FAITH IN INDONESIA
The shape of the world a generation from now will be influenced far more by how we communicate the values of our society to others than by military or diplomatic superiority. William Fulbright, 1964
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
JOHANNES HAMMERLE
Uncovering the mysterious past
Wanted: A university with a strong commitment to anthropology and archaeology, or a passionate philanthropist with similar interests.
The task: To build on existing scholarly research and maintain an outstanding collection of artefacts, thereby preserving records of a mysterious past and its unique treasures.
The reward: International acclaim.
Last year Father Johannes Hammerle (pictured above), the founder and director of the Nias Heritage Museum had a major health scare, undergoing a prostate gland operation at a Sumatra hospital.
No cancer was detected and the German-born priest looks exceedingly spry. But he’s just a few months from turning three score and ten, and there’s nothing like an encounter with a surgeon’s scalpel to sharpen the mind.
Not that a Capuchin friar needs a mortality alert, but it just helps make the need for future planning even more urgent.
Nias was Father Johannes’ first posting. He arrived on 21 July in 1971 after spending months in Sumatra learning Indonesian.
“At the time if I’d had the chance to choose I would have stayed in Sumatra,” he said. “Why should I go to a little island?”
Apart from discovering that the majority were Protestant (though ministers say the introduced religions don’t run deep), the first shock was discovering that his Sumatra studies were of limited help.
The people of Nias spoke their own language. But where did it originate? Where did the people come from? What was their history and culture?
It had long been known that Nias had a megalithic culture, using stone slabs to make monuments, graves and religious symbols. But few researchers had probed deeper.
Blessed with the sort of curiosity that annoys pedestrian minds Father Johannes started to explore his strange parish, assembling more questions than answers wherever he trod the rugged mountain tracks into the dark interior.
His searches in libraries overseas were equally frustrating. Very little was known and even less had been written. During the 1920s a Danish doctor involved in a vaccination program on Nias had collected some artefacts, but these are now in Europe.
Although he had no background in anthropology Father Johannes had all the skills of scholarship necessary to help fill some of the gaps. He learned the local language and started building an information base constructed from oral traditions.
Unlike other parts of Indonesia no batu tulis (stones engraved with words) have been found to help provide clues to the people of the past. The first written record comes from an 851 account by an Arab trader and translated into French.
Some stories told of people living in a cave known as Togi Ndrawa just outside Gunung Sitoli, the west coast capital – though that’s too grand a title for what is little more than a large village. There are only around 600,000 people living in the 45 kilometer-wide island, slightly smaller than Bali but far less accessible.
The cave faced east towards Sumatra, more than 100 kilometers distant, and ideal to catch the morning sun. It opened deep into the limestone mountain 130 meters above sea level, and could have accommodated several families.
With assistance from local and overseas institutions, including Surabaya’s Airlangga University, excavations showed the old stories were true.
“We now know that people were there from at least 12,000 years ago till about 600 years before the present,” Father Johannes said. “We also discovered that some were also living in tree houses to get above the mosquitoes and snakes.
“Development started when the Chinese arrived in the 14th century AD, probably with the explorer Zheng He. They established a shipyard at Singkuang on the west coast of Sumatra opposite Nias.
“The newcomers brought new technologies, ideas and materials like iron and gold. The people began to live in simple houses and these developed into the oval-shaped timber structures on massive poles that we see today.”
However these buildings are disappearing in favor of modern homes, the changes accelerated by reconstruction programs following the December 2004 tsunami and March 2005 earthquake that together killed around 1,000 and injured many more.
Also vanished is the gold used in the elaborate crocodile skin armor and headdresses worn by the warlike people who specialised in head hunting, the trophies used to buy brides. Once colonialists arrived the gold began to move off the island.
Along with the treasures went the wildlife. The island is now strangely lacking in birds and animals.
Unlike many missionaries Father Johannes didn’t follow a philosophy of purging communities of the artefacts associated with their earlier faiths. Instead he began to collect them – and write a book denouncing the attitudes of some Christians towards pagan symbols.
Once word of a buyer got around, the market started to make demands beyond the capacity of Father Johannes’ budget. But he’s still been able to collect around 6000 items. Some are displayed in the splendid purpose-built museum, constructed mainly using donations from Germany, including his Black Forest hometown of Hansach.
As an exhibition of Indonesian culture it’s far ahead in content, quality and layout when compared with the pleasant but limited provincial State Museum in Medan, the capital of North Sumatra.
The Nias collection includes sharks’ teeth from millions of years ago when the island was under water and marvellous carved tigers, more like dogs with dragonheads for the artists had never seen such animals
Apart from linguistic studies, the latest project to uncover the origins of the Nias people involves collecting hundreds of DNA samples from people across the island. These are being processed in Europe.
Although he has become an Indonesian citizen, Father Johannes isn’t optimistic that the government will step in to help. Nor does he anticipate much assistance from overseas visitors. Most come for the surf.
“The people here are not yet interested in preserving the past,” he said. “They are too poor and concerned with getting enough food to survive, and surfers have no culture.
“I think it’s important that young people know about their culture and we have many schoolchildren visiting the museum.
“There are lots of rich people in Jakarta who were originally from Nias. Maybe they should be providing support.”
(First published in The Jakarta Post 18 Aug 2010)
##
Wanted: A university with a strong commitment to anthropology and archaeology, or a passionate philanthropist with similar interests.
The task: To build on existing scholarly research and maintain an outstanding collection of artefacts, thereby preserving records of a mysterious past and its unique treasures.
The reward: International acclaim.
Last year Father Johannes Hammerle (pictured above), the founder and director of the Nias Heritage Museum had a major health scare, undergoing a prostate gland operation at a Sumatra hospital.
No cancer was detected and the German-born priest looks exceedingly spry. But he’s just a few months from turning three score and ten, and there’s nothing like an encounter with a surgeon’s scalpel to sharpen the mind.
Not that a Capuchin friar needs a mortality alert, but it just helps make the need for future planning even more urgent.
Nias was Father Johannes’ first posting. He arrived on 21 July in 1971 after spending months in Sumatra learning Indonesian.
“At the time if I’d had the chance to choose I would have stayed in Sumatra,” he said. “Why should I go to a little island?”
Apart from discovering that the majority were Protestant (though ministers say the introduced religions don’t run deep), the first shock was discovering that his Sumatra studies were of limited help.
The people of Nias spoke their own language. But where did it originate? Where did the people come from? What was their history and culture?
It had long been known that Nias had a megalithic culture, using stone slabs to make monuments, graves and religious symbols. But few researchers had probed deeper.
Blessed with the sort of curiosity that annoys pedestrian minds Father Johannes started to explore his strange parish, assembling more questions than answers wherever he trod the rugged mountain tracks into the dark interior.
His searches in libraries overseas were equally frustrating. Very little was known and even less had been written. During the 1920s a Danish doctor involved in a vaccination program on Nias had collected some artefacts, but these are now in Europe.
Although he had no background in anthropology Father Johannes had all the skills of scholarship necessary to help fill some of the gaps. He learned the local language and started building an information base constructed from oral traditions.
Unlike other parts of Indonesia no batu tulis (stones engraved with words) have been found to help provide clues to the people of the past. The first written record comes from an 851 account by an Arab trader and translated into French.
Some stories told of people living in a cave known as Togi Ndrawa just outside Gunung Sitoli, the west coast capital – though that’s too grand a title for what is little more than a large village. There are only around 600,000 people living in the 45 kilometer-wide island, slightly smaller than Bali but far less accessible.
