RUMAH KACA’s Minke’s Death and Its Question on Postcolonial Catastrophe

Abstract


Introduction
An important and prominent event is shown in RUMAH KACA (HOUSE OF GLASS), i.e. the death of the main "figure," who is in fact the main postcolonialist hero of Pramoedya's Buru Tetralogy.Here, the main figure means refers to the focused character of the Buru Tetralogy's compiled novels, in BUMI MANUSIA (THIS EARTH OF MANKIND, ANAK SEMUA BANGSA (CHILD OF ALL NATIONS), JEJAK LANGKAH (FOOTSTEPS), and RUMAH Journal of Language and Literature ISSN: 1410-5691 (print); 2580-5878 (online) Gabriel Fajar Sasmita Aji 150 KACA (HOUSE OF GLASS).Since RUMAH KACA is the last episode, postcolonialism's catastrophe is directly and obviously presented.As the representing actor of the local Indonesian native in bringing the postcolonialism's torch, by his death, Minke goes to provide failure for the efforts and struggles done by the natives, and on the other hand, it becomes the ultimate victory of the colonizer, namely the Dutch colonial, in controlling and imposing its hegemony towards the colonized Indonesia.Even, his death is about to emphasize Minke's total helplessness and powerlessness in facing the colonial power under Pangemanann's hand.
Pangemanann is the colonial officer who has the duty of monitoring and overcoming Minke's deeds.After the exile for 5 years in Maluku, Minke, in RUMAH KACA, had to face another reality in his life: no one was with him, and he was dumped and soaked in a very alienated condition or position.Finally, he died.The novel is interesting in terms that there is the depiction of Minke's postcoloniality's total loss.However, this catastrophic postcolonialism still hides its flame since Minke's compilation of writings does not die but continues to survive through the existence of Nyai Ontosoroh.In other words, RUMAH KACA delivers a "weird angle" for postcolonial readers in perceiving what postclonialism is in fact.
Here is the story of it at a glance.Jacques Pangemanann was formerly a police officer, but then he was assigned by the Governor to control the local activists in imposing oppositional ideas and activities against the colonial government.The Governor was inspired by the happenings in China.The main figure who would be keenly controlled and monitored was Minke.To undergo this duty, Pangemanann applied the strategy of the "house of glass" in which any kinds of activities done by Minke could be inspected and supervised so that then the colonial government might undergo the necessary acts.He compiled all Minke's writings and tried to anticipate any movements and conducts due to his writings.The other prominent act was about to send Minke into exile to the outside of Java, to a very remote place in Ambon.Even all things dealing with Minke's existence were taken over by the government, including his house, writings, and also friends.The helpless and marginalized Minke finally died and Pangemanann thought that "rumah kaca" was really powerful in oppressing and defeating the local postcolonial activities, including the activists.
Indeed, like the other episodes of the tetralogy, RUMAH KACA is the peak displaying the physically unbalanced powers between the colonizer and the colonized.Readers, who already enjoyed Pramoedya's Buru Tetralogy, had, in its first episode, in BUMI MANUSIA, the more or less similar catastrophic event occurs to end the story when Minke said to Nyai Ontosoroh that they're lost or defeated to prevent from the colonial's plunder over their property.The colonizer has made the colonizer fall and lose everything.This end creates certainty that the colonizer is really much more powerful and superior to the colonized.However, this end has smoothly the still flame of postcolonialism by the existing figures, such as Minke and Nyai Ontosoroh, to survive hope and future, despite the fact that they're going bankrupt.Here, the concept of postcoloniality lies not on property but on the will of the doers to survive.Then, it happens, as mentioned previously, the last novel or episode of Buru Tetralogy re-stresses the powerlessness and helplessness of the colonized by Minke's death and Pangemanann's taking over the "position" of Minke as the most prominent character of the story.Ashcroft (2001, p. 1) pointed out the colonizer's colonial ideology by stating, "But the simple fact remains that these colonized peoples, cultures and ultimately nations were prevented from becoming what they might have become: they were never allowed to develop into the societies they might have been." Here he emphasized the hidden ideology of the colonizer in preventing any conducts and efforts by the colonized people to develop.The colonizer tends to preserve any potentials and facilities in order not to enable the colonized to gain the dreams of better conditions and position.The death of Minke directly proves it, and the other result is about Minke's condition which was isolated from friends and any properties.However, Annia Loomba (2005, p. 16) noted that, beside colonial ideology conveying the colonizer's domination and legacies of colonialism, the colonized's postcolonial ideology has continually strived their contemporary resistance to imperialism and Western culture.It means on the one hand, the colonizer peaks in the still controlled condition under it, but on the other hand, the colonized needs to destroy the colonizer's established Western's power, position, and hegemony, over the colonized.Certainly, both Ashcroft and Loomba are just to deliver the reality of postcolonialism, in which the colonized people want to a new construction different from the one previously constructed by the colonizer through imperialism.However, it happens that the fact of colonialism or imperialism conveys unbalanced powers and conditions, proving that the colonizer is absolutely superior to the colonized.The operations of postcolonialism can be in/from several aspects: physical, social, and ideological.
The interplay between the colonizer and the colonized is always the main point of any postcolonial novel, including also Pramoedya's RUMAH KACA, or HOUSE OF GLASS.The existence of Pangemanann in "replacing" Minke, as the focused and major narrator and character, and also Minke's death show how the novel provides a new angle of postcoloniality.By those two figures, even, the Indonesian postcolonialism is emphasized and represented.

