Poet Moe'inah: The struggle for justice continues

ID Nugroho , The Jakarta Post , Blitar, East Java | Tue, 09/30/2008 10:17 AM | People

POET MOE'INAH: (JP/ID Nugroho)

More than 40 years since the widespread killings that followed the September 30 Movement in 1965, the tragedy remains an open wound for the victims.

Poet Moe'inah, now 80, lost her husband and sister during the killings, and her freedom of expression for several years afterward when she was imprisoned.

"The time has come for this nation to change and become better," Poet told The Jakarta Post recently.

In the community of Pakisrejo village in Blitar regency, Poet is a legend. Bu Put, as she is known there, knows every elderly resident who has a shadowy political history.

"Many people still come to my house to discuss things, including the future of Indonesia as a country," she said.

Bu Put, who now lives alone, was a witness to a dark chapter in Indonesia's history. At that time, Bu Put was the head of section II of the Indonesian Women's Movement (Gerwani) in Blitar regency.

Gerwani was the women's organization linked to the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), which was held responsible for the 1965 attempted coup.

"From my perspective it wasn't like that, because I knew at that time that Gerwani didn't do all the things we were accused of doing," Bu Put said.

Bu Put's involvement in politics began with her father, Haji Mansyur, the leader of the political organization Sarekat Islam (SI; the Islamic League, an early nationalist organization active in the 1910s and 1920s), which struggled against the Dutch and Japanese.

She did not meet her father until she was six years old, because he had been imprisoned by the Dutch for his political activities around the time of her birth.

"My father's activities were to struggle for society," she said, adding that his political enthusiasm rubbed off on her.

In later years, the Japanese arrested her father and confiscated all family property. Young Poet, at that time a teenager, was unable to continue her education.

"My father wasn't alone. Almost every man in this village was arrested by the Japanese soldiers," she recalled.

In 1946, Bu Put joined the Indonesian Socialist Youth (Pesindo) party, where she held a position in the information department for Blitar regency.

Not long after taking the position, she met Subandi Hadisumarto, a member of the Indonesian National Forces (TNI) from Mojokerto, which at the time was training as a unit with Pesindo.

The two were married in 1947, and Bu Put joined the Indonesian Women's Movement (Gerwis), the pioneer organization of Gerwani.

Bu Put held a high position in Gerwani. Her husband resigned from the TNI and joined the PKI, where he became head of the Blitar branch.

Their political life ended after the events of 1965. News of the killings of six generals triggered the campaign to arrest members of the PKI and their supporters, forcing Bu Put and her husband to flee. They were separated in the confusion.

Bu Put ran away to Malang, then to Yogyakarta and Jakarta, while Subandi built up the troops in South Blitar.

"I left my six children with my sister in her house. I was pregnant and on the run," said the mother of seven.

In Yogyakarta, Bu Put was arrested and held for three months. After her release, she fled to Jakarta, where she gave birth to her last child.

Three years later, she returned to South Blitar.

"When TNI troops came by I hid in the caves," she said.

Bu Put's fugitive life ended when, together with others on the run, she was attacked by TNI troops in Gayas Cave, one of the caves in South Blitar.

"I refused to run, I was too tired ... A TNI soldier entered the cave and guided me out. I was arrested."

She was then imprisoned for 10 years, without being charged or taken to court; she was released in 1978. In prison Bu Put maintained her political activities, holding discussions with other prisoners.

"Luckily, the prison wardens knew me and treated me well," she said.

Her release from prison did not mean freedom for the former tapol (political prisoner). Even today, she still experiences discrimination.

A similar fate befell her seven children: They were prohibited from going to school.

The most difficult thing to come to terms with, she said, was not knowing the fate of her husband and her sister. There was a great possibility that the two had been killed.

"My house was always watched by people I didn't know ... Every time we held a party there was always a guest who came without being invited," she recalled.

Things began to change, she said, when Abdurrahman Wahid, better known as Gus Dur, became president and allowed tapol who had managed to flee overseas to returned to the country.

