The Existence of the Traditional Becak in the Modern Era

The Existence of the Traditional Becak in the Modern Era

By: Dias Novita

Chemistry Education Student

Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teacher Training

UIN Sunan Kalijaga

Yogyakarta, with all its special qualities, always looks beautiful and appealing. Some traditional transportation still roams there. The traditional transportation still found in Yogyakarta today is the pedal becak and the andong. The becak in Yogyakarta can indeed still be called popular to this day. The word becak comes from Hokkien, "be chia", which means horse carriage. The becak can also be described as a three-wheeled means of transportation that is still in use in Indonesia and several other Asian countries. A becak normally carries two passengers seated in front and a driver.

However, time keeps moving on, and technology advances more rapidly and quickly day by day. The era of technological development has created online transportation. The emergence of online transportation makes it easy for people to order a ride conveniently without having to look for one first. Today the users of traditional becak, or what we usually call the pedal becak, are not very numerous. This is because the people of Yogyakarta City tend to prefer online transportation, which is easier to access and gets them to their destination faster than riding a traditional becak.

In addition, motorised becak drivers have begun to appear in growing numbers, slowly competing with the pedal becak. People tend to choose the motorised becak over the pedal becak. The motorised becak is considered more comfortable to ride, because it reaches the destination faster and in less time. From an economic perspective, the emergence of the motorised becak is considered to be able to kill the income of the pedal becak. Yet in the past the pedal becak was once the star when the world economic depression struck. A study by Susan Abeyasekere (1985) says that the decline of big companies produced unemployment, and many of those affected chose to become becak pedallers.

Although the pedal becak once lived within an interesting frame of history, it now appears to be a means of transportation that is prone to being marginalised amid the tide of progress in the age and technology. Even though both are public transportation, there is also a gap in the working system between the pedal becak and the motorised becak. As a traditional means of transportation, the pedal becak is indeed favoured by the public, especially wong cilik (ordinary people). As wong cilik, pedal becak drivers also always think of the wife and children at home in order to meet their daily needs

Amid the private vehicles and online transportation flooding Yogyakarta City, pedal becak drivers have now shifted their target. The pedal becak is seen as having popularity in the tourism sector. From the viewpoint of both domestic and foreign tourists, the pedal becak is considered to have a charisma of its own to attract customers. This traditional becak seems able to tell of simple things. The simplicity is presented together with the representation of Malioboro as an area that recognises the pedal becak as part of Yogyakarta's cultural assets. The presence of domestic and foreign tourists becomes a field of its own for becak drivers to earn an income.

The existence of the traditional becak in Yogyakarta is comprehensively regulated in DIY Regional Regulation (Perda) Number 5 of 2016 concerning the Traditional Transportation Modes of Becak and Andong. Although in the present day not many people look to the traditional becak, its existence is still upheld by Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX as Governor of DIY, in a statement saying that the existence of the traditional becak must be maintained because it is a local identity of Javanese culture. In addition, in the effort to realise culture-based tourism, the traditional becak remains one of the icons of tourism in Yogyakarta City. In regional development plans, the traditional becak is also used as an alternative transportation able to support the tourism sector.

https://matabanua.co.id/2022/12/07/eksistensi-becak-tradisional-di-era-modern/