Batik, Proudly Indonesia

This is truly one of the best times I have as an Indonesian. UNESCO has officially proclaimed Batik from Indonesia as one of world heritages. I believe this is really a moment to be proud of.

Batik has become our cultural heritage for centuries. But, apparently Malaysia has always tried to claim it as their country’s heritage in many times. And it really breaks your heart when you find someone else is claiming one of your belongings. There is nothing wrong if you admire other country’s culture; but if you come up by claiming it as your own just because you like it, then you must be completely out of your mind!

Unfortunately, people of Indonesia respond this problem in a positive way. Actually, we used to regarded Batik as an old fashion way. Almost every young people refused to use Batik as fashion item. Only people in a certain kind of job such as the government’s employees or students from certain schools use Batik as an obligation uniform.

That’s all. You can not expect a young lady uses Batik as a gown to go to a party or something.

But after Malaysia claimed Batik as it’s own, this condition changed. It seems like people of Indonesia finally realized the presence of this precious culture heritage among them and start to use it in almost every fashion items that are available. Every Indonesian designers design various kinds of fashion wears using Batik. This is open the way for Batik to reach the high end people also and become the fashion item. Every body has at least one piece of Batik on their wardrobes and proudly wears it to many special events such as wedding party and stuffs.

Batik has also become a unique fashion items among teenagers and young people. Many girly and boyish clothes are made from batik. You can even find clothes for toddlers and kids made from Batik also. All the stores that sell Batik confirmed that the sale of Batik has increased from time to time. Batik is one of our ancestors’ heritages that we should be proud of. And when UNESCO proclaimed it as world’s heritage, what could be better than that?

Still we need to show how proud we are of this Batik, right? This is why we need to use Batik together tomorrow, on 2nd October 2009 to celebrate the UNESCO statement. You can choose to wear Batik as clothes, purses, accessories, shawls, belts, or anything made from Batik.

Give the whole day on 2nd October for Batik. It’s a perfect way to show that we finally open our eyes for this priceless heritage and tell those people who intend to take it away from us to stay away. Batik belongs to Indonesia. But, still we proudly present you…Batik from Indonesia.