The ex-tapol set up the Research Institute for Victims of the 1965 Incident (LPKP), which went on to produce books and publish Gema magazine.

"LPKP is like an institution for the victims from all over Indonesia, including Blitar," Bu Put said.

She added there were around 100 victims in South Blitar who survived the tragedy of 1965. These survivors continue to hold discussions and are involved in activities of the Reconciliation and Truth Commission, which was formed to discuss the issues faced by the victims and survivors.

"Once again, this hasn't been an easy thing. Many of us were taunted by those in society who accepted the New Order government's (anti-PKI) propaganda," Bu Put said.

"For me, even though I lost my husband, my relatives and my friends in the same struggle, I praise my seven children for being good citizens and for living properly."

Hasan Ali: Guardian of Using culture

I.D. Nugroho , The Jakarta Post , East Java | Fri, 09/26/2008 10:58 AM | People

HASAN ALI: (JP/ID Nugroho)

Hasan Ali believes that the unique arts of the Using people truly show the beauty of the culture of Banyuwangi society.

That's why Hasan, 75, thought it desirable to make an effort to promote Using art by teaching it to children in school.

"If not, I would worry that Banyuwangi art would be lost, eroded by modern culture," Hasan told The Jakarta Post recently.

The afflictions of old age has seen Hasan, who was born in Banyuwangi in 1933, confined most days to the sofa in the lounge of his house.

But his spirit can still be felt through his direct gaze, and the tone of his voice which is firm and loud, especially when he talks about the gandrung dance and the Using language, his two pet topics.

"I've experienced three periods of history -- the Dutch, the Japanese and the Indonesian Republic. But all that time the gandrung dance and the Using language have kept me in love," he said from his home in Mangir village, Rogojampi subdistrict, in Banyuwangi Regency, East Java.

Hasan, who is the father of famous singer Emilia Contessa and the grandfather of singer Denada Tambunan, learned about Using arts, which are remnants of the culture of the Blambangan Kingdom, since he was a teenager.

"Since I was a teenager I liked Using art," he said. His hobby gained him more status when he joined an art group associated with the Indonesian National Party (PNI).

"Because of the art group, I was finally trusted by the PNI to become a member of the Banyuwangi Parliament where I served until 1966," Hasan said.

Ironically the political conflicts of that period also made Hasan's position dangerous.

This was particularly so when Muhammad Arif, the composer of the Genjer-Genjer song (a song associated with Communism), together with hundreds of members of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), went missing after the 1965 incident known as the 30 September Movement.

That incident (an alleged coup d'etat in Jakarta) also suddenly linked and identified Banyuwangi art with the PKI.

But as Hasan recalls, what actually happened was quite different. The PKI wanted to eliminate Banyuwangi art, which it considered an art form that damaged the morality of society.

"It was really true that the PKI used Genjer-Genjer as a song of struggle, but apart from that the PKI forbade performances of the Banyuwangi gandrung dance, because it was considered that it would affect society's morals," he said.

Arif, said Hasan, composed the Genjer-Genjer song, during the Japanese period to lift the spirits of the community, which at the time was suffering from poverty.

The Banyuwangi Gandrung dance was nothing more than a social dance; there was no other purpose. The songs that were sung by gandrung dancers were like the local traditional poetry, which expressed wisdom and values.

The impression of immorality associated with the dance appeared because there were certain people who treated it improperly by performing the dance in Banyuwangi's districts frequented by prostitutes.

"Slowly the gandrung dance came to be identified as an immoral dance," he said.

The situation changed after 1965. At the time Hasan had a job as an official in the regional government of Banyuwangi. He was then approached by the former regent, Joko Supaat Slamet, to save the gandrung dance.

"My friends and I agreed to recreate the gandrung dance as a teenagers' social dance performed politely and correctly," he said. Dozens of local artists were invited to participate.

Soon after the performance, the gandrung dance was back in favor. There was even an invitation for the dance to be performed in the State Palace when former President Soeharto was in power. The gandrung dance then became a symbol of Banyuwangi Regency.

