MUSEUM AND THE IMAGINED NATION

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through the presentation of objects, a functional instrument either for the dominion or subdominion in projecting their power.

2.2.3. MUSEUM AND THE IMAGINED NATION

The above section elaborated on the meaning of museums in being a public institution that provide space for expression of contradictory imperatives of power in the political and social contexts. However, it is irrational to assume that all the displayed objects in such museums only link or reflect the tangible heritage in the outside world. By way of illustration, when Malaysian Chinese visited an ethnic chinese museum in Melaka to see ancient Chinese artifacts which have been brought to the region after the arrival of Zheng He, a renow Chinese navigator during the early Ming dynasty, their consciousness could experience certain evocation that emerged at the moment when the visitors saw those artifacts, particularly in those who, by the concept of ‘seeing through’, have an access to the latent coding given through the exhibition’s narrative. However, by seeing those artefacts, the consciousness among Melayu Chinese has been evoked to some degree, either they have direct association with Zheng He or regarded him as a spiritual symbol of Chinese people in Melaka or not. This study will further discuss the intangible effect of the museum, which is the creation of imagination of nation among people that has emerged when they come to visit.

Although imagination appears to be a natural occurrence for people, it is a powerful tool that could cause love and even hate among people themself, as Anderson (1991) posed an interesting question that brotherhood (through the mean of imagined relationship among people) possesses the power over millions of people to consent to the imagination that they called nation by forging sentimental legitimacy that embedded deeply in the imagined community.

What is the role of museums in this process particularly if the nation is literally a forged and fabricated thing? Why is the museum necessary for those who want to construct an imagination of nationhood? These questions lead to studies which focus on the role of museums in building the nation through the process of imagination.

Many museum studies in the post-colonial era which focused on the role of museums in the nation-building process of the new independent states in the 20th century were related to the

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concept of imagined community, coined by Anderson (1991). However, the role of the museums in this process, from Anderson’s perspective, was not to individually act as a single element but collaborate with other elements such as the creation of maps, social consensus, and powerful mediation of printed language.

In the concept of imagined community, Anderson (1991) recognized the role of museums in building the nation by supporting the impulsion of printing technology, particularly in new nation-states in the post-colonial period. Anderson (1991) pointed out that museum is one of the tools that are used in creating a sense of nationalism among nationalists and nationalism movements, along with the creation of census and map, through the process of “causal mechanisms” : firstly, providing a space with a function to allow the restoration of the forged legendary of the “nation” (which is exhibited by collected objects) which were hunted and positioned by the census of antiquity.

Secondly, providing legitimate power for the states or nationalists by acting as “the guardian of collective traditions” which gathers/escorts/revives those heritages that can be a part of lustrous antiquity. The museums usually hunt and discover objects of heritage (and some

‘losing gem’) in the name of archaeology, and then position the objects as scared or legendary which people should respect the past they represent. Anderson gave an example of how states positioned the ancient heritage in imposing and training people such as portraying historic sites in grandeur style to instruct the later generations to be proud and respect of their powerful ancestors. States or nationalist could claim the legitimacy by identifying and acting as the protector of collective traditions.

Thirdly, proceeding the role of creating the duplication of the “national brand” ("infinite reproducibility"-his term, the benefaction from Printed technology) which can be biographies of hero/nationalists, (forged) geography of territory and even postal stamps, in order to construct and emphasize the public opinion (‘who are we’) that are embedded in their imagination. Moreover, they could tell which are “not” our nation and which should be considered as otherness. Anderson gave an example of King Sihanouk and his command to duplicate the “Bayon” in building the scared of Khmer against ex-colonizer, French.

Hence these three causal mechanisms, museum could extend the sense of nation and its identity by providing a space for collecting and recalling the glorious past of the would-be nation,

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training people to be part of such nation by informing them of the collective norms (that are forged by the states or nationalists), and infinitely reproduce such narrative and anecdotes.

In Melayu state occupied by Thailand, the replication of portraits of an iconic ‘hero’ found to help shaping collective imagination. The uncountable portraits of Haji Solong Tomina, a Melayu spiritual leadership, have been duplicated into cover of several books and posters as a

“hero” who tried to emancipate Melayu Patani identity from an assimilation of Thai central state. Moreover, there were a number of prints made by Haji Solong Charity about significant and controversial topics such as the event of his forced disappearance from Thai central state (Stha-anand, 2008). On the other hand, visitors who come to Haji Sulong museum would be stunned with his numerous portraits on several occasions, one of the outcomes from the function of duplication of printed technology. Moreover, the display of his portraits in his own house, which became the museum nowadays, helped Melayu Patani people to directly connect with Haji Sulong’s legacy. This connection advocated and smoothened the process of creating imagination toward the existence of the nation of Melayu Patani.