Methodology
The research is descriptive-qualitative study.The main data were taken from the main object of discussion, i.e. the novel of RUMAH KACA, or HOUSE OF GLASS.The originally Indonesian version was the main source, and the English translation was just conducted in order to deliver a similar perception against the facts of the novel.Meanwhile, the secondary ones were from journals and references related to the topic.Since the point of discussion is about the interplay between the colonizer and the colonized, which are common in postcolonial studies, the approach applied is postcolonial.

Results and Discussion
As mentioned earlier, two phenomena, which are important and interesting in RUMAH KACA, to start the discussion are (i) the existence of the focused or main character, Pangemanann, who stands as the colonial agent despite his "duty" of in fact delivering postcolonial concept, and (ii) the death of Minke, the ultimate postcolonial figure in bringing the torch of Indonesian postcolonialism.The first, indeed, is about the strategy of the novel and how the story goes on.Without relating the novel RUMAH KACA with the other previous novels of Buru Tetralogy, readers would only see the existence of Pangemanann, who is dominant in the story dan superior to the other characters.As the main character and narrator, all events almost happen "in front of his eyes," and those events are merely about Minke.It means though the existence of Pangemanann is dominant as the "I" and main character, Minke's role in establishing Pangemanann's internal and external conflicts is the prominent pillar of the story.
Tugas seberat itu dipercayakan dan dipikulkan di pundakku: Jaques Pangemanann…..Pekerjaanku adalah pekerjaan khusus, tidak umum.Di antara 48 juta orang Hindia, barangkali belum tentu ada sepuluh setengah yang mengetahui tugasku.Jadi memang pengalaman menarik.Patut semua dicatat-siapa tahu suatu kali akan berguna?(RUMAH KACA, (Such a heavy duty was trusted and put on my shoulders: Jaques Pangemanann….My job was a special one, and not common.Among those 48 millions of (the Ducth) Indies people, perhaps not more than ten and a half who knew it.So, it's really an interesting experience.All had to be noted-who knows in the future it would be useful?) Meanwhile, the death of Minke becomes prominent because RUMAH KACA's ultimate message is keenly delivered through it.Certainly, the role of Minke is greatly marginalized or secondary, compared to Pangemanann, but whatever Pangemanann's deeds are actually concerned with the importance of Minke as the main flame of the local Indonesian postcolonialists.In other words, Minke happens to appear very crucial and ultimate for Pangemanann.Minke in the story finally is depicted "gone without his postcolonial victory over the Dutch colonizer."From Loomba's perspective, dealing with the postcolonial ideology in its contestation with the colonial one, the fact of Minke's death is surely to re-stress and emphasize the failure of Indonesian postcoloniality and postcolonialism.
Ia sudah tak mampu menyewa delman lagi.Ia berjalan kaki.Dealing with the death of Minke, readers would possibly hard to understand and accept because as a postcolonial novel, the main character is postcolonialist and readers should be provided by postcolonial ideas or concepts, especially about any resistance done by the hero/es.However, the message of this phenomenon or fact is not about death itself, proving the loss of the postcolonialist, but it uncovers a different angle of the concept of postcolonialism.On one hand, physically Minke has been dead, but on the other hand, his postcoloniality never dies since he has kept and preserved it, i.e. his writings, in a certain way.The story finally ends with its hidden message, when Pangemanann, on behalf of Minke, handed Minke's writings to Madame Sanikem Le Boucq, or Sanikem, who was one of Minke's friends in postcoloniality.They are the real product, which cannot be killed by the colonizer.

The Existence of Pangemanann
As postcolonial novel in bringing the postcolonial ideology, RUMAH KACA depicts the "I" and main character Pangemanann to likely suggest differently the concept or perspective of the ideology.The term "deconstruction" seems also appropriate to apply since it is to establish the other angle of perceiving the main concept of postcolonialism.Here, Pangemanann appears to represent the colonial power or authority, and even, through Ashcroft's notion about the ideology of the colonizer, Pangemanann has the main duty of repressing, preventing, and also abolishing any postcolonial conducts from the local natives.To specify his duty, Pangemanann has to extraordinarily treat and control Minke's activities which are considered to oppose the colonial government.

