Representation of Malay Symbols: A Semiotic Analysis on Songket

Monument and Keris Monument in Pekanbaru

Cutra Aslinda and Dyah Pithaloka

Department of Communication Science, Universitas Islam Riau, Pekanbaru, Indonesia

Keywords:

Semiotic, Symbol of Malay, Monuments

Abstract:

This research aims to analyze the representation of Malay Symbols of Songket and Keris Monument in Pekan-

baru at denotations and connotations context. The semiotic approach that used in this research is referencing

to Roland Barthes’s mythology. The data was collected through nonparticipant observations and in-depth in-

terview with a Malay Culture expert. Data analysis techniques in this study are the meaning of two stages sign

of semiotic Roland Barthes. At the end, this research has two results, ﬁrst of all is about the Keris Monument.

There were four parts of the monument that has been analyzed. The second result is about Songket Monument,

the Malay symbol is presented in nine parts. The results showing that not both of the monuments were fully

built to represent Malay culture. The Songket monument signiﬁes the values of Malay culture in the form of

personality, attitudes, manners, social values, guidance in attitude and self-character, also how to socialize in

accordance with Malay cultural values. The Keris monument signiﬁes the Malay honor, however based on

interview with Riau cultureists (Al Azhar), there is a mismatch between the meaning of keris position, that

should not be downward, since it means surrender.

1 INTRODUCTION

A city is a representation of the community. It means

when a city change, the people in the city will also

changing (Hamid and Budianto, 2011).Almost every

city in the world has their signature food, traditional

dress, or iconic building that representing the culture

of the city.

One of the most famous city in Indonesia is Bali.

When referring to the island of Bali, we ﬁnd there

are monuments in the city that placed at almost every

intersection and roundoabout, that happened because

monument is related to the beliefs of the Hindu com-

munity in Bali.

Other than Bali, city that will be discussed in this

research is Pekanbaru. Pekanbaru is the capital of

Riau Province in Sumatra, Indonesia. If we travel

around Pekanbaru, we will ﬁnd many languages, ac-

cents, monuments. The monuments were built at

several spots in the city. There are several mon-

uments, namely pesawat Terbang Monument, Keris

Monument, Perjuangan Rakyat Monument, Bambu

Runcing Monument, Demokrasi Monument, Songket

Monument, Kompang Monument, Pahlawan Kerja

Monument, Lancang Kuning Monument, Adipura

Monument, Selais Monument, and the newest is Anti

Korupsi Monument that built in 2016.

Some important things that must be considered

if we talk about monument are monument is a sign,

a symbol, it means that monument must be able to

signify or symbolize something that a city want to

symbolize, wheter it is from the shape, artistic level,

where it will be located, how it is related and repre-

senting the local culture, what kind of concept and

what material will be picked to build the monument.

All of that must be think carefully. Also it should be

discussed with various related parties, such as culture

expert in the country so that the monument can be

built perfectly as a symbol of a country or city.

There was a research done by Junaidi form Lan-

cang Kuning University that study about the monu-

ment in Pekanbaru, the differences with this research

are in the subject and the semiotic analysis used. That

research explored the meaning of the signs found in

three monuments in Pekanbaru. Those monumensts

are Tepak Sirih Monument, Tari Zapin Monument,

and Keris Monument (Junaidi, 2014). Peirce’s semi-

otic analysis approach was used to interpret the signs

found in that monuments. The results showed that

the monuments were made to represent Malay cul-

ture. The Tepak Sirih monument signiﬁes the friend-

liness of the Malays in welcoming guests, the Tari Za-

224

Aslinda, C. and Pithaloka, D.

Representation of Malay Symbols: A Semiotic Analysis on Songket Monument and Keris Monument in Pekanbaru.

DOI: 10.5220/0009105202240227

In Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Social, Economy, Education and Humanity (ICoSEEH 2019) - Sustainable Development in Developing Country for Facing Industrial

Revolution 4.0, pages 224-227

ISBN: 978-989-758-464-0

pin monument signiﬁes the zapin dance as a Malayan

dance originating from Riau, and the Keris monument

signifying Malay honor. Although these three monu-

ments feature Malay culture, there was a mismatch

between the markers used and Malay culture. The

three pillars are also not quite right in presenting the

concepts of aesthetics and balance. The message con-

veyed through the monument was not in accordance

with the cultural meaning contained in Malay society

that causing debate in the community.