Similar process of building imagination could be observed In Taiwan, where regional museums were built on the concept of Taiwanization. The duplication of Tao canoe throughout many indigeous museums in Taiwan was one of the examples. The study of indigenous materials and culture in Taiwan and mainland China by Varutti (2014) suggested that Tao canoes were depicted in museums in mainland China as a symbol for ‘Gaoshan’, a collective name for all indigenous groups in Taiwan. In Taiwan, however, the canoes represented the relations of Taiwan (as Taiwan) with the Oceanic region, a move that reflected the intention to garner a distinct national identity (Varutti, 2014). The duplication of Tao canoes in Taiwan were politicized discursively in the sense of Taiwanization. Considering the political and social contexts, Indigenous rights has gained attention and developed into an important issue in Taiwan in early 1990s. Indigenous movements have tried to raise and push for momentum for Taiwanese to revise their policy and recognize them as one of the parts of the nation-in-building (Brown, 2004; Ku, 2005 ; Simon,2008; Varutti,2012). The status of the 14 tribes then has been officially guaranteed and has received recognition and acceptance from the Taiwanese government, which positively have an impact on other minority groups who were also seeking acceptance (Varutti, 2014).

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Studying the concept of creating imagined communities in the name of nation building, Anderson (1991) identified a crucial role of ‘homogenous empty time’ for the process of building collective imagination among members of the nation. This concept, originally proposed by Walter Benjamin, is an element of the people’s imagination to constantly assume and be aware that there are other people living their life among and with us, even if they have not known and met each other (Anderson, 1991). In other words, no matter their location, they constantly realise the existence of others that share their identity with some form of relations.

While the development of technologies and innovations were a factor that hastened the imagination of the collateral world of life, the creation of clocks, maps, and the media which were aroused by capitalism further advocated the homogeneous empty time proceeding.

To emphasize the role of this concept, Anderson (1991) interpreted the fiction of Mas Marco Kartodikromo “Semarang Hitam”, published in 1924. This fiction depicted the story of a man who was reading the newspaper and found an article about social injustice describing the desperate life and death of a homeless person in the setting of the City of Semarang. He then became furious about the system which provided wealth for a small group of people but caused poverty for the mass. Anderson interpreted this fiction by using the concept of homogeneous empty time and argued that the awareness of connection among Indonesian was embedded in the story. That man represented Indonesians who struggled with the colonial ruler and the

“injustice” society. The setting of the story is not limited to his city alone but to general Indonesian society as the backdrop of Semarang Hitam would be familiar to some Indonesian.

This fiction gave a picture of connection among the protagonist, Indonesian public and the dead homeless, no matter where they were or no matter they have not known each other personally before, they were all connected. Surely, the collateral imagination of the people (who struggle in life) made them assume that there were other people who were living their struggles just the same as them. Homogeneous empty time proceeded to fulfil the creation of the imagined community among them as a collective group of Indonesians who were against the colonial ruler. Moreover, the role of newspapers as a ‘cultural outcome’ also hastened the collective imagination and impacted how national-state constructed their history. Homogeneous empty time, argued by Anderson (1991), was correlated with the concept of memory and forgetting and the composition of the national biography which were the vital element to assure the preservation of national memory. The collective imagination has been further reproduced by the communicated mechanism such as birth certificates and even photographs.

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By the concept of homogenous empty time, the national biography was produced to create the sense of shared, collective memories among the mass. For the same reason that when people recalled their memories as a child, they would often refer to the collective groups of friends and shared past memories, the nation building process used this pattern to provide people to recall themselves as a member of the collective group by using the available biography of nations and its (dead) heroes.

Similarly, museum studies refer to the concept of homogeneous empty time. Bennett (1995) pointed out that the past is freezed into the museum by the concept of present, and the frame of present was a tool to organize those objects which were in the past (Bennett, 1995). In this sense, the bridge of imagination between the present and the past was connected. However, for the museum, the present was more influential in building imagination by the ability to give a

‘text’ into those objects.

Bennett (1995) and Greenblatt (1987) gave an example to picture this concept by comparing the museums to a natural park, which was forged as a pure nature place. However, that park actually was not a pure nature place by itself but because of it is being compared to a city.

Natural park was therefore a given context that has been described through ‘text’ such as the frame of laws and regulations to divide the park and the city, and such text was reproduced by publications of guide books or information posters. Likewise, in the museums, the past was also forged by the frame of the given text. It was a paradoxical process which was influenced by the present’s thought. The museum and its functions provided the text of objects by the frame of present (Bennett, 1995 & Greenblatt, 1987). Hence, the objects and the idea of the past they represent does not have the meaning by themselves but are imposed by the present’s needs.

In conclusion, the museum itself is a tool of the present’s thoughts and ideas, possessing a similar role to the biography of a nation which is organized by the people in present time to provide a place of realization and association with the common past, creating the sense of community with others. The consciousness of nation and its identity of people is recalled not only on a personal level but also on the communal level. In short, the museum itself provides the homogeneous empty time as a function for visitors to go back to the past and recall themself their brotherhood in a community. In this sense, it would not be surprising if those visitors who

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