SOCCER BEATS FA CHATATHONS

 

 

Giving diplomacy a kick

 

Australians aren’t tops for geography, often promoting Bali to nationhood. Likewise, Indonesians shifting Perth to the East Coast. But they can locate Manchester, the gritty industrial centre in northwest England. Curiously that could enliven the equatorial archipelago’s yawning (both meanings} relations with its neighbour.

 ‘Manchester’ remains in our lexicon as household linen, but in Indonesia, it’s synonymous with soccer. 

In a country where it’s badly played but furiously followed, games in distant Europe can score front-page coverage, capping inflation, natural disasters and corruption scandals.

Indonesian shops sell overseas club paraphernalia stencilled with the logos of English Premier League teams. It’s wanted wear.

Connecting with that enthusiasm through ‘sports diplomacy’ could waken the she’ll-be-right relationship.  However the Australian Embassy in Jakarta and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade concentrate on the STDs – Security, Trade, and Defence. All important, but have no emotional impact on ordinary folk.

In Indonesia, there’s no separation of sport, state and politics. Soccer is a conduit to the top. President Joko Widodo’s youngest son Kaesang Pangarep has bought Persis Solo with Erick Thohir, the Minister for State-Owned Enterprises. 

The US-educated Thohir, who is also into TV and print, used to hold a majority stake in Italy’s Inter Milan and shares in US outfits. Entrepreneur cum media tycoon Raffi Ahmad owns Rans Cilegon FC - E-Sports and a basketball team.

Despite this clout Indonesia is 159 in the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) men’s world rankings - Australia is 42nd. The world game is dominated by Europeans and South Americans. 

‘Sports diplomacy’ sounds woke but it’s recognised by DFAT with a strategy of the same name - a 24-page document taking us to 2030. Indonesia gets just one mention; it seems the goal is to keep Pacific Islanders playing with Aussies and not signing up with Beijing.

While we’re looking east the Brits have invaded the Indonesian pitch. An international co-ed school has started running soccer classes with Manchester City.

The British School Jakarta has around 1300 students from 63 countries. Kids don’t get onto the sumptuous 14-hectare campus if their parents aren’t in the Croesus class.

The median salary in Indonesia is Rp 12 million (AUD 120) a month, but the stats don’t reveal a bell-shaped curve, more a near-flat line with a sharp spike at one end. The minimal monthly wage in Jakarta is almost Rp 4.5 million (AUD 416), but anecdotally many are paid less.

Oxfam Research shows the four richest men in Indonesia own as much wealth as the country’s poorest 100 million citizens.

BSJ’s term fees rise to Rp 124 million (AUD 11,500), plus Rp 5,750,000 (AUD 535) for 13 coaching sessions.  

While the golden kids are dashing across the school’s five full-sized football fields guided by coach Chris McCarthy who spent 12 years with MC, millions of barefoot hopefuls across 6,000 islands are kicking plastic balls on narrow potholed roads with thongs as goalposts.

It’s not known if BSJ is offering scholarships to the talented poor as it didn’t respond to queries, but there are other opportunities on offer. The Arsenal Foundation with the Save the Children Fund runs Coaching for Life ‘to improve the lives of children and in particular girls, in Jakarta.’

The Italians opened their Inter Academy with a permanent coach in 2018 in Bandung (West Java) – a deal involving Internazionale Milano. Other foreign clubs, including Manchester United, have run occasional schools.

 

Australian businessfolk trying to hit it off with their Indonesian counterparts should get a selfie with Robbie Gaspar and flash it during negotiations. Flicking through pics of Ambassador Penny Williams, Trade Minister Dan Tehan or Foreign Minister Marise Payne will excite no reaction, but Gaspar’s grin can help unclip pens from pockets.

Perth-born Gaspar was the first Australian to play professionally in Indonesia, and did so for almost eight years, including with the prestigious Persib Bandung.  He became a household name not just through his skill as a midfielder; he speaks Indonesian fluently and is at ease in a culture where personality counts for everything.

A few academics who understand the realities are starting to rethink the 17th century model of diplomacy – suave polyglots playing word games in private suites. Last month Monash University’s Herb Feith Indonesian Engagement Centre ran a forum on statecraft using the osmosis of raucous crowds at public events, with Gaspar as the drawcard and this preamble:

 ‘This immense passion for sport in Indonesia offers Australia a valuable platform to build long-lasting people-to-people links by breaking through cultural misunderstandings and leveraging our sporting interests, associated social values, and geographical location.’

Indonesian fans’ dedication hasn’t been matched by management. Disputes over who ran the game led to FIFA booting the national team out of the joint 2018 World Cup and 2019 Asian Cup qualifiers.

