The National Pencak Silat Foundations Concepts

Pencak silat provides a rich medium to deal with ethical, social, creative, and physiological
concepts through its interrelated aspects and corresponding realisation forms. One should
distinguish between traditional local concepts of what pencak silat is, howit is practised
and utilised, and modern concepts of this movement art. Our introduction has been trying
to be ‘neutral’ up to this point, but of course this important point of discussion cannot be
omitted as this text proceeds. The differences between how local masters descriptively
depict the benefits of their arts, and how the national pencak silat foundations of Indonesia
(IPSI = Ikatan Pencak Silat Indonesia), Malaysia (PESAKA = Persekutuan Silat Kebangsaan
Malaysia), Singapore (PERSISI = Persekutuan Silat Singapura), and Brunei Darussalam
(PERSIB = Persekutuan Silat Kebangsaan Brunei) prescriptively depict those benefits are
sometimes striking.
As for the latter foundations have devoted considerable effort in propagating their concepts
since the early 1980s, and especially in Indonesia where they found a strong spokesman in
former President Suharto, it is little wonder that what once was intended as a description,
has today become a self-propelling prescription. And though the times of Suharto are gone,
the normative power of the named national foundation’s concepts still prevail in the
perception of currently training children and youth. Further, the international foundation
PERSILAT (Persekutuan Pencak Silat Antarabangsa), has tried with some effort and success
to spread these concepts to the whole world.
We will sketch the formulaic version of the international PERSILAT foundation here: Based
on its philosophy and ranges of application, four aspects can be differentiated within
pencak silat, each of which has its own aims. During the execution of pencak silat, all four of
these aspects have to be present, though, depending on the particular utilisation, usually
one of them is prominent. These four aspects are:
1. Mental-spiritual pencak silat: aims to strenghten self-control.
2. Pencak silat as self-defence: aims to provide effective means of self defence.
3. Pencak silat as art: shows the beauty of movements.
4. Pencak silat as sport: aims to provide a means of physical fitness and
competitive sport.
During the 1990s, the ethical characteristics of pencak silat were formulated as as
mandatory pledge to be recited in front of all competitors present, each time a competition
is to be held under the guidance of the international foundation or one of the adjoined
national federations. This“Pesilat Pledge” affirms (PERSILAT 2004) that:
1. A Pesilat is an individual who has noble mind and character.
2. A Pesilat is a man who honours his fellow man and loves friendship and peace.
3. A Pesilat is a man who always thinks and acts positively, is creative and dynamic.
4. A Pesilat is a knight who upholds truth, honesty and justice, and is always resilient in
facing any ordeal and temptation.
5. A Pesilat is a knight who is always responsible for his words and deeds.
A quite embarrassing detail of this pledge is the explicit utilisation of the term “knight” – a
term which in itself contains a whole cosmos of connotations and imaginations with regard
to honour, virility, duty, responsibility, nobility, loyalty, decency, and the like. It is not
claiming too much to say that the terms “pesilat” and the term “knight” are used
synonymously here. This gives the whole pledge a special direction.
Depending on the political ‘fashion’ of the time, the terminology has changed slightly during
the decades, though there has been no change in the overall structural outlines since the
creation of pencak silat as a sport. In the chapter of Jean-Marc de Grave, entitled “The
Standardisation of Pencak Silat: Javanisation, Nationalism, and Internationalisation,” and
that of Uwe U. Paetzold, entitled “The Music in Pencak Silat Arts Tournaments is gone – A
Critical Discussion of the Changes in a Performance Culture” among others, these aspects
are discussed in detail and from different perspectives.