Hasan was also interested in another Banyuwangi jewel that had almost become extinct: the Using language that belonged to the Banyuwangi Using tribe.

The Using language had slowly started disappearing from society and nobody in the Banyuwangi community, including many Using people, used it.

"I don't know why, suddenly they felt too ashamed to use their regional language," said Hasan.

Hasan invited Banyuwangi artists to hold a small seminar titled "How to defend the Using language?". The most important recommendation that came from the seminar, which was held in the 1980s, was to introduce the Using language in elementary schools.

"But that wasn't an easy thing to do. It wasn't like the Javanese language where the history has been recorded well. At that time there was no reference book on the Using language," he said.

Therefore, he said, the first item on the agenda was to produce a Using language textbook.

Hasan collected all the data about the Using people that he could access, including 28,000 words of the Using language that were still in use. Ten years later, Hasan had published three books that covered the grammar and spelling of the Using language and a dictionary.

In the process of compilation, the former Banyuwangi Arts Council head had to use the Indonesian, Javanese and Balinese languages as comparative languages.

"I assumed that the Using language has some connection with the Balinese language because it can be seen that some words have the same meaning," said Hasan.

Till now the Using language continues to be taught in the local elementary schools. There are some who commend its beauty, and there are also those who strongly dislike the language.

Many say that it is a credit to Hasan the Using language is still being used.

"Even those Banyuwangi people who have left the region are still using the Using language when they communicate with other Banyuwangi people," he said.

Muslims make pilgrimage to Sunan Ampel

ID Nugroho , The Jakarta Post , Surabaya | Fri, 09/26/2008 11:01 AM | East Java

Thousands of Muslim pilgrims of different ethnicities and backgrounds have crowded the city's Ampel Grand Mosque and its one-hectare shrine to Sunan Ampel.

While kneeling, Muslim families, many of them from the city and its outskirts, prayed and recited Koranic verses until dawn of the first night of the "1,000 months", so-called because prayers made at night during the last ten days of Ramadan are said to bring blessings equal to a 1,000 months of praying.

The Letter of Al-Qodar first declared the final nights of the fasting month auspicious in this way, and for this reason they are also known as the Lailatul Qodar nights.

"Because of that belief, the province's holy sites, including the grand mosque and the Ampel grave compound, will be filled by thousands of pilgrims during the last ten days of the fasting month, just as in past years," A. Nasir, a senior cleric at the grand mosque, told The Jakarta Post on Saturday night.

Over the past few days, the mosque and grave compound has seen an increase in the number of visiting pilgrims, many of them small-scale vendors offering religious relics, Muslim food and attire such as sarongs, prayer rugs and caps.

Visitors can also be seen purchasing dates and perfume before heading home.

For many, the pilgrimage began Friday evening with the Isya prayer, followed at 9 p.m. with the Tarawih. At dawn on Saturday, the faithful then worshiped, reading the Koran, both inside the mosque or by the shrine, some of them dozing slightly while waiting for the 2 a.m. Tahajud prayer to begin, followed by the Sahur meal just before sunrise, and then a morning prayer with the sun's first rays to begin the fasting day.

Firman Basuki, along with 14 fellow villagers from Mojosantren village in Sidoarjo, said he had been making a Ramadan pilgrimage to the compound for the past few years.

"We come here to receive the merits of the 1,000-night prayer," he said.

Mohammad Yatim, gatekeeper of the Ampel shrine, said some pilgrims came from as far as Jakarta, Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan and Pontianak in West Kalimantan.

"All Muslims are allowed to come inside the grave compound to pray," he told the Post on Tuesday. Hundreds of thousands of the faithful from numerous provinces have visited the grave over the past four days, he said.

Sunan Ampel, after whom the mosque is named, was one of the nine spiritual leaders who first spread Islam across Java in the 15th Century, for which he is revered, particularly regarding his religious work in the province.