Gaspar reckons some club owners are frustrated footballers who see players as hobbyists undeserving of respect, proper pay, rests after long trips and good tucker. So he became an advisor to the players’ union, FIFPro Asia, further enhancing his appeal and offering a better image than the paunchy boozers in Kuta that Indonesians recognise. 

Since retiring Gaspar, 41, who has a post-grad degree in International Relations and is a director of the Indonesia Institute, lobbies for sports diplomacy to be treated seriously. He’s kicking into the wind. The last burst of enthusiasm from the Embassy was in 2008 when the Ambassador barracked at a game between WA and East Java.

At the time Bill Farmer said the right things – ‘playing sport together is a great opportunity to foster a spirit of friendship between our countries’, then returned to selling wheat and thwarting people smugglers, as though DFAT can’t juggle many balls at the same time.

Gaspar can and is tackling DFAT with ideas, including working with the Indonesian Women's National Team and the FIFA U20 World Cup. Indonesia will be hosting next year with games across Java and Bali: 

‘Here’s a great opportunity for us to work with Indonesia with coach education, sports science and e-sports. Setting up programs in leadership, health and wellbeing, stressing the importance of exercise, healthy eating and less screen time. Also, educating the parents, which I think is the most critical part.

‘Governments are fine with handshakes but little happens later. This has to change; we can make it change. Playing sport together is a great opportunity to foster a spirit of friendship between our countries.’

And here’s proof from a South China Morning Post report this January:

 ‘Australia women’s captain Sam Kerr was mobbed by excited Indonesian players despite them suffering an 18-0 demolition in their AFC Asian Cup group opener in Mumbai.’

The story included ‘a wholesome photo’ of winners and losers sharing joy of the game. Not a caption applied to ministers’ line-ups following a round of legacy diplomacy.

 

 First published in Pearls & Irritations, https://johnmenadue.com/giving-indonesian-diplomacy-a-kick-along/ 15 April 2022

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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FASTING AND FEASTING BUT LITTLE RECONCILING

 

                   No quiet days for kafir

This year the holy weeks of the people of the book, Jews, Christians and Muslims coincide, creating moments for reconciliation.  This time is supposed to be about discipline and introspection, revelation and renewal, sharing and caring.

Maybe that’s how Indonesia’s prayerful experience the ritual of Ramadhan in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country.  But for many kafirs (unbelievers), the days start badly and get worse. 

Our street’s satpam (community security guy) carries a steel bar. Not for protection as crime is rare.   He uses it to bash hollow power poles three times.  At 3 am.

That’s to waken the pious so they can fill up before dawn and then fast till sunset. There are non-Muslim households nearby but the culture doesn’t extend to respecting neighbours’ rest.  

Indonesia is constitutionally secular but in reality it’s an ethnocracy. Christianity is accepted but Judaism is not government approved.

Just five of the Republic’s 34 provinces aren’t dominated by Islam. In East Java where 98 per cent know the direction of Mecca, the solar system star peeps over the eastern horizon about 5 am. 

Then the well-fed adults head back to bed and let the kids loose to roam, which they’d normally never allow. Parents reason no harm can come to the littlies when Satan is constrained and hell’s gates chained.

In Australia gangs of pre-teens chucking fireworks would trigger calls to the cops, but in Java they’re also asleep. 

The hoons shoulder hollow bamboo poles stuffed with homemade explosives. Firearms are scarce in Indonesia, but these bazookas would outgun AK-47s for noise.

This is considered more fun than threatening, supposedly to expel evil.  Thankfully that doesn’t included bule (foreigners).

Ramadhan is good business for beggars whose handlers rightly judge the devout will have their fear of perdition aggravated if they’re mean.

Questioning these practices risks charges of blasphemy or cancel culture, as PM Scott Morrison calls the hesitancy to offend.

In the past Easter has been church bombing season.  Since the government banned the fundamentalist Front Pembela Islam (FPI - Islamic Defenders’ Front) in 2020 attacks have declined.  None were reported this year. 

FPI thugs used to run extortion rackets by ‘sweeping’ clubs looking for alcohol, but these crimes have also lessened.

Nonetheless authorities stayed cautious; churchgoers parked alongside police and army armoured cars manned by dozers. Liberal Islamic organisations ran patrols to keep other faiths safe.  Seven alleged terrorists were arrested in West Java on Easter Sunday but their intentions were unclear.

Bangers aren’t the only racket.  Regulations passed this year supposedly crimp mosque loudspeakers and cut broadcast times to ten minutes, bur recitations of the Koran run for hours. Mandatory is a synonym for optional.