According to the previous research, some monu-

ments in Pekanbaru apparently built only as decora-

tion, regardless of the meaning of the monument and

the suitability of location where the monuments built.

Those were the main problem this research was con-

ducted.

In this research, only two monuments that will be

focus on: the Songket Monument and Keris Monu-

ment (as seen on ﬁgure 1 and 2 below this paragraf).

The determination of these two monuments is because

those monuments look related each other seen from

the perspective of the use of male malay traditional

dress that often be equipped with a keris.

Figure 1: Songket Monument.

In this study, we analyze the representation of

Malay culture in those two monuments as a symbol

of Malay culture in Pekanbaru using the Communi-

cation Science approach in Semiotic analysis which

examines what is the meaning behind a sign using

Roland Barthes’s semiotic analysis. In addition to

using semiotic analysis the researcher will interview

Malay culture expert that understands the meaning of

Malay symbols to be more objective.

2 LITERATURE STUDY

2.1 Representation

Representation is an act of representing, being repre-

sented, what is representative, or representative. Rep-

Figure 2: Keris Monument.

resentation can also be interpreted as an illustration

(Raﬁek, 2010).

Representation reconstructs and displays various

facts of an object so that the exploration of a meaning

can be done to the maximum (Ratna, 2007).

2.2 Symbols

The symbols or symbols in the Webster (1997) dic-

tionary are explained as something that shows, rep-

resents or gives an impression of something else; an

object is used to represent something abstract; sym-

bol, for example, doves are a symbol of peace.

2.3 Semiotic

Semiotics comes from the word semiotikos, which

means sign theory. According to Paul Colbey, the ba-

sic words of semiotics come from the word “Seme”

(Greek) which means interpretation of signs. Semi-

otics is the science of signs. The study of signs and all

that relates to them, how they function, relationships

with other signs, their transmission and acceptance by

those who use them.

The sign itself is deﬁned as a basis for social con-

ventions that were built before and can be considered

to represent each other. Signs and symbols are tools

and materials used in interactions, so that the message

can be received effectively, it is necessary to interpret

the message, because only humans have the ability to

use and interpret symbols, and develop branches of

knowledge that discuss how to understand symbols or

symbols.

Semiotic is the study of a series of outer objects,

events of the whole culture as a sign. The semiotic

Representation of Malay Symbols: A Semiotic Analysis on Songket Monument and Keris Monument in Pekanbaru

225

analysis used refers to the theory of Roland Barthes.

Roland Barthes traces the meaning of a cultural ap-

proach, in which Barthes gives meaning to a sign

based on the culture behind the emergence of that

meaning. Thus the meaning at the level of myth can

be revealed in accordance with the semiotic superior-

ity of Roland Barthes who is famous for the mythical

element.

2.4 Roland Barthes’s Mythology

According to Barthes, semiology wants to learn how

human interpret things. Understanding in this case

cannot be equated with communicating. Semiology

aims to take in any systems of signs whatever their

substances and limits like images, gestures, musical

sounds, and objects. It describes the interactions that

occurs when the sign meets the feelings or emotions

of their users and the values of their culture (Fiske,

2012).

3 METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research Approach

This research uses descriptive method with a qualita-

tive approach. Arikunto (Arikunto, 2002) states that

qualitative research is a descriptive study because this

study attempts to describe data with sentences sepa-

rated by categories to get conclusions.

3.2 Subjects

The research subject is the method of data sources

that are asked for information in accordance to the

research problem. The source in research is the sub-

ject from which data is obtained (Arikunto and secara

Manusiawi, 2002). The subjects in this study were

Riau Culturalists: Mr. Al Azhar.

3.3 Data Collection Techniques

In this study, researchers used several data collection

techniques, namely: observation, interview and docu-

mentation.