Born in 1401 into the family of Ibrahim Asmarakandi, in Champa, Cambodia, Raden Rachmat -- as he was called at birth -- moved to Java at the age of 20, when Surabaya was ruled by the Majapahit kingdom, on whose throne sat king Brawijaya. The king lent him a 12-hectare plot of land on Ampel Denta, on which the mosque was constructed using Javanese and Arabic architectural styles.

About the old mosque on Jl. KH. Mas Mansyur legends abound, including one about Mbah (grandfather) Sholeh's grave.

According to the story, Ampel buried Sholeh in nine separate graves inside the mosque because the former longed for more friends and students. During his lifetime, Ampel prayed to God to resurrect Sholeh. "He was revived nine times and nine times he came to the aid of Ampel," Nasir quoted the tale.

Another legend concerns Mbah Bolong, known for pinpointing from the mosque the exact direction of the Ka'bah in Mecca by making a hole in the wall through which an imam was able to peer out.

Water from the mosque's seven ground wells, dug by Ampel himself, are believed to heal the sick.

"However, most Muslims come here not to cure their illness, but to practice their faith and pray to God," Nasir said.

Banyuwangi residents view gold mines with dread

ID Nugroho , The Jakarta Post , Banyuwangi, East Java | Fri, 09/19/2008 11:47 AM | The Archipelago

Bejo, his wife and four children watched the sun tilt westward as they wrapped up their business at a fish auction on Puger Beach, Banyuwangi, in East Java before setting out to sea again. The 60-year-old man looked off from time to time toward Mount Tumpang Pitu and the Merah Islands, located some 5 kilometers to the east. "Perhaps this will be the last time I see the mountain before it vanishes from all the gold mining," Bejo said.

Bejo and some 4,500 other residents of Pancer hamlet are the locals most concerned about PT Indo Multi Niaga (IMN) and its gold mining activities on Tumpang Pitu and Merah Islands in Banyuwangi, as they could have adverse impacts on the local fishing, their livelihood. "People say the sea will get polluted, making the fish go away. Then what would become of us?" asked Bejo, whose first wife was killed in a tsunami that struck Pancer beach in 1994.

Based on a report by the East Java chapter of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), gold prospecting in Banyuwangi has commenced based on a plan three companies devised back in 1995 -- Hakman Group (HG), PT Hakman Platina Metalindo (HPM) and Banyuwangi Mineral (BM) -- to establish a Jember-Banyuwangi gold belt. Business owner Yusuf Merukh has several stakes in the project. He owns BM, IMN, PT Indo Multi Cipta (IMC) and a 20 percent share in the gold mining enterprise PT Newmont Minahasa Raya (NMR).

The threesome shifted their mining plans from Mount Baban Silosanen in Jember to Banyuwangi when they ran into mounting resistance from environmental activists at the first site. Startlingly, the Banyuwangi regency accepted the request despite the fact they never issued written approval, and on Feb. 13, 2007, gold exploration on Mount Tumpang Pitu and Merah Island got underway.

Is gold mining there a threat to the environment or safe? PT Jember Mineral (JM) and PT Banyuwangi Mineral said they planned to apply the submarine tailings disposal (STD) system to manage mining waste. IMN also has described plans to build such a facility in its environmental impact analysis. That plan details installing an offshore tailings block near Merah Island.

The option of an underground mining method by utilizing a landfill waste management system also cannot assure waste would not flow to the sea, given the location of mine in a block adjacent to the sea. Dumping the mining waste on land would pose hazards to residential and farming areas keeping in mind the landfill was slated to be set up on a 250-hectare plot on the mainland.

Mining observer and member of the Nature Lover Communication Forum Stevanus Bordonski said gold mining in Banyuwangi would likely lead to disaster because of the ensuing effects of mining. "Feasibility studies are important to determine the ecological and social conditions of an area before, during and at the cessation of mining, and this has often been neglected," Stevanus told the Post.