The cave faced east towards Sumatra, more than 100 kilometers distant, and ideal to catch the morning sun. It opened deep into the limestone mountain 130 meters above sea level, and could have accommodated several families.
With assistance from local and overseas institutions, including Surabaya’s Airlangga University, excavations showed the old stories were true.
“We now know that people were there from at least 12,000 years ago till about 600 years before the present,” Father Johannes said. “We also discovered that some were also living in tree houses to get above the mosquitoes and snakes.
“Development started when the Chinese arrived in the 14th century AD, probably with the explorer Zheng He. They established a shipyard at Singkuang on the west coast of Sumatra opposite Nias.
“The newcomers brought new technologies, ideas and materials like iron and gold. The people began to live in simple houses and these developed into the oval-shaped timber structures on massive poles that we see today.”
However these buildings are disappearing in favor of modern homes, the changes accelerated by reconstruction programs following the December 2004 tsunami and March 2005 earthquake that together killed around 1,000 and injured many more.
Also vanished is the gold used in the elaborate crocodile skin armor and headdresses worn by the warlike people who specialised in head hunting, the trophies used to buy brides. Once colonialists arrived the gold began to move off the island.
Along with the treasures went the wildlife. The island is now strangely lacking in birds and animals.
Unlike many missionaries Father Johannes didn’t follow a philosophy of purging communities of the artefacts associated with their earlier faiths. Instead he began to collect them – and write a book denouncing the attitudes of some Christians towards pagan symbols.
Once word of a buyer got around, the market started to make demands beyond the capacity of Father Johannes’ budget. But he’s still been able to collect around 6000 items. Some are displayed in the splendid purpose-built museum, constructed mainly using donations from Germany, including his Black Forest hometown of Hansach.
As an exhibition of Indonesian culture it’s far ahead in content, quality and layout when compared with the pleasant but limited provincial State Museum in Medan, the capital of North Sumatra.
The Nias collection includes sharks’ teeth from millions of years ago when the island was under water and marvellous carved tigers, more like dogs with dragonheads for the artists had never seen such animals
Apart from linguistic studies, the latest project to uncover the origins of the Nias people involves collecting hundreds of DNA samples from people across the island. These are being processed in Europe.
Although he has become an Indonesian citizen, Father Johannes isn’t optimistic that the government will step in to help. Nor does he anticipate much assistance from overseas visitors. Most come for the surf.
“The people here are not yet interested in preserving the past,” he said. “They are too poor and concerned with getting enough food to survive, and surfers have no culture.
“I think it’s important that young people know about their culture and we have many schoolchildren visiting the museum.
“There are lots of rich people in Jakarta who were originally from Nias. Maybe they should be providing support.”
(First published in The Jakarta Post 18 Aug 2010)
##
Tuesday, August 03, 2010
KIDS UNITE TO HELP SAVE POLLUTED PLANET
YOUTH SPEAK OUT - BUT IS ANYONE LISTENING?
Dear World: I am Indonesian and I want to keep our environment green and clean. That’s the way to make the earth better. Sincerely, Intan Agustina.
Student Intan’s plea may not have stirred too many governments secure in their own responses to the planet’s pain. But it sure resonated among the young who care for the future – the place where they’ll be living.
Early July more than 200 high school students and their teachers from 16 countries gathered at a training facility in the East Java hilltown of Lawang ‘to make the earth better’.
The event was the 24th conference of the Caretakers of the Environment International (CEI), an NGO conceived in a Mexican restaurant on a freezing day in Chicago, nurtured in the Netherlands and now coming to maturity in Asia. (See panel)
During the weeklong conference participants visited rice fields, a rain forest, mangrove swamps and a grumbling volcano.
But it was their trip to a wildlife park that really roused their ire and illustrated a cultural and culinary distance from the West where pooches are princes and every cat a queen. Indonesia is no country for old dogs. Or any other edible beast.
The overseas students wanted the birds to have proper housing, and the alligators access to water. “They didn’t like the way the animals were being treated,” said Jakarta teacher Stien Matakupan. A prominent environmental activist she coordinated the conference titled Biodiversity and Culture.
“The students spoke to the zoo manager and stressed the importance of animals in the ecosystem and the need to treat them humanely. He listened and said he’d consider their concerns. This is how we progress. Small steps make big changes.
“Things are definitely getting better. Indonesian kids used to think that forests were full of evil spirits and rivers dangerous places. That’s changing.
“I’ve never been to an opening ceremony before in Indonesia where two ministries (Education and the Environment) were working together to support our goals.”
Commented Indonesian Carmelite Father Albertus Herwanta who is based in Rome but came to observe: “If we love God then we must respect all His creations. Jesus was a conservationist.”
Unlike many Indonesian conferences where the oldies dominate proceedings and the young are to be seen, though not heard, in this show the kids were kings.
At one stage an angry Swedish girl harangued the crowd for not paying full attention during a presentation on the benefits of wild herbs: “This is serious. We are here to learn. That’s why we came.”
The student was unfazed speaking in English in a foreign country where protocol trumps performance. The audience included many worthies, who in the local culture should be given respect even when snoring or shouting into cellphones.
Among them, but not offended and certainly alert despite being ill, was veteran greenie Dr Suryo Prawiroatmodjo. He’s a man who also takes such issues seriously and was enthused by the passion of the young.
A former zoo vet he started campaigning for the environment back in the Soeharto era when some considered conservation a synonym for communism.
He persevered, went overseas to meet like-minded others, ignored the naysayers and hostiles, stirred interest, lobbied intensively and founded CEI in Indonesia.
“This conference should help us build genuine friendships for a better future for everyone,” he said.
“It might inspire us to improve teaching systems and conditions. We need to show that good education is not necessarily expensive or unreachable.”
Most of the Indonesian schools represented at the conference were private, faith-based colleges turning out motivated students challenging the generation that’s raped the planet – holding their own amongst the outsiders and doing so in impeccable English.
But what about those who can’t afford anything more than basic State education? “The trouble is that many government staff are too frightened to embrace new ways of teaching,” Dr Suryo said.
“In Indonesia environmental issues are just taught as theory in the classroom. Overseas students go on field trips, they learn to do things practically in the wider community.”
The proof was in the projects, which included devising a high tech game involving snakes and rats in rice fields, conserving gilt-head bream in Turkey, breeding horseshoe crabs in Hong Kong, digging frog ditches in Poland and building cosy nesting sites for shivering birds in Scotland.
Prize winning student Claudia Castico wasn’t content with micro management. Her group’s project was How to Keep Portugal Clean. The Romanians also think big. They mustered 100,000 volunteers to clean up their country.
Curiously absent from the conference were participants from Australia and New Zealand, countries that are world leaders in conservation. Organisers said they’d been intimidated by travel warnings, something that didn’t bother the Americans
Oregon State University academic Dan Hoynacki, a CEI board director and frequent visitor to Indonesia, used the Lapindo mud volcano in East Java and the BP oil gush in the Gulf of Mexico to illustrate the importance of environmental care.
“These events are opening peoples’ eyes,” he said. “We can see the context and relevance. Real change has to be from the bottom up. It can only come with knowledge.
“I sense a perfect storm of change is on its way and it’s being driven by people working together across the world, particularly the young who are using modern technology to bridge the chasms, creating the global classroom on line.
“I want to see more and more school-to-school partnerships where students can ask others around the world: ‘How do you think we can fix this problem?’
“When students learn about these things in class they take the information back to their families. And so it spreads.”
Like most campaigners for the environment CEI President Birgitta Norden is an articulate and persuasive advocate. Despoilers beware; this Swedish biology teacher will have you on toast. Wholemeal, naturally.