3.4 Data Analysis Techniques

In carrying out the analysis, researchers used Roland

Barthes’s model that has two signiﬁcant stages in ana-

lyzing objects. The ﬁrst stage is the signiﬁcance stage

of denotation, in this stage the relationship between

the signiﬁer and signiﬁed in a sign occurs in external

reality, namely the most obvious meaning, in another

deﬁnition, signiﬁer is an image or mental impression

of something verbal or visual, such as voice, writing.

Whereas in the second stage, it is called the connota-

tion stage. In this stage the interpreter will interpret

the signiﬁed as the meaning produced by the sign.

The stages of data analysis that will be carried out

is to collect all the data, then the researcher classiﬁes

the data according to the research questions that have

been determined. The classiﬁcation here is intended

to simplify or group data into certain categories ac-

cording to the formulation of the problem proposed

by the researcher, with the aim of making it easier

to understand and facilitate researchers in the process

of data analysis later. After the data is classiﬁed, the

analysis of the data using Roland Barthes’s semiotic

analysis is used to understand the meaning of Malay

Symbols in Songket and Keris Monument.

4 RESULT AND DISCUSSION

From the short review above, researcher describe the

results into 2 parts. First part about Malay symbols

at Songket Monument and the second part is about

Malay symbols at Keris Monument.

The Malay symbol at Songket are presented in 9

parts: (1) Siku Keluang design means personality that

has the nature of responsibility to be the dream of

every malay man. (2) Siku Awan means character,

manners and gentleness is a principle of malay civi-

lization, guarding the community with noble charac-

ter. (3) Pucuk Rebung Kaluk Pakis Bertingkat De-

sign, means the value of knowing ourself is a very

important trait, in accordance with the expression of

knowing ourself with the command of knowing to sit

upright to know the plot properly. (4) The meaning of

Pucuk Rebung Bertabur Bunga Cermai is the value of

compassion, respect for gentle and clean heart to be

a reference in Malay. (5) Siku Tunggal design means

that reﬂects the attitudes or behavior of Malay peo-

ple who strongly prioritize faithfulness or fusion ei-

ther among fellow Malay people or immigrants. This

is become the reﬂection of Malay people who always

accept anyone who comes with a ”clear face and a

clean heart”. (6) Daun Tunggal Mata Panah Tabir

Bintang, it means the values of the philosophy of no-

bleness and reﬁnement of intimacy and peace. (7)

Wajik Sempurna design means gratitude for the bless-

ings and gifts bestowed by Allah. (8) Pucuk Rebung

Penuh Bertali that has a meaning of Islamic values

that give guidance and guidance to become human

beings have noble character so that they live the righ-

ICoSEEH 2019 - The Second International Conference on Social, Economy, Education, and Humanity

226

teous life. (9) The Umbrella above the songket that

means protecting the whole parts of Songket either

showing greatness.

The Malay symbols at Keris Monument are pre-

sented in 4 parts: (1) The keris position that inter-

preted as a symbol of courage, greatness. (2) The

sheath’s carving and luk’s number means greatness,

power, majesty and authority, charisma. (3) The yel-

low color of sheath means prosperity, greatness and

authority and grandeur and power. (4) Hulu Keris that

faced towards the body and or behind the person who

wearing it, means the person come with peace. Mean-

while the upstream of the keris that faced out, has the

meaning of arrival, anger, killing.

The results above showing that not both of the

monuments were fully built to represent Malay cul-

ture. The Songket monument signiﬁes the values of

Malay culture in the form of personality, attitudes,

manners, social values, guidance in attitude and self-

character, also how to socialize in accordance with

Malay cultural values. The Keris monument signiﬁes

the Malay honor, however based on interview with

Riau cultureists (Al Azhar), there is a mismatch be-

tween the meaning of keris position, that should not

be downward, since it means surrender.

5 CONCLUSION

Regarding the research ﬁndings in the ﬁeld, there are

some conclusions presented below:

• Malay Symbols are only represented fully at

Songket monument

• Keris monument has representing Malay symbol,

except for the position of Keris that facing the

ground. In Malay culture, Keris means honor,

bravery, strong, but downward position has oppo-

site meaning, that is surrender.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research is supported by Universitas Islam Riau.

{Grant number: 269/KONTRAK/LP-UIR/9-2017}

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