Exploitation by means of open pit mining exploitation would remove soil layers without mineral contents, called over border, resulting in millions of metric tons of excess soil. Soil with mineral contents would then be processed by using modern machinery. Stevanus said in the process of isolating the gold ore, various toxic substances, such as arsenic, hydrocyanic acid and mercury are used, but, most importantly, side effects of mining and processing can produce other toxic gases and elements. "Pollution and environmental destruction are imminent and fatal," Stevanus said.

The Meru Betiri National Park has also raised its concerns over the gold mining activities on Mount Tumpang Pitu and Merah Island. Park official Sumarsono said any mining in Banyuwangi should fall under the jurisdiction of the local Perhutani state forestry company because of their location. He said the adverse impact of mining could effect ecosystems in the park area. "Mining is under Perhutani's authority but we would feel the harmful impact," Sumarsono told the Post.

The Banyuwangi gold mines are only 15 km from three vital beaches within the park -- Rajekwesi, Teluk Hijau and Sukamade -- which have been kept pristine so far. Sukamade is especially important as a turtle breeding site. Walhi estimated ecological damage in the area would be dramatic. The NGO also projected the abundant ground water below Pesanggrahan and Sumber Agung villages, both included in the mining area, could be affected, potentially triggering a water and food crisis there. These villages are one of the rice production surplus centers in East Java, exporting some 10 percent of total production.

Surabaya launches teen awareness drive on HIV/AIDS

I.D Nugroho , youthspeak - The Jakarta Post , Surabaya | Sat, 08/23/2008 12:27 PM | Education

Hundreds of teenagers from junior and senior high schools attended an event to vote for student ambassadors to represent Surabaya Stop AIDS at their schools.


JAKARTA-BASED soap opera stars and Close-Up ambassadors Christian Sugiono and Rianti Cartwright energized the event, which was organized by the Surabaya municipal administration, the Unilever Peduli (cares) Foundation and the Spektra provincial nongovernmental organization. Officiating the event was Arif Affandi, the Deputy Mayor of Surabaya and the chairman of the AIDS Prevention Commission (KPA). The teen audience was particularly enthusiastic whenever Christian and Rianti came on stage.

HIV is a virus that attacks the human immune system. This virus can infect other humans through direct exchange of bodily fluids, such as blood through shared needles among drug users, reproductive fluids (sperm and vaginal fluids) through sexual intercourse and breast milk through breastfeeding by an infected woman.

AIDS is a disease that is caused by HIV infection and is characterized by a severe loss of immunity and resistance to infection. AIDS develops within five to 10 years after initial infection by HIV. At present, no cure exists for either HIV or AIDS. In his speech, Arif Affandi said the East Java capital has 1,247 active Stop AIDS ambassadors representing several different schools.

The student ambassadors are tasked with explaining the HIV/AIDS issue to their peers and other teens at their respective schools, and are critical in raising awareness of HIV/AIDS in a school environment. Data provided by the City Health Office show that 2,350 people are living with HIV/AIDS in Surabaya. Nearly 49 percent of these are aged between 20 and 29 years old. “That is why Stop AIDS (student) ambassadors are crucial in the awareness effort,” said Arif.

At the event, Karina Putri Andriyani from SMPN 22 and Fikri Audy Hamzani from SMPN 38 were voted in as junior high student ambassadors. Meanwhile, Widianti Pratidiana from SMAN 10 and Ayu Novi Sari from SMAN 21 were voted in as senior high student ambassadors. Surabaya Stop AIDS generally organizes a series of activities under their KIE (campaign, information and education) program. School Volunteer Teams carry out these activities in health education classes for each grade level.

The KIE awareness programs are also conducted as a National Scouts project or as part of graduation events for both junior and senior high schools. Such occasions provide a platform for reaching out to parents with teenaged children as well. The group also holds formal and informal discussions featuring Stop AIDS ambassadors. Many other events are held to improve teens’ awareness of HIV/AIDS, including poetry readings, posters, cartoons and T-shirts, stickers and pins, as well as drama performances with HIV/AIDS themes.