“There’s been a big commitment by teachers focussing on landscape,” she said, “but we must also look at biodiversity in relation to culture. We need to consider the way people see the environment, the social and economic factors. There’s a need for holistic thinking. That’s what’s been happening at this conference.”
On the verandas long-skirted girls in headscarves sat alongside blondes in shorts and skimpy tops thrashing laptops and thumbing cellphones.
Here was generation green flashing ideas around the world it’s determined to save – ignoring the pessimism and indifference of generation grey. The Will Do kids, demolishing the old adage that elders are betters.
(Next year’s conference on heritage and tourism will be in Hungary.)
Craving for the right place
Back in the 1980s when Isabel Abrams was pushing ecology studies in Chicago she knew her chosen field wouldn’t boost her status as a credible science teacher.
“In those days the environmental class was for kids who couldn’t cope with the real stuff – they were seen as the lesser achievers,” she said.
She may have been in the frustrated minority but she was not alone. Chance meetings over tortillas and tamales in the windy city with people like fellow American Edward Radatz and Dutchman Arjan Wals, created the right mix to get things going.
Europe seemed more amenable to their ideas, and soon other teachers had joined, driven by personal concerns, not instructions from governments or employers.
“We were craving for a place to meet others who had the same hopes,” she said. And so the CEI was born. Indonesia came on board when she met Dr Suryo – “one of my great heroes.”
At the heart of the founders’ mission was a determination to show that studying the environment was more than collecting tadpoles, but undertaking serious classroom research and applying findings in the outside world that would benefit all.
Good teachers everywhere share a common goal whatever their discipline: Their holy quest is to find new ways of getting complex ideas across to their students, and fire the spark that ignites young minds.
Every day there’s news of yet another ecosystem collapse, species extinction and major poisoning. Coupled with these signs of onrushing disaster go calming messages from governments, debunking doomsayers and twisting research.
Climate change? A hoax. Limited resources? Impossible. There’s megaton’s more just waiting to be found. Pollution? A hiccup. New technology will fix everything.
What’s someone growing up in this world meant to think? Will there be anything left to share and enjoy?
Ms Abrams took her mission to a wider field. She turned science writer and produced The Nature of Chicago telling how glaciers created the site of the third largest city in the US, through to the need for city parks.
Her idea was to show urbanites their connection with the natural world.
“CEI wants to examine the issues; we are not an advocacy group,” she said, though that message seems to have bypassed the students calling for animal rights in Indonesian zoos.
“Young people, no matter where they live, should know why they need to be caretakers of the environment. The world is their laboratory. It must be treated with respect.”
And do the teachers of hard science still sniff at ecology majors? “I think environmental science is now mainstream.”
(First published in The Jakarta Post 3 August 2010)
##
Dear World: I am Indonesian and I want to keep our environment green and clean. That’s the way to make the earth better. Sincerely, Intan Agustina.
Student Intan’s plea may not have stirred too many governments secure in their own responses to the planet’s pain. But it sure resonated among the young who care for the future – the place where they’ll be living.
Early July more than 200 high school students and their teachers from 16 countries gathered at a training facility in the East Java hilltown of Lawang ‘to make the earth better’.
The event was the 24th conference of the Caretakers of the Environment International (CEI), an NGO conceived in a Mexican restaurant on a freezing day in Chicago, nurtured in the Netherlands and now coming to maturity in Asia. (See panel)
During the weeklong conference participants visited rice fields, a rain forest, mangrove swamps and a grumbling volcano.
But it was their trip to a wildlife park that really roused their ire and illustrated a cultural and culinary distance from the West where pooches are princes and every cat a queen. Indonesia is no country for old dogs. Or any other edible beast.
The overseas students wanted the birds to have proper housing, and the alligators access to water. “They didn’t like the way the animals were being treated,” said Jakarta teacher Stien Matakupan. A prominent environmental activist she coordinated the conference titled Biodiversity and Culture.
“The students spoke to the zoo manager and stressed the importance of animals in the ecosystem and the need to treat them humanely. He listened and said he’d consider their concerns. This is how we progress. Small steps make big changes.
“Things are definitely getting better. Indonesian kids used to think that forests were full of evil spirits and rivers dangerous places. That’s changing.
“I’ve never been to an opening ceremony before in Indonesia where two ministries (Education and the Environment) were working together to support our goals.”
Commented Indonesian Carmelite Father Albertus Herwanta who is based in Rome but came to observe: “If we love God then we must respect all His creations. Jesus was a conservationist.”
Unlike many Indonesian conferences where the oldies dominate proceedings and the young are to be seen, though not heard, in this show the kids were kings.
At one stage an angry Swedish girl harangued the crowd for not paying full attention during a presentation on the benefits of wild herbs: “This is serious. We are here to learn. That’s why we came.”
The student was unfazed speaking in English in a foreign country where protocol trumps performance. The audience included many worthies, who in the local culture should be given respect even when snoring or shouting into cellphones.
Among them, but not offended and certainly alert despite being ill, was veteran greenie Dr Suryo Prawiroatmodjo. He’s a man who also takes such issues seriously and was enthused by the passion of the young.
A former zoo vet he started campaigning for the environment back in the Soeharto era when some considered conservation a synonym for communism.
He persevered, went overseas to meet like-minded others, ignored the naysayers and hostiles, stirred interest, lobbied intensively and founded CEI in Indonesia.
“This conference should help us build genuine friendships for a better future for everyone,” he said.
“It might inspire us to improve teaching systems and conditions. We need to show that good education is not necessarily expensive or unreachable.”
Most of the Indonesian schools represented at the conference were private, faith-based colleges turning out motivated students challenging the generation that’s raped the planet – holding their own amongst the outsiders and doing so in impeccable English.
But what about those who can’t afford anything more than basic State education? “The trouble is that many government staff are too frightened to embrace new ways of teaching,” Dr Suryo said.
“In Indonesia environmental issues are just taught as theory in the classroom. Overseas students go on field trips, they learn to do things practically in the wider community.”
The proof was in the projects, which included devising a high tech game involving snakes and rats in rice fields, conserving gilt-head bream in Turkey, breeding horseshoe crabs in Hong Kong, digging frog ditches in Poland and building cosy nesting sites for shivering birds in Scotland.
Prize winning student Claudia Castico wasn’t content with micro management. Her group’s project was How to Keep Portugal Clean. The Romanians also think big. They mustered 100,000 volunteers to clean up their country.
Curiously absent from the conference were participants from Australia and New Zealand, countries that are world leaders in conservation. Organisers said they’d been intimidated by travel warnings, something that didn’t bother the Americans
Oregon State University academic Dan Hoynacki, a CEI board director and frequent visitor to Indonesia, used the Lapindo mud volcano in East Java and the BP oil gush in the Gulf of Mexico to illustrate the importance of environmental care.
“These events are opening peoples’ eyes,” he said. “We can see the context and relevance. Real change has to be from the bottom up. It can only come with knowledge.
“I sense a perfect storm of change is on its way and it’s being driven by people working together across the world, particularly the young who are using modern technology to bridge the chasms, creating the global classroom on line.
“I want to see more and more school-to-school partnerships where students can ask others around the world: ‘How do you think we can fix this problem?’
“When students learn about these things in class they take the information back to their families. And so it spreads.”
Like most campaigners for the environment CEI President Birgitta Norden is an articulate and persuasive advocate. Despoilers beware; this Swedish biology teacher will have you on toast. Wholemeal, naturally.