Even in Hindu Bali some mosques are louder than the screams of jets as tourists trickle back.  The non-Muslim rich retreat to Singapore hotels to sit out the month as their maids and drivers take leave.

Ramadhan is supposed to last for 29 days bracketing the sighting of crescent moons. Like the Easter break merging with Anzac Day, in Indonesia the show over-runs as feasts get extended and families visiting distant relatives for the Mudik ritual are slow to return.  The traffic thickens to cold lava.

Ramadhan commemorates Gabriel’s first visit to Muhammad in AD 610 making this year 1443 in the Islamic calendar.  No doubt the winged one stressed calm and quiet to help contemplation and this was lost in translation. 

Nor did the celestial visitor warn fasters about the downsides of abstaining, not just from food and drink but also sex and smoking.

As anyone who’s lived with a quitter knows, they’re best left alone to cough in their stress-saturated withdrawal, difficult when the addict has to work. 

In normal times – whatever they are - getting around to buy, do business and meet-up is all good as the locals are generally genial.

Though not during Ramadhan when mates turn to miseries and friends become fractious. Dealing with shop staff, government workers and parking officials with rumbling tummies doesn’t make for a good day.

Occasionally people collapse from dehydration as drinking anything is prohibited.  This runs counter to medical advice to take at least two litres of water a day in the tropics.

Those who get a grip on their moods aren’t worth a conversation unless the topic is what they plan to eat come nightfall.

Around 4 pm the takjil food markets open, knock-up kiosks selling every kind of fare imaginable, a delight for foodies.  Thousands buy but take away.  Sutiaji, the mayor of the East Java city of Malang urged citizens not to chew in public lest it disturb fasters.

This was a shot at the Christians and it’s not his first. He drapes the Town Hall’s outer walls with banners proclaiming his city is a centre of tolerance.  Yet in 2018 he ordered officials to ‘monitor Christmas festivities by Protestants and Catholics to prevent them from annoying others.’ 

There’d been no reports of youth yahooing on their way to midnight mass. Catholics are supposed to fast on several religious days, particularly Easter, so know about self-control.

His worship’s targets hit back saying that if Muslims abandoned principles because spotting a kafir munching a banana showed their faith is fragile.

The few restaurants that stay open during the day, like fast food chains, fear to tease.  They draw blinds lest passers-by see chilli sauce soaked hamburgers and chips, deciding that in the contest between spirit and stomach the gut wins.

These eateries draw women wearing jilbab (headscarves).  Consuming is allowed if they’re pregnant or menstruating, though many appear to be long past childbearing age.

The famished tuck in as the sun sets, hard to tell when the sky is black with rain, so the times are set by clerics who study the heavens.  Gun-jumping is said to earn the wrath of the referee watching from above.

The more progressive invite kafir to their feasts and gift-sharing can be enjoyable. Misunderstandings are resolved and friendships develop.  The greetings mohon ma’af, lahir dan batin (please forgive my transgressions, body and soul) help reset relationships

But the four weeks of puasa set a barrier to full resolution however generous the hosts and grateful the guests.

The 3 am clangs are indeed a wake-up, time to get away for a while. Not for fear, but a rest. Which is why this commentary is being keyboarded in Australia.  DG

 

 

 

 

 

A WORLD BEFORE THE DUTCH

 

The past is another country

 

 

Nationalism in the world’s fourth largest nation is rising - but so far unthreatening. Indonesian passions are being driven not by demagoguery but through discovery of the country’s pre-colonial, pre-Islam heritage with added ghosts.

 

Java is one of the world’s most culturally rich islands, but its ancient history has been smothered by modern politics. Generations were taught everything started in 1945 when Indonesia declared itself a republic after centuries of Dutch rule.

That’s changing, helped by the discovery of several Candi Misterius releasing a surge of wonder at the skills of the nation’s ancestors and pride in their achievements.

The early kingdoms, and particularly the 14th century Majapahit, are becoming the foundations for Indonesian nationalism according to Indonesian historian Dr Wayan Jarrah Sastrawan:

‘The generation of politicians who led the country’s independence movements were concerned to find a historical basis for a united Indonesian nation.

‘Faced with the diversity of languages, customs and religions in the archipelago leaders … turned to the pre-modern past to find powerful states (as) precursors of modern Indonesia.’ They chose Majapahit.

The palm-leaf manuscript Nagarakretagama, written in 1365 and now on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Index, claims Majapahit had 98 tributary states. These ran from Sumatra in the west to New Guinea and included Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, southern Thailand and the Philippines’ Sulu Archipelago.