"Tuan tentu akan bisa kerjasama dengan
Clearly, the figure or character, Pangemanann, shifts the common pattern of thought that a postcolonial novel is about one or some postcolonialist characters to stand as the main agent of postcoloniality.RUMAH KACA, however, has its own way of doing it, since by presenting Pangemanann, the opponent of postcolonialist characters is presented.Some readers then might consider the novel colonial due to this fact.It seems the novel has deconstructed the conventional perception, especially dealing with one of the postcolonial aspects.The hero is not postcolonialist but colonialist, but it is important to note that Pangemanann, as a colonialist, is in fact greatly supporting the importance of postcolonial concepts.
(His hands and mouth were not frugal in delivering words, that the Natives who only liked to plannings were shy to be close with him.In my opinion, his general knowledge was too limited, compared to European way.However, as the present native's life, he could be mentioned as the flame for the next development.Never for this last hundred years, a native, due to his personality, good will and knowledge, could unite thousands of people without hooking up to king, prophet, religious guardian, shadow-play character, or devil.)Whatever he does is about "to deliver" Minke's postcolonial activities.Even, the position of Pangemanann seems inferior to Minke's position.Its inferiority can be seen from the ways Pangemanann react to Minke's activities.Pangemanann does not undergo colonial oppression, as it happens to colonialist, but he is just "being oppressed" by what Minke has done.In other words, the existence of Pangemanann as the main character and narrator is in fact to support the importance of Minke in undergoing postcoloniality.The idea or story dealing with Minke is dominant and the role of Pangemanann seems just to react to what Minke has done previously.Meanwhile, from Pangemanann's perspective, the idea or story about him shows his efforts to face and fight against Minke.It means all events, dealing with Minke and Pangemanann, are concerned with the Indonesian native postcolonialism, especially those undergone by Minke.Beriburibu pengikutnya, terdiri dari muslim putih dan terutama abangan dari golongan mardika (12)/(There were thousand followers, consisting of white moslem and especially the liberal moslem from the independence group).The point is surely to emphasize that Minke is absolutely and totally prominent in the postcoloniality of the natives.
In order to effectively and efficiently undergo the duty, Pangemanann applies a certain strategy, called "rumah kaca" (house of glass).Simply it's about the idea of a house construction inside which all activities can be seen or monitored and so there would be exact and fixed deeds to act.This strategy really proves Pangemanann's quality in dealing with any crimes and criminals, as his previous profession in the police department.He knows very well who "the criminal" is that he has to overcome.So, it's a kind of his new strategy in establishing the "house of glass" (or, rumah kaca).This is not about direct and physical violence, but it is about monitoring and anticipating the higher quality of harmful acts of the colonized and local people Clearly, from the quote, it is seen that to undergo Pangemanann's new post or duty needs special capability, and the selected one is consequently also special.Pangemanann's background has proven the quality, especially in dealing with a special case like Minke's activities.Physical violence by oppressing people with technological weapons is not the way, because it's about the works of the brain.The other form of technology is needed, and "rumah kaca" as Pangemanaan's idea is accepted as the "weapon" to treat and face Minke.On the other hand, this concept is certainly to convey also that Minke is in fact highly qualified that a certain way or strategy has to be done.As mentioned earlier, from what Minke has done there are many followers from any kind of group.
My conscience was shocked.What should I do to him?He's not a criminal, not a rebel.He's an educated Native who too much loved his country and homeland, Dutch Indies, tried to improve the country….