“There’s been a big commitment by teachers focussing on landscape,” she said, “but we must also look at biodiversity in relation to culture. We need to consider the way people see the environment, the social and economic factors. There’s a need for holistic thinking. That’s what’s been happening at this conference.”
On the verandas long-skirted girls in headscarves sat alongside blondes in shorts and skimpy tops thrashing laptops and thumbing cellphones.
Here was generation green flashing ideas around the world it’s determined to save – ignoring the pessimism and indifference of generation grey. The Will Do kids, demolishing the old adage that elders are betters.
(Next year’s conference on heritage and tourism will be in Hungary.)
Craving for the right place
Back in the 1980s when Isabel Abrams was pushing ecology studies in Chicago she knew her chosen field wouldn’t boost her status as a credible science teacher.
“In those days the environmental class was for kids who couldn’t cope with the real stuff – they were seen as the lesser achievers,” she said.
She may have been in the frustrated minority but she was not alone. Chance meetings over tortillas and tamales in the windy city with people like fellow American Edward Radatz and Dutchman Arjan Wals, created the right mix to get things going.
Europe seemed more amenable to their ideas, and soon other teachers had joined, driven by personal concerns, not instructions from governments or employers.
“We were craving for a place to meet others who had the same hopes,” she said. And so the CEI was born. Indonesia came on board when she met Dr Suryo – “one of my great heroes.”
At the heart of the founders’ mission was a determination to show that studying the environment was more than collecting tadpoles, but undertaking serious classroom research and applying findings in the outside world that would benefit all.
Good teachers everywhere share a common goal whatever their discipline: Their holy quest is to find new ways of getting complex ideas across to their students, and fire the spark that ignites young minds.
Every day there’s news of yet another ecosystem collapse, species extinction and major poisoning. Coupled with these signs of onrushing disaster go calming messages from governments, debunking doomsayers and twisting research.
Climate change? A hoax. Limited resources? Impossible. There’s megaton’s more just waiting to be found. Pollution? A hiccup. New technology will fix everything.
What’s someone growing up in this world meant to think? Will there be anything left to share and enjoy?
Ms Abrams took her mission to a wider field. She turned science writer and produced The Nature of Chicago telling how glaciers created the site of the third largest city in the US, through to the need for city parks.
Her idea was to show urbanites their connection with the natural world.
“CEI wants to examine the issues; we are not an advocacy group,” she said, though that message seems to have bypassed the students calling for animal rights in Indonesian zoos.
“Young people, no matter where they live, should know why they need to be caretakers of the environment. The world is their laboratory. It must be treated with respect.”
And do the teachers of hard science still sniff at ecology majors? “I think environmental science is now mainstream.”
(First published in The Jakarta Post 3 August 2010)
##
Monday, July 26, 2010
(Picture above: Seminar participants)
UNDERSTANDING THE PEOPLE NEXT DOOR
Orang-orang Indonesia adalah orang tetangga: Hubungan antara Orang Indonesia dan Orang Australia
When President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited Australia earlier this year he spoke briefly about the close ties between Australia and Indonesia. I’ll give you the details.
Ketika Presiden Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono mengunjungi Australia awal tahun ini dia berbicara singkat tentang hubungan dekat antara Australia dan Indonesia. Saya akan memberikan secara detail.
The first is that we are historically linked. There is no doubt that the Aboriginal people of Australia came from Indonesia, working their way eastwards when the seas were a lot lower. Then it was possible to walk between islands or sail small canoes across narrow seas. That was about 50,000 years ago.
Yang pertama adalah bahwa kita secara historis terkait. Tidak ada keraguan bahwa orang-orang Aborigin di Australia berasal dari Indonesia, mereka berlayar ke arah timur ketika laut-laut banyak yang lebih rendah.
Lalu hal itu yang memungkinkan mereka untuk berjalan di antara pulau-pulau atau berlayar dengan perahu kecil menyeberangi lautan sempit. Itu terjadi sekitar 50.000 tahun yang lalu.
Global warming caused the seas to rise and cut Australia off from easy access with Indonesia. Aborigines, who form only one per cent of the Australian population, developed differently but many still look similar to people from Nusa Tenggara.
Global warming menyebabkan laut-laut naik dan membelah Australia keluar dari akses mudah dengan Indonesia. Orang-orang Aborigin, yang berada disana hanya satu persen dari populasi orang Australia, mereka hidup dan berkembang sangat berbeda tetapi banyak dari mereka masih terlihat sama seperti orang-orang dari Nusa Tenggara.
Closer to the present, but long before Europeans came to this part of the world, Bugis fishermen were sailing from Makassar to northern Australia. They stayed for up to six months and you can still see places where they lived.
Tetapi jauh sebelum orang-orang Eropa datang ke bagian dunia ini, orang-orang nelayan dari Bugis sedang berlayar dari Makassar ke bagian Utara Australia. Mereka tinggal selama enam bulan dan Anda masih dapat melihat tempat-tempat dimana mereka tinggal.
Some Bugis married Aboriginal women and took them back to South Sulawesi where they had children. Aboriginal words like balanda, wurupiah, prau and dopulu all come from Makassar.
Beberapa orang Bugis menikahi perempuan-perempuan Aborigin dan membawa mereka kembali ke Sulawesi Selatan ketika mereka memiliki anak. Kata-kata Aborigin seperti balanda, wurupiah, prau dan dopulu semua berasal dari Makassar.
Of course it’s obvious that we are neighbours. A flight from Kupang to Darwin takes only about an hour. When I lived in Perth I could catch a Garuda flight at 8 am, have breakfast on the plane, watch a movie, and have lunch in Bali.
Tentu saja sudah jelas bahwa kita adalah tetangga - silakan melihat di peta. Sebuah penerbangan dari Kupang ke Darwin hanya memakan waktu sekitar satu jam. Ketika saya tinggal di Perth saya bisa naik pesawat Garuda pukul 8 pagi, sarapan di pesawat, menonton film, dan makan siang di Bali.
Bali is so close and popular that many Australians think it’s their holiday island. If you go to Kuta beach, which is famous throughout the world for its surf, you’ll probably see more Westerners that Indonesians.
Bali begitu dekat dan populer sehingga banyak orang-orang Australia berpikir Pulau Bali tempat berlibur mereka. Jika Anda pergi ke pantai Kuta, yang mana terkenal di seluruh dunia untuk selancarnya, Anda mungkin akan melihat lebih banyak orang Barat daripada orang Indonesia.
Till recently Indonesian language was widely taught in Australian schools and we were all urged to learn more about your country and its culture. But that was before the Bali bombs in 2002 and 2005.
Sampai akhir-akhir ini bahasa Indonesia diajarkan secara luas di sekolah-sekolah Australia dan kami semua didesak untuk mempelajari lebih banyak tentang negara Indonesia dan budayanya. Tetapi itu sebelum terjadi bom Bali tahun 2002 dan 2005.
Both bombs deliberately targeted Westerners and Australians were the main victims, with 88 dying in the first bomb and more than 240 seriously injured. This terrible event has not been forgotten and sadly continues to influence our relationships.
Kedua bom Bali tersebut sengaja ditargetkan untuk orang Barat dan orang Australia, merekalah yang menjadi korban utama, dengan 88 orang meninggal di bom pertama dan lebih dari 240 orang terluka parah. Peristiwa mengerikan ini tidak terlupakan dan sangat sedih terus mempengaruhi hubungan kita.
Despite this Australia gives more aid to Indonesia than any other country, worth about 450 million Australian dollars a year. A lot of this money is being spent on schools. This is because we in the West believe that education is absolutely critical to a better future.