Its authority may have been enhanced as the MS was also a PR booster, but most historians seem to agree that the empire was a powerful military force and wide-ranging trader. Fears this discovery could lead to an outbreak of Putin-style belligerence are unlikely under the present leadership.

Indonesia’s last venture to seize territory through President Soekarno’s Konfrontasi (1963 – 66) against emerging Malaysia ended in ignominy.

There are hundreds of historical sites across Indonesia from the ninth-century Buddhist complex Borobudur, not the earliest but now one of the world’s great wonders, to the recent discovery of ‘mystery temples’ plus phantoms.

The best indicator of a special spot has long been a footnote in a Dutch academic journal from colonial times. On the ground, a rusting barbed-wire fence and weathered sign warning of fines facing thieves. With luck, a local elder might remember a track through the jungle leading to a few crumbling rock piles and little else.

Though not at Srigading, an East Java hamlet where even wee kids know the Candi (temple). They no longer call it Cegumuk a toss-away name for a hump in the middle of a flat field of dense sugarcane.

Now it’s the site of a government excavation that’s already yielded artefacts from a thousand years ago, Java’s golden age. Literally, for the top of an urn made from the yellow metal has already been discovered.

 

 

So there’s a ban on detectors and a yellow plastic POLICE LINE tape wrapped around the base of what’s most likely a temple from the late Mataram period. This Hindu–Buddhist kingdom ruled much of Central and East Java between the 8th and 11th centuries.

This is the theory of archaeologist and dig supervisor Wicaksono Dwi Nugroho: ‘We only knew of this site this year after a villager told a local businessman who’s helping fund the excavation.’

Labourers collect Rp 150,000 (AUD 15) a day, three times the wage for sweating in the fields. Finders of goodies get a small reward, a reversal of the old policy of threats.

‘Under the topsoil was a large linga and yoni carved from a rock which isn’t found around here,’ said Nugroho.  He thinks the red-brick temple probably stood 11 metres high and covered a ten by ten-metre base.

 

 ‘Moving the yoni aside revealed a shaft about three by three metres. So far we’ve retrieved three statues, some clay pots and a broken ceramic plate which was probably traded from China.’

A yoni represents the goddess Shakti, the linga its masculine counterpart. The Encyclopaedia of Hinduism defines the icons as ‘the union of the feminine and the masculine that recreates all of existence.’ Although Srigading is largely Muslim, the yoni has been sprinkled with blossom and wrapped in white cloth.

Opening the mound has led to supernatural sightings. Locals told one reporter of ‘strange events’ near the temple and a ‘large black man towering up to more than two meters ... sitting cross-legged on the rock ‘like a ‘guardian’.

The Hindu kingdoms collapsed in the 16th century. The reasons are contested - the spread of Islam, breakups in the ruling families, power shifts or volcanic eruptions. The survivors fled east and mainly settled in Bali which remains Indonesia’s only Hindu province.

The holy places were abandoned, plundered by treasure seekers and builders seeking bricks. The fecund jungle’s creepers soon masked the remains.

For much of the 350 years of colonialism, the Dutch were more interested in guilder than curiosities. But between 1811 and 1814 Thomas Stamford Raffles was the Lieutenant-Governor of Java following the Napoleonic Wars.

A refined Englishman who spoke Malay, Raffles was bewitched by the traditions and masterpieces of architecture and engineering the Dutch had ignored. In 1817 he wrote The History of Java, describing the story of the island from ancient times plus its mores, arts, beliefs, geography, flora, and fauna. It’s available online.

In 1901 the Dutch launched their Ethische Politiek policy, educating selected locals and developing infrastructure. Historians sought and recorded sites and shipped statues to Leiden where many still await repatriation. All crashed with the 1942 Japanese invasion. After the 1945 declaration of independence preservation of the new nation was more important than conserving history.

Now a younger generation is recognising the earlier centuries of their country and venerating pre-colonial heroes, like Majapahit era prime minister Gajah Mada (1290-1364). One of the nation’s most prestigious universities carries his name.

The Alliance of Women Journalists co-opted the 13th century Queen Ken Dedes to celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day at the Singosari Museum. Displays tell the adventures of the legendary Prince (Raden) Panji which have inspired a wealth of dance, poetry, music and drama worthy of Shakespeare.

There’s no independent research to back this personal observation, but there’s growing pride in the nation’s past. The Majapahit story and Panji characters are getting onto bookshelves and street art, elbowing aside the Disney culture that’s long colonised Indonesia.

 

First published in Pearls & Irritations, 4 April 2022: https://johnmenadue.com/in-indonesia-the-past-is-another-country/