VIVAnews – On October 2, 2007, Rais Yatim, Minister of Malaysian Culture, Arts & Heritage, challenged Indonesia to prove that the song “Rasa Sayange” is truly an Indonesian heritage. The statement was made by Yatim when responding to the statements made by members of the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR) saying that the song is originated from Maluku Islands.
The issue has caught the attention of experts in Bandung Fe Institute. They then developed a statistical mechanicas method adopted from physics: Zipf-Mandelbrot, gyration coefficient, spiral coefficient, as well as entropic and neg-entropic analysis to explore Indonesia's traditional songs.
The results are then composed using evolutionary biology approach into a phylomemetic tree of Indonesian traditional songs. The research can determine the evolution pattern of Indonesia's traditional songs.
From the research, it is shown that based on the tone structure, duration, density, dynamics, melodic diversity and the song’s complexity level, “Rasa Sayange” has similar characteristics with other traditional songs of Moluccas. The characteristics are very different to the group of songs from Riau, which are very similar to Malaysia's traditional songs.
In a release sent by Roland M. Dahlan, a member of Bandung Fe Institute, who also engaged in the “Gerakan Nasional Sejuta Daya Budaya”, Tuesday, Feb 21, based on their research, the song “Rasa Sayange” is very far from the branch of Melayu songs. The research has also proven that Rais Yatim’s claim is a mistake.
The method has been applied to hundreds of Indonesia's traditional songs.
“We urged the public to participate in contributing to the “Gerakan Nasional Sejuta Daya Budaya” by sending data of Indonesia's traditional culture to the site www.budaya-indonesia.org,” said Roland.
“This movement is not only an inventory of traditional songs, but also the elements of fabric patterns, architectures, dances, ornaments, medicines, ancient manuscripts, etc. The data is very crucial in efforts to avoid claims from irresponsible parties in the future.”
Former Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim, also has acknowledged that “Rasa Sayange” is a song originated from Indonesia. “Since childhood I was taught that ‘Rasa Sayange’ is a Malaysian song,” said Anwar in Jakarta, Oct 12, 2010.