Meskipun Australia memberikan bantuan lebih ke Indonesia dari pada negara lain, senilai sekitar 450 juta dolar Australia setahun. Banyak dari uang ini diberikan untuk sekolah-sekolah. Ini karena kita di negara Barat percaya bahwa pendidikan adalah mutlak penting untuk masa depan yang lebih baik.
Unfortunately not everyone welcomes this money, with some extremists calling it ‘foreign intervention’ in Indonesia.
Sayangnya tidak semua orang menyambut uang ini, dan beberapa orang-orang ekstrimis menyebutnya “intervensi asing” di Indonesia.
Till recently your Constitutional requirement that 20 per cent of the national budget be spent on education has not been followed. In most areas schooling is not free and millions of children leave school with little or no education and no understanding of the complex issues of politics and economics. This means they are easily led by anyone who wants to manipulate public opinion.
Hingga saat ini Konstitusi anda, memerlukan 20 persen dari anggaran nasional yang diperuntukan untuk pendidikan belum dijalankan. Di kebanyakan daerah, sekolah tidak gratis dan jutaan anak-anak meninggalkan sekolah, dengan sedikit atau tidak ada pendidikan dan tidak ada pemahaman tentang isu-isu komplek akan politik dan ekonomi. Ini berarti, mereka dengan mudah dipimpin oleh siapa saja yang ingin memanupulasi opini publik.
In my culture we are encouraged to be independent and ask questions. Your culture is community based and more accepting of authority. You have big families that stay together. These are significant differences, which can affect our relationships. That’s because they colour our attitudes towards welfare and government responsibilities towards its citizens.
Dalam budaya saya, kita didorong untuk menjadi mandiri dan mengajukan pertanyaan. Budaya anda berbasis pada masyarakat dan lebih menerima otoritas. Anda memiliki keluarga besar yang tinggal bersama-sama.
Perbedaan-perbedaan ini signifikan, yang dapat mempengaruhi hubungan kita. Karena faktor-faktor perbedaan itu mewarnai sikap kita terhadap kesejahteraan dan tanggung jawab pemerintah terhadap warganya.
For example in the West we pay a lot of tax and we expect the government to look after us. Up to one third of everything we earn goes to the government in tax, and we cannot avoid paying tax.
Sebagai contoh di negara Barat kita membayar pajak untuk segalanya dan kita berharap pemerintah untuk memelihara kita. Sampai dengan sepertiga dari segala sesuatu yang kita dapatkan pergi ke pemerintah berupa pajak, dan kita tidak dapat menghindar untuk membayar pajak.
This money is used to build roads, schools and hospitals, pay the police, teachers and other government officials. Because we pay so much we demand good services, which include pensions and welfare to people who haven’t got a job or are too sick to work.
Uang ini digunakan untuk membangun jalan, sekolah dan rumah sakit, membayar polisi, guru, dan pejabat pemerintah lainnya.
Karena kita membayar begitu banyak kita menuntut pelayanan yang baik, yang meliputi pensiun dan kesejahteraan bagi orang-orang yang tidak punya pekerjaan atau yang terlalu sakit untuk bekerja.
Although the Indonesian government is now moving to repair the education system I fear this is not targeting the right group. Unless education is truly free right through the system, from city kampong to remote island village, millions of smart young people will miss out on schooling, and Indonesia will miss out on their skills.
Meskipun pemerintah Indonesia sekarang bergerak untuk memperbaiki sistem pendidikan, saya takut, ini tidak kena sasaran pada kelompok yang tepat.
Kecuali pendidikan benar-benar gratis, benar melalui sistem, dari kampung dikota ke desa pulau terpencil, jutaan orang muda yang cerdas akan kehilangan sekolah, dan Indonesia akan kehilangan orang-orang yang trampil.
By comparison, primary, secondary and high school education in my country is free – and compulsory. The money comes from the tax that everybody pays, whether or not they have children.
Sebagai perbandingan, SD, SMP dan SMA di negara saya gratis - dan wajib. Uang tersebut berasal dari pajak dimana semua orang bayar, apakah mereka memiliki anak atau tidak.
I could give many more examples to support your president’s comments. He sent his second son Edhie to a university in Perth where I used to teach. Vice president Boediono was educated in Australia and there are currently more than 16,000 Indonesians studying in Australia.
Saya bisa memberi contoh lebih banyak untuk mendukung komentar presiden anda. Ia mengirim putra keduanya Edhie ke universitas di Perth tempat dimana saya biasa mengajar.
Wakil Presiden Boediono sekolah di Australia dan saat ini terdapat lebih dari 16.000 warga Indonesia yang belajar di Australia.
Then there’s business. Few Australians realise that trade between Indonesia and Australia is huge, worth 4.5 billion Australian dollars every year and growing.
Kemudian ada bisnis. Beberapa orang Australia menyadari bahwa perdagangan antara Indonesia dan Australia sangat besar, senilai 4.5 milyard dolar Australia setiap tahun dan terus bertumbuh.
Despite all these facts I argue that it would be difficult to find two nations that are so close, yet their history, outlook, culture, foods and lifestyles are so completely different.
Walaupun semua fakta ini, saya berpendapat bahwa akan sulit untuk menemukan dua negara yang begitu dekat, sekalipun sejarah, pandangan, budaya, makanan dan gaya hidup sangat berbeda.
Of course that’s true in some parts of Indonesia; you can always find examples to make a point, but it doesn’t change my attitude. My opinion is based on being a regular visitor to Indonesia for many years, living in Surabaya and Malang for long periods and visiting many parts of Indonesia. I’m also married to an Indonesian from North Sulawesi but who spent most of her life in East Java.
Tentu saja itu benar di beberapa bagian Indonesia; Anda selalu dapat menemukan contoh-contoh untuk membuat poin, tapi tidak mengubah sikap saya.
Pendapat saya didasarkan pada ketika saya menjadi pengunjung tetap ke Indonesia selama bertahun-tahun, tinggal di Surabaya dan Malang untuk waktu yang lama dan mengunjungi banyak daerah di Indonesia. Saya juga menikah dengan seorang Indonesia dari Sulawesi Utara namun yang menghabiskan sebagian besar hidupnya di Jawa Timur.
If you reject my argument you will think everything is fine between our two countries. We can smile a lot at each other, make happy speeches and assume nothing much needs to be done.
Jika anda menolak argumen saya, anda akan berpikir semuanya baik antara dua negara kita. Kita bisa banyak tersenyum satu sama lain, membuat pidato bagus dan menganggap tidak banyak yang perlu dilakukan.
If you accept my reasoning then you’ll be extremely concerned. You will realise that we all have to do a lot of work to make sure we maintain our friendships so that you and I and our children can live in peace with each other.
Jika anda menerima alasan saya, maka anda menjadi sangat prihatin. Anda akan menyadari bahwa kita semua harus melakukan banyak kerja, untuk memastikan, agar kita memelihara persahabatan supaya anda dan saya serta anak-anak kita bisa hidup dengan damai satu sama lain.
Being a good neighbour is like having a good marriage. You must work on the relationship every day, showing courtesy, respect and understanding based on knowledge. And that’s difficult.
Menjadi tetangga yang baik adalah seperti memiliki pernikahan yang baik. Anda harus berusaha menjaga hubungan setiap hari, menunjukkan kesopanan, hormat dan memahami berdasarkan akan pengetahuan. Dan itu sulit.
