A Marxist Analysis of Iwan Fals’ Song Nak Social Base and Function of Literature

A father’s love, a mother’s love… what if they are angry, angry to the world’s situation, angry to your environment and social condition around you. Will they broke the dishes, fill a bottle full with petroleum and then make it an explosive bomb then throw it to the governmental house, or will they kill themselves after they kill you. They can be doing all of those things above, but they are too kind to do that, they are not such kind of people. Another option they can take is singing some song or make some story, and retelling it to you as their child. This phenomenon captured in one of Iwan Fals’ song lyric, Nak. A song about a father’s feeling about the world and make it a background in his mind to make some wise words for his child. A song from 1984 in an album called Sugali.

“Verse 1

Jauh jalan yang harus kau tempuh

Mungkin samar bahkan mungkin gelap

Tajam kerikil setiap saat menunggu

Engkau lewat dengan kaki yang tak bersepatu

Duduk sini Nak dekat pada bapak

Jangan kau ganggu ibumu

Turunlah lekas dari pangkuannya

Engkau lelaki kelak sendiri

Verse 2

Nak dengarlah bicara bapakmu

Yang kenyang akan hidup terang dan redup

Letakkan dahulu mainan itu

Duduk dekat bapak sabar mendengar

Kau anak harapanku yang lahir di jaman gersang

Segala sesuatu hanya ada karena uang

Ya … ya … ya … ya …

Kau anak dambaanku yang besar di kancah perang

Kau harus kuat yakin pasti menang

Sekolah biasa saja jangan pintar-pintar percuma

Latihlah bibirmu agar pandai berkicau

Sebab mereka sangat perlu kicau yang merdu

Sekolah buatmu hanya perlu untuk titel

Peduli titel didapat atau titel mu’jizat

Ya … ya … ya … ya …

Sekolah buatmu hanya perlu untuk gengsi

Agar mudah bergaul tentu banyak relasi

Jadi penjilat yang paling tepat

Karirmu cepat uang tentu dapat

Jadilah Durno jangan jadi Bimo

Sebab seorang Dorna punya lidah sejuta

O . . . . o . . . . o . . . . . o . . . .

Hidup sudah susah jangan dibikin susah

Cari saja senang walau banyak hutang

Munafik sedikit jangan terlalu jujur

Sebab orang jujur hanya ada di komik

Pilihlah jalan yang mulus tak banyak batu

Sebab batu-batu bikin jalanmu terhambat

Ya … ya … ya … ya …

Pilihlah jalan yang bagus tak ada paku

Sebab paku itu sakit apalagi yang berkarat

Jadilah kancil jangan buaya

Sebab seekor kancil sadar akan bahaya

Jadilah bandit berkedok jagoan

Agar semua sangka engkau seorang pahlawan

Jadilah bunglon jangan sapi

Sebab seekor bunglon pandai baca situasi

Jadilah karet jangan besi

Sebab yang namanya karet tahan kondisi

Anakku aku nyanyikan lagu

Waktu ayah tak tahan lagi menahan murka.”[1]

            According to Ricoeur (1981) in a book by Faruk (2010), literature is something that can’t be separated by its context of social condition, but a literary work is something independent and can’t be owned by a person, it can be refers to anyone, anytime, and anywhere[2]. If so, those lyric above must have a social condition background. At the time of the album of the song launched is 1984 and at the time Indonesia is in its new order era under the Soeharto regime. And if we once again look at Marx two greatest clue about his philosophy of Marxism that “it is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness. And, the philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; and the point is to change It.[3]” so the lyric above is an ideology or a superstructure that rest upon the base structure that is no other than the reality of social condition when the lyric written. In despite of Marx, himself said that every different thought has their own social, politic, and economic group interest that dominated at the time. Generally, they, the dominant group, make the unfair economic problem as something that fair and right; they also make a rule about dominant groups as natural and legal. Thus, the thought is to make sure that the dominant group or class keep on power[4]. So the base structure are already monopolized and dominated by the dominant group, it is an unfair condition for the oppressed group; it is a similarity with the idea of bourgeois and proletarian group, so, according to Ryan (2007), literature is an important way to circulate thought in culture. Religion and institution of education in past time, and also film, television, radio, and another media nowadays has an important function[5]. Thus, another way to research literature is by analyzing its political function in shoring up the power of the dominant groups.

            In this essay, I want to summarize up the theory from Trotsky about the social base and function of literature, actually I found D. Jupriono (2012) has summarized it, here his theory say: 1) every works should be utter the voice of pain and hope of very weak or oppressed group in society. 2) In expressing the feeling, the work should be using a direct and most spontaneous word. 3) Extracted by economic factor, proletarian should be conveying their feeling by using their new point of view and poet should give them facility to do it[6]. So, from this theory I will analyze the lyric above if whether the social base and function of literature is in the lyric or not. Here we go.

            First, I will analyze from the number one, is the lyric conveying word from the very weak or oppressed group in society. To answer the question, we have to look at the lyric once more time and decide whether it’s a pro to the dominant or the oppressed group in society.

“Anakku aku nyanyikan lagu

Waktu ayah tak tahan lagi menahan murka.”[7]

            Those two lines of lyric tell that this lyric is about a father talk with his son that he sang a song when he can’t bear to hold angry anymore. The father angry because he can’t bear with the situation of war, full of conflict, and it’s so hard to live the life as shown by the lyric below.

