was not come from Indonesia. They even put angklung as an important substance in Malaysian education curriculum. If Malaysia wins the patent rights then it will be a threat for Indonesian Artist and entrepreneurs that involving in Angklung worlds. Beside that it will also be a disgrace for Indonesian authority because our Angklung will belong to other country and we lost the rights to claim it as our traditional music instrument. How scary it will be. Does Malaysia do it in purpose to threat Indonesia authority? We have lost once in Batik rights should we lost again in angklung battle?

Jero Wacik as Indonesian cultural and tourism minister said that they have register angklung in UNESCO so it will be known as Indonesian traditional music but now it is still in process because our country is not the only one who register angklung, and now they still trying to find which country who establish angklung for the first time.

I found out from wikipedia that if we look back through our history in Hindu period and Padjajaran kingdom era, Sudanese people used the angklung to sign the time for prayer. Later, Padjajaran kingdom uses this instrument as corps music in Bubat War (Perang Bubat).

Angklung functioned as building the peoples community spirit. It was still used by the Sudanese until the colonial era. But because of that the Dutch East Indies government tried to forbid people playing the angklung instrument. Because it was forbidden to play angklung during this time, the popularity of the instrument decreased and it came to be played only by children in this era.

In 1938 Daeng Soetigna expanded the angklung notations not only to play traditional pelog or slendro scales, but also diatonic. Since then, angklung is often played together with other western music instruments in an orchestra. One of the first well-known performances of angklung in an orchestra was during the Bandung Conference in 1955.

And who does not know about Udjo Ngalagena a student of Daeng Soetigna who opens the “Saung Udjo” (House of Angklung) in 1966 as a center of angklung development for angklung. Which make more variation in Angklung world. And the origin of Angklung has also been told in Angklung padaeng in National Seminar of Angklung ITB, 26 October 1989 (from: http://angklung-web-institute.com/content/view/87/74/lang,en/).

Angklung is Indonesian origin traditional instrument and we have to fight to prove it so there won’t be any other countries who try to steal it from us. Come on Indonesian people lets fight for it. If you have any info about angklung tell it to the world lets make it possible for us to get the authority of angklung in front of the world.