Black American leader Martin Luther King said that nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity, and I believe that we have a large amount of both ignorance and stupidity in both countries.Pemimpin orang Amerika berkulit hitam Martin Luther King mengatakan bahwa tidak ada di dunia yang lebih berbahaya daripada ketidaktahuan yang tulus dan kebodohan yang teliti, dan saya percaya bahwa kita memiliki sejumlah besar baik ketidaktahuan dan kebodohan di kedua negara.
I’ll start with the ignorance and stupidity in Australia. Surveys of public attitudes show that about half the population doesn’t trust Indonesia. That figure is probably growing as more refugees from Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Iraq come to Indonesia and then take fishing boats to sail illegally to Australia.
Saya akan mulai dengan ketidaktahuan dan kebodohan di Australia. Survei terhadap sikap publik menunjukkan bahwa sekitar setengah dari penduduk Australia tidak percaya Indonesia.
Angka ini mungkin tumbuh sebagaimana bertambahnya pengungsi dari Afghanistan, Sri Lanka dan Irak datang ke Indonesia dan kemudian menggunakan perahu nelayan berlayar secara ilegal ke Australia.
This is not a big issue in Indonesia. It is a very big issue in Australia and many people are angry because we believe the Indonesian government should stop these people, and because President SBY promised to help stop people trafficking.
Ini bukan masalah besar di Indonesia. Ini masalah yang sangat besar di Australia dan banyak orang marah karena kita percaya bahwa pemerintah Indonesia harus bisa menghentikan orang-orang ini, dan karena Presiden SBY berjanji akan membantu menghentikan perdagangan manusia.
Much of the news we recive about Indonesia is bad or strange, or both. For example in the week before I wrote this speech the newspaper and television stories about Indonesia were about a two-year old boy who smokes 40 cigarettes a day, and an Aceh official buying 20,000 skirts to stop women wearing tight jeans.
Banyak berita yang kita terima tentang Indonesia adalah buruk atau aneh, atau kedua-duanya.
Misalnya dalam seminggu sebelum saya menulis pidato ini, cerita-cerita dikoran dan televisi tentang Indonesia adalah tentang seorang anak laki-laki berumur dua tahun yang merokok 40 batang sehari, dan seorang pejabat Aceh membeli 20,000 rok untuk menghentikan perempuan-perempuan mengenakan celana jins ketat.
Then there was a photograph of men sitting on the roof of a train from Depok to Jakarta – nothing unusual for Indonesians but for Westerners an example of Asian chaos and lack of discipline.
Lalu ada foto tentang orang-orang yang duduk diatap kereta api dari Depok ke Jakarta – tidak ada yang tidak biasa untuk orang-orang Indonesia tapi untuk orang Barat adalah sebuah contoh kekacauan orang Asia dan kurangnya disiplin.
These images are not representative of your great nation.
Gambar-gambar ini tidak mewakili bangsa anda yang besar.
The truth is that Australia doesn’t really know where it’s supposed to be in the world. It’s a large island off Southeast Asia mainly populated by white-skinned Europeans following a Western culture whose best friends are far away.
Yang benar yaitu, Australia benar-benar tidak tahu di mana seharusnya Australia berada di dunia. Sebuah pulau besar keluar dari Asia Tenggara yang dihuni terutama oleh orang-orang Eropa berkulit putih dengan membawa serta budaya Barat, dimana teman-teman mereka yang baik sangat jauh.
A cartoon map in a Malaysian newspapers once had Australia positioned in mid Atlantic, half way between Europe and the US. For many people that’s where their heart is – physically between the Indian and Pacific Oceans - but emotionally in the Northern Hemisphere, far away from Indonesia.
Sebuah peta kartun disurat kabar Malaysia pernah menunjukkan Australia diposisikan pada pertengahan Atlantik, setengah perjalanan antara Eropa dan AS.
Bagi banyak orang di sanalah hati mereka berada - secara fisik antara Samudra Hindia dan Pasifik - tetapi secara emosional di belahan bumi utara, jauh dari Indonesia.
Most people know that Indonesia is a heavily populated small country and that Australia is large and empty. For every one Australian there are ten Indonesians.
Kebanyakan orang tahu bahwa Indonesia adalah negara kecil berpenduduk padat, dan bahwa Australia adalah negara besar dan kosong. Untuk setiap satu orang Australia terdapat sepuluh orang Indonesia.
Looking at these facts, and remembering the Bali bombs, many Australians assume that Indonesia would like to invade Australia and if that happened, it would be almost impossible to defend the country without outside help. This is why Australia is such close friends with the United States.
Melihat pada fakta ini, dan mengingat bom-bom Bali, banyak orang Australia menganggap bahwa Indonesia ingin menyerbu Australia dan kalau itu terjadi, itu akan hampir mustahil untuk mempertahankan negara tanpa bantuan dari luar.
Inilah sebabnya mengapa Australia seperti teman dekat dengan Amerika Serikat.
I say this thinking is nonsense. It’s no secret that the Indonesian armed forces are not large and are not well equipped with modern weapons. Apart from that I have yet to meet anyone who thinks having a war with Australia would be a good idea. In fact most Indonesians are happy at home and few want to live anywhere else.
Saya katakan pikiran ini adalah omong kosong. Bukan rahasia bahwa angkatan bersenjata Indonesia tidak besar dan tidak dilengkapi dengan senjata-senjata modern.
Selain itu saya belum bertemu seseorang yang berpikir, berperang dengan Australia merupakan ide yang baik. Kenyataan sebagian besar rakyat Indonesia bahagia berada di rumah dan beberapa yang ingin tinggal di negara lain.
That’s because the differences are serious, and I’m not just talking about climate, language and food. Let’s go through the list starting with history.
Itu karena perbedaan-perbedaan yang serius, dan saya tidak hanya bicara tentang iklim, bahasa dan makanan. Mari kita lihat melalui daftar mulai dengan sejarah.
In the 1930s skulls found at Ngandong near the Solo River in Central Java were identified as belonging to a now extinct branch of our ancestors that may have lived about 100,000 years ago.
Pada tahun 1930 tengkorak-tengkorak ditemukan di Ngandong dekat Sungai Bengawan Solo di Jawa Tengah, yang diidentifikasi sebagai milik dari cabang nenek moyang kita yang sekarang sudah punah, yang mungkin telah hidup sekitar 100.000 tahun yang lalu.
The terraced wet rice cultivation system that you see in Bali and Java came from Vietnam about 3,000 years ago, so you can see that people have been living on these islands for a long time. You have developed a long and rich culture that goes far back, long before Islam and Christianity.
Sistim budidaya padi dengan tanah teras basah yang anda lihat di Bali dan Jawa berasal dari Vietnam sekitar 3.000 tahun yang lalu, sehingga anda dapat melihat bahwa orang-orang telah tinggal di pulau-pulau ini untuk jangka waktu yang lama.
Anda telah mengembangkan kebudayaan yang panjang dan kaya, yang pergi jauh ke belakang, jauh sebelum Islam dan Kristen.
However Europeans didn’t arrive in Australia in numbers until 1788 so modern Australia is really only 222 years old.
Bagaimanapun orang Eropa tidak tiba di Australia dalam hitungan bilangan sampai tahun 1788 jadi Australia modern adalah benar-benar hanya berumur 222 tahun.
Australia, like the United States, is an immigrant society. Indonesia is not. This is a most important fact when understanding the differences between our countries.
Australia, seperti Amerika Serikat, adalah masyarakat imigran. Indonesia bukan. Ini adalah fakta yang paling penting ketika memahami perbedaan antara negara kita.