Minke's Role and Postcoloniality
Meanwhile, the second important phenomenon, dealing with the context of postcolonialism, i.e.Minke's death, seems to provide an event that the native efforts in establishing postcoloniality are in fain.The main figure of it finally dies in poverty and poor condition.After his exile, Minke could do nothing because he had to face the new condition of having no friends and properties.The colonial government, by Pangemanann's deeds, did undergo total isolation for Minke.In perceiving Indonesian postcolonialism through Minke's death, readers might be hard to understand the fact.The conventional perception suggests that in a postcolonial novel, the main character always stands as postcolonialist and readers would be then provided with postcolonial ideas or concepts, especially about any resistances done by the hero/es.Unfortunately, Minke's death directly leads readers to the empty hope of postcolonialism.The physical death of the hero means the end of postcoloniality itself.The flame of it has died together with the hero's death, and consequently, it goes to nothing.
RUMAH KACA, compared to the other previous novels of Buru Tetralogy, is really unique, especially by delivering those two "weird" phenomena or facts, as mentioned previously.However, the novel wants to also reemphasize the common concept and pattern, dealing with the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized.The colonized are totally powerless, helpless, and also inferior.Simply to compare Minke, representing the colonized, and Pangemanann, the colonizer, readers would easily find the ways which the novel depicts them differently.Minke is an exexiled person, and Pangemanann is the person who has brought him to be exiled and also then to be released.Minke's helplessness is surely proven by his total loss of everything after the exile, and meanwhile, Pangemanann is in a high rank in his position of always supervising and monitoring Minke.All that Pangemanann does to Minke show that the one is much superior to the other.
Minke's death is a catastrophe that is probably to stop any deeds and activities dealing with the native's postcoloniality.This fact seems to bring a similar idea, about the helplessness and powerlessness of the colonized, in the first novel of Buru Tetralogy.
"Pintu ditutup dari luar.Sayup-sayup terdengar roda kereta menggiling kerikil, makin lama makin jauh, akhirnya tak terdengar lagi.…..Kami menundukkan kepala di belakang pintu.'Kita kalah,Ma,'bisikku. 'Kita telah melawan,Nak,Nyo,sebaikbaiknya, ("The door is closed from ourside.The cart's wheels are faintly heard to grind gravels, and it goes further and further and till its disappearance.We're nodding the heads behind the door, "We're lost, Ma," I whisper. "We have tried to fight, Son, Nyo, as well as possible, as honored as it was.) The event depicts that the colonized is totally inferior to the colonizer, especially when Minke, and his mother-in-law, Nyai Ontosoroh or Sanikem, recognized their loss of property after the trial had decreed to return back the property as "the colonizer's" belongings.
Meanwhile, dealing with Minke's death, which is keenly seen as "the end" of the postcolonialist, the novel seems to deliver its hidden message about Minke's postcolonialism itself.As talked about previously, the strategy of the "house of glass" proves the new strategy undergone by the colonial government "to attack" back Minke's deeds and activities.Physical violence is impossible since Minke does not undergo postcolonialism through his physical attacks on the government.What he does is just write and write.It means his writings are the problems that the colonial government must overcome.Minke's superiority over the colonial government is proven by the appearance of Pangemanann, as the ex-police official, who has the duty to control and overcome Minke's conduct.Minke's educated activities must be faced by also educated deeds.However, one thing forgotten from the angles done by Pangemanann is the isolation created for Minke.Clearly, the isolation given to Minke, which results in Minke's condition of being totally isolated, by not having friends and properties anymore, is in fact not able to limit or isolate Minke's thoughts.Minke has created many writings as the pillar of his postcoloniality.It means the "house of glass", as the strategy, could only control, isolate, and monitor Minke physically, but it is in fain in resisting Minke's postcolonial writings.Even, Minke's power of postcolonialism over the colonial resistance is shown by the fact that Minke's postcolonial writings are continuous with the "help" of the colonizer's ignorance.It's obvious that those compiled writings were brought by Pangemanann and he himself handed them to Sanikem, or Nyi Ontosoroh, who is one of Minke's friends of postcoloniality.In other words, the death of Minke is not absolutely and totally the end or catastrophe of the Indonesian natives to survive postcolonialism.

Conclusion
RUMAH KACA is an interesting novel and covers prominent messages dealing with Indonesian postcolonialism.Though rumah kaca, or the house of glass, is the strategy done by the colonial government in resisting the colonialized natives to improve, it suggests how non-physical violence is also strongly needed to anticipate any postcolonialities done by the colonized people.This novel delivers its postcolonialism even through the existence of a colonialist, who is the main character and narrator.The way how it presents the character proves that this work deconstructs itself.All colonial activities finally can be viewed as reactions against postcolonial conduct.Pangemanann appears to represent the colonial government, which experienced hardships in dealing with Minke, the postcolonialist.As the common pattern of postcolonial concept, postcolonialism is the reaction against colonialism, RUMAH KACA interprets it differently.Meanwhile, the event of Minke's death does not mean that postcolonialism also ends, because his death is just physical and his main postcoloniality, coming from his brain through his bulk of writings, still exists and will be continued by the other postcolonialists.Minke's death is not the catastrophe of postcolonialism, even it could be the catastrophe start of colonialism by the colonial government.
Bersama ini aku serahkan juga padamu naskah-naskah yang memang menjadi hakmu, tulisan R.M. Minke, anakmu kekasih.Terserah bagaimana Madame menggunakan dan merawatnya.(646) (By this I handed you as well all articles which were really yours, i.e. the writings of R.M. Minke, who was your beloved child.I let it to Madame how to use and keep them.) Terus berjalan lagi.
Pangemanann and Minke are as a matter of fact depicted as educated and wellread, and it means that the colonizer, represented by Pangemanann, is absolutely serious in providing any treatment against the colonized, represented by Minke.Even, if it may add, Pangemanann is one of Minke's admirers (p.10).Pangemanann was selected by the colonial government due to his capability proven through his work in the previous police department.