“Kau anak harapanku yang lahir di jaman gersang

Segala sesuatu hanya ada karena uang

Ya … ya … ya … ya …

Kau anak dambaanku yang besar di kancah perang

Kau harus kuat yakin pasti menang”[8]

            This lyric is a voice of fathers in the era of this lyric written, this lyric is a voice of the oppressed group in society who want their child to be a successful man and don’t suffering like their father, so this lyric according to my appraisal is fulfilled the first requirement of social base and function as said by Trotsky every works should be utter the voice of pain and hope of very weak or oppressed group in society[9].

            Now I will analyzing the language used in the lyric, whether it’s using the most direct and spontaneous language or vice versa. The direct language is a language that should be easily understand by a mere people, and the indirect language is the vice versa of that. To know about whether using the direct or indirect language, let’s look at the lyric again, especially the second verse; and below I took a stanza from the second verse as an example.

“Sekolah biasa saja jangan pintar-pintar percuma

Latihlah bibirmu agar pandai berkicau

Sebab mereka sangat perlu kicau yang merdu

Sekolah buatmu hanya perlu untuk titel

Peduli titel didapat atau titel mu’jizat

Ya … ya … ya … ya …[10]”

            In that stanza, the translation in English is “school commonly and don’t too smart it’s will give you nothing, train your mouth to know chirruping, because they so need a beautiful twit, school for you just to get the title, don’t mind if it a winning or a given title… ya…ya…ya…ya…” I can take a conclusion that in this lyric to express his feeling, the father used a direct language, a language to persuade by the father to his child to train his speaking ability and make it the first goal before school because it’s the required thing to live the life at the time, although in the lyric used the word chirruping instead of speaking but it is clear enough for us, the reader, to know that the meaning sense is to speak. So the lyric once again fulfill the requirement, the second requirement of Trotsky’s theory about social function of literature “in expressing the feeling, the work should be using a direct and most spontaneous word[11]”.

            Now the final assessment, it is about the base structure if using Marx style, but here we using Trostky’s style and he said it by economic factor as the base of literature written. And also, in this final part is about the point of view of proletarian, and the function of the poet on helping the proletarian to convey their messages. I have taken a stanza from the lyric for me to analyze as shown below.

“Jadilah kancil jangan buaya

Sebab seekor kancil sadar akan bahaya

Jadilah bandit berkedok jagoan

Agar semua sangka engkau seorang pahlawan

Jadilah bunglon jangan sapi

Sebab seekor bunglon pandai baca situasi

Jadilah karet jangan besi

Sebab yang namanya karet tahan kondisi[12]”

            At the stanza above, the poet successfully conveyed the message from the proletarian about their new point of view to the world, why I know that this is a new point of view from the proletarian, first the lyric above leave the former meaning of some context meaning of some term like kancil or mouse deer, bandit or bandit, bunglon or chameleon, sapi or cow, and about karet (gum) and besi (iron). As the first line in that stanza tell that the child should be like the mouse deer not because the mouse deer clever as in Indonesian fable story but because mouse deer more understand about any danger around, and also not to be strong only as the crocodile. The second thing is to be a chameleon not to be a cow, a cow according to me an Indonesian people is so useful than a chameleon that can be found at so many place at my place freely, but in the lyric the child should be like the chameleon because it can read the situation around and that is more useful than to be a cow that can’t do anything. And to be gum than to be a piece of iron because the gum is more durable to any condition. Those show the fact that the lyric is the poet role to convey the new point of view of proletarian group. And the final thing, the economic factor as the background of the lyric written is in 1984 there are so much new rich people in Indonesia, and then from the album title also, Sugali[13], is the dominant group that using any method to keep their existence in keeping their power in society.

            As a conclusion of this essay, I will say that this lyric entitled Nak by Iwan Fals is successfully created and fulfill every requirement of the three requirement as in Trotsky’s theory. So this lyric is an ideal lyric for its social base and function.

---

[1] Fals, Iwan. 1984. Sugali. Indonesia : Musica Studios.

[2] Faruk. 2010. Pengantar Sosiologi Sastra, dari Strukturalisme Genetik sampai Post-modernisme. Yogyakarta : Pustaka Pelajar.

[3] Selden, Raman. ____. A Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory 5^th ed. New York : Pearson Longman.

[4] Ryan, Michael. 2011. Teori Sastra, Sebuah Pengantar Praktis. Yogyakarta : Jalasutra.

[5] Ryan, Michael. 2011. Teori Sastra, Sebuah Pengantar Praktis. Yogyakarta : Jalasutra.

[6] Trotsky, L. 2003. Akar dan Fungsi Sosial Dunia Sastra. Terjemahan Dewey Setiawan. Jogjakarta : Wellred.

[7] Fals, Iwan. 1984. Sugali. Indonesia : Musica Studios.

[8] Fals, Iwan. 1984. Sugali. Indonesia : Musica Studios.

[9] Trotsky, L. 2003. Akar dan Fungsi Sosial Dunia Sastra. Terjemahan Dewey Setiawan. Jogjakarta : Wellred.

[10] Fals, Iwan. 1984. Sugali. Indonesia : Musica Studios.

[11] Trotsky, L. 2003. Akar dan Fungsi Sosial Dunia Sastra. Terjemahan Dewey Setiawan. Jogjakarta : Wellred.

[12] Fals, Iwan. 1984. Sugali. Indonesia : Musica Studios.

[13] Sugali is a fictive character created by the lyric writer, he is a bandit that wanted by the police in the era of Petrus in Indonesia, a mysterious tragedy in 1980’s that took so many victim.