In Australia you can find people who are Australian citizens living permanently in the country who have come from Italy, Singapore, Afghanistan, Turkey, South Africa … just about every ethnic group and nation on earth. That’s not the situation in Indonesia.
Di Australia, anda dapat menemukan orang-orang yang adalah warga negara Australia yang tinggal permanen di Australia berasal dari Italia, Singapura, Afghanistan, Turki, Afrika Selatan ... hampir setiap kelompok etnis dan bangsa di muka bumi. Itu bukan situasi di Indonesia.
But distrust is not exclusive to Australians. Indonesian officials do not trust people like me.
Tetapi ketidakpercayaan bukan eksklusif bagi orang Australia. Pejabat-pejabat Indonesia tidak percaya orang seperti saya.
In Indonesia I cannot own a house, a business or a bank account and even if I stay in Indonesia for the rest of my life and eventually gain Indonesian citizenship (which would be very difficult) I would never be considered Indonesian. That’s because I will always be a bule, a foreigner with a white skin.
Di Indonesia saya tidak bisa memiliki rumah, bisnis atau rekening bank dan bahkan jika saya tinggal di Indonesia untuk sisa hidup saya dan akhirnya mendapatkan kewarganegaraan Indonesia (yang akan sangat sulit).
Saya tidak akan pernah dianggap orang Indonesia. Itu karena saya selalu akan menjadi bule, orang asing dengan kulit putih.
That’s not the situation in NZ where we now live. My wife Erlinawati is a permanent resident. Together with me she owns a house, a business and a bank account.
Itu bukan situasi di NZ di mana kita tinggal sekarang. Istri saya Erlinawati adalah penduduk tetap. Bersama dengan saya, dia memiliki rumah, usaha dan rekening bank.
Modern Indonesia had to fight for independence in a bloody four-year war. Australia became separate from Britain in 1901 because we asked for independence, but remain part of the Commonwealth with the Queen as our head of State.
Modern Indonesia harus berjuang untuk kemerdekaan dalam perang berdarah empat-tahun. Australia menjadi terpisah dari Inggris pada tahun 1901 karena kita meminta kemerdekaan, tetapi tetap menjadi bagian dari Commonwealth dengan Ratu sebagai kepala Negara.
Because we still recognise our British heritage we keep the union jack, the flag of the United Kingdom, on our flag, and the Queen’s face on our money.
Karena kita masih mengakui (sebagai) warisan Inggris, maka kita memakai the union jack, bendera Inggris Raya, pada bendera kita, dan wajah Ratu tertera di uang kita.
Some people think this means we are still a colony of Britain. That’s not true, but we are members of the Commonwealth which the Queen heads, and which has 54 independent nation members, including Malaysia and Singapore.
Beberapa orang berpikir ini berarti kita masih koloni Inggris. Itu tidak benar, tapi kita adalah anggota Commonwealth yang dikepalai oleh Ratu, dan yang mana memiliki 54 anggota negara independen, termasuk Malaysia dan Singapura.
I’m often called a Belanda, though I am not Dutch, have never been to Holland and despise colonialism.
Saya sering kali disebut Belanda, walaupun saya bukan orang Belanda, dan saya tidak pernah ke Belanda dan saya tidak mendukung kolonialisme.
I’m also considered to be rich just because I’m a Westerner, when in my own country I’m just lower middle class. There are more seriously rich people in Indonesia than there are people in the whole of Australia.
Saya juga dianggap kaya hanya karena saya orang Barat, ketika di negara saya sendiri, saya hanya kelas menengah bawah. Ada lebih banyak masyarakat kaya di Indonesia daripada orang-orang di seluruh Australia.
I don’t like being called a rich immoral colonialist – just as you don’t want to be called corrupt terrorists. The media in both countries needs to do a lot of work to change these bad images – and education is the best way.
Saya tidak suka disebut orang kolonialis kaya tidak bermoral - juga dengan Anda tidak ingin disebut orang-orang teroris yang korupsi. Media di kedua negara perlu melakukan banyak kerja untuk mengubah image-image buruk ini - dan melalui pendidikan adalah cara yang terbaik.
Please urge your students to continue their education – make it life long. Open their minds, encourage them to read widely, listen to many people from different backgrounds, religions and cultures. Tell them to question everything. Travel overseas. The message is: Don’t just believe what you hear – go and find out for yourselves
Silakan mendorong murid-muridmu untuk melanjutkan pendidikan - dan buatlah hidup bermakna, buka pikiran anda, banyak membaca, dan dengarkan banyak orang dari latar belakang yang berbeda, agama dan budaya.
Bertanyalah tentang segala sesuatunya. Berliburlah ke luar negeri .. Jangan hanya percaya dengan apa yang Anda dengar - pergi dan temukan sendiri.
There are good scholarship opportunities for post graduates in Australian and NZ, but you must have good English (minimum IELTS 5 – and for many courses higher). You must be disciplined and determined because there are many distractions.
Ada kesempatan beasiswa yang baik untuk S2 dan S3 di Australia dan NZ, tetapi anda harus bisa berbahasa Inggris yang baik (minimum IELTS 5 – dan banyak bidang lain dibutuhkan yang lebih tinggi). Anda harus disiplin dan mempunyai tekat karena ada banyak gangguan.
To live in peace with each other it is important to be frank. And in case you are wrongly thinking that I am criticising Indonesians let me add that I would say exactly the same thing to Westerners.
Untuk hidup berdamai dengan satu sama lain, sangat penting untuk berterus terang. Dan jika anda salah berpikir bahwa saya mengkritik orang-orang Indonesia, izinkan saya menambahkan, bahwa saya akan mengatakan hal yang persis sama dengan orang-orang barat.
American journalist Ron Suskind, writing about the gap between Muslims and others, said: “Making contact with people who are not like you is one of the best things a person can do.”
Jurnalis Amerika Ron Suskind, menulis tentang gap antara orang-orang Islam dan lainnya, mengatakan: “Untuk berhubungan dengan orang yang tidak seperti kamu adalah salah satu cara yang terbaik seseorang dapat lakukan.”
Thank you for inviting me to talk to you today.
Terima kasih telah mengundang saya untuk berbicara dengan Anda hari ini.
(An edited version of a speech given at an international seminar at Bukittinggi, Sumatra on 18 July. sponsored by Muhamadiyah University, Pos Indonesia and Bank BTN)
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UNDERSTANDING THE PEOPLE NEXT DOOR
Orang-orang Indonesia adalah orang tetangga: Hubungan antara Orang Indonesia dan Orang Australia
When President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited Australia earlier this year he spoke briefly about the close ties between Australia and Indonesia. I’ll give you the details.
Ketika Presiden Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono mengunjungi Australia awal tahun ini dia berbicara singkat tentang hubungan dekat antara Australia dan Indonesia. Saya akan memberikan secara detail.
The first is that we are historically linked. There is no doubt that the Aboriginal people of Australia came from Indonesia, working their way eastwards when the seas were a lot lower. Then it was possible to walk between islands or sail small canoes across narrow seas. That was about 50,000 years ago.
Yang pertama adalah bahwa kita secara historis terkait. Tidak ada keraguan bahwa orang-orang Aborigin di Australia berasal dari Indonesia, mereka berlayar ke arah timur ketika laut-laut banyak yang lebih rendah.
Lalu hal itu yang memungkinkan mereka untuk berjalan di antara pulau-pulau atau berlayar dengan perahu kecil menyeberangi lautan sempit. Itu terjadi sekitar 50.000 tahun yang lalu.
Global warming caused the seas to rise and cut Australia off from easy access with Indonesia. Aborigines, who form only one per cent of the Australian population, developed differently but many still look similar to people from Nusa Tenggara.
Global warming menyebabkan laut-laut naik dan membelah Australia keluar dari akses mudah dengan Indonesia. Orang-orang Aborigin, yang berada disana hanya satu persen dari populasi orang Australia, mereka hidup dan berkembang sangat berbeda tetapi banyak dari mereka masih terlihat sama seperti orang-orang dari Nusa Tenggara.
Closer to the present, but long before Europeans came to this part of the world, Bugis fishermen were sailing from Makassar to northern Australia. They stayed for up to six months and you can still see places where they lived.
Tetapi jauh sebelum orang-orang Eropa datang ke bagian dunia ini, orang-orang nelayan dari Bugis sedang berlayar dari Makassar ke bagian Utara Australia. Mereka tinggal selama enam bulan dan Anda masih dapat melihat tempat-tempat dimana mereka tinggal.
Some Bugis married Aboriginal women and took them back to South Sulawesi where they had children. Aboriginal words like balanda, wurupiah, prau and dopulu all come from Makassar.
Beberapa orang Bugis menikahi perempuan-perempuan Aborigin dan membawa mereka kembali ke Sulawesi Selatan ketika mereka memiliki anak. Kata-kata Aborigin seperti balanda, wurupiah, prau dan dopulu semua berasal dari Makassar.
Of course it’s obvious that we are neighbours. A flight from Kupang to Darwin takes only about an hour. When I lived in Perth I could catch a Garuda flight at 8 am, have breakfast on the plane, watch a movie, and have lunch in Bali.
Tentu saja sudah jelas bahwa kita adalah tetangga - silakan melihat di peta. Sebuah penerbangan dari Kupang ke Darwin hanya memakan waktu sekitar satu jam. Ketika saya tinggal di Perth saya bisa naik pesawat Garuda pukul 8 pagi, sarapan di pesawat, menonton film, dan makan siang di Bali.
Bali is so close and popular that many Australians think it’s their holiday island. If you go to Kuta beach, which is famous throughout the world for its surf, you’ll probably see more Westerners that Indonesians.
Bali begitu dekat dan populer sehingga banyak orang-orang Australia berpikir Pulau Bali tempat berlibur mereka. Jika Anda pergi ke pantai Kuta, yang mana terkenal di seluruh dunia untuk selancarnya, Anda mungkin akan melihat lebih banyak orang Barat daripada orang Indonesia.
Till recently Indonesian language was widely taught in Australian schools and we were all urged to learn more about your country and its culture. But that was before the Bali bombs in 2002 and 2005.
Sampai akhir-akhir ini bahasa Indonesia diajarkan secara luas di sekolah-sekolah Australia dan kami semua didesak untuk mempelajari lebih banyak tentang negara Indonesia dan budayanya. Tetapi itu sebelum terjadi bom Bali tahun 2002 dan 2005.
Both bombs deliberately targeted Westerners and Australians were the main victims, with 88 dying in the first bomb and more than 240 seriously injured. This terrible event has not been forgotten and sadly continues to influence our relationships.
Kedua bom Bali tersebut sengaja ditargetkan untuk orang Barat dan orang Australia, merekalah yang menjadi korban utama, dengan 88 orang meninggal di bom pertama dan lebih dari 240 orang terluka parah. Peristiwa mengerikan ini tidak terlupakan dan sangat sedih terus mempengaruhi hubungan kita.
Despite this Australia gives more aid to Indonesia than any other country, worth about 450 million Australian dollars a year. A lot of this money is being spent on schools. This is because we in the West believe that education is absolutely critical to a better future.
Meskipun Australia memberikan bantuan lebih ke Indonesia dari pada negara lain, senilai sekitar 450 juta dolar Australia setahun. Banyak dari uang ini diberikan untuk sekolah-sekolah. Ini karena kita di negara Barat percaya bahwa pendidikan adalah mutlak penting untuk masa depan yang lebih baik.
Unfortunately not everyone welcomes this money, with some extremists calling it ‘foreign intervention’ in Indonesia.
Sayangnya tidak semua orang menyambut uang ini, dan beberapa orang-orang ekstrimis menyebutnya “intervensi asing” di Indonesia.
Till recently your Constitutional requirement that 20 per cent of the national budget be spent on education has not been followed. In most areas schooling is not free and millions of children leave school with little or no education and no understanding of the complex issues of politics and economics. This means they are easily led by anyone who wants to manipulate public opinion.
Hingga saat ini Konstitusi anda, memerlukan 20 persen dari anggaran nasional yang diperuntukan untuk pendidikan belum dijalankan. Di kebanyakan daerah, sekolah tidak gratis dan jutaan anak-anak meninggalkan sekolah, dengan sedikit atau tidak ada pendidikan dan tidak ada pemahaman tentang isu-isu komplek akan politik dan ekonomi. Ini berarti, mereka dengan mudah dipimpin oleh siapa saja yang ingin memanupulasi opini publik.
In my culture we are encouraged to be independent and ask questions. Your culture is community based and more accepting of authority. You have big families that stay together. These are significant differences, which can affect our relationships. That’s because they colour our attitudes towards welfare and government responsibilities towards its citizens.
Dalam budaya saya, kita didorong untuk menjadi mandiri dan mengajukan pertanyaan. Budaya anda berbasis pada masyarakat dan lebih menerima otoritas. Anda memiliki keluarga besar yang tinggal bersama-sama.
Perbedaan-perbedaan ini signifikan, yang dapat mempengaruhi hubungan kita. Karena faktor-faktor perbedaan itu mewarnai sikap kita terhadap kesejahteraan dan tanggung jawab pemerintah terhadap warganya.
For example in the West we pay a lot of tax and we expect the government to look after us. Up to one third of everything we earn goes to the government in tax, and we cannot avoid paying tax.
Sebagai contoh di negara Barat kita membayar pajak untuk segalanya dan kita berharap pemerintah untuk memelihara kita. Sampai dengan sepertiga dari segala sesuatu yang kita dapatkan pergi ke pemerintah berupa pajak, dan kita tidak dapat menghindar untuk membayar pajak.
This money is used to build roads, schools and hospitals, pay the police, teachers and other government officials. Because we pay so much we demand good services, which include pensions and welfare to people who haven’t got a job or are too sick to work.
Uang ini digunakan untuk membangun jalan, sekolah dan rumah sakit, membayar polisi, guru, dan pejabat pemerintah lainnya.
Karena kita membayar begitu banyak kita menuntut pelayanan yang baik, yang meliputi pensiun dan kesejahteraan bagi orang-orang yang tidak punya pekerjaan atau yang terlalu sakit untuk bekerja.
Although the Indonesian government is now moving to repair the education system I fear this is not targeting the right group. Unless education is truly free right through the system, from city kampong to remote island village, millions of smart young people will miss out on schooling, and Indonesia will miss out on their skills.
Meskipun pemerintah Indonesia sekarang bergerak untuk memperbaiki sistem pendidikan, saya takut, ini tidak kena sasaran pada kelompok yang tepat.
Kecuali pendidikan benar-benar gratis, benar melalui sistem, dari kampung dikota ke desa pulau terpencil, jutaan orang muda yang cerdas akan kehilangan sekolah, dan Indonesia akan kehilangan orang-orang yang trampil.
By comparison, primary, secondary and high school education in my country is free – and compulsory. The money comes from the tax that everybody pays, whether or not they have children.
Sebagai perbandingan, SD, SMP dan SMA di negara saya gratis - dan wajib. Uang tersebut berasal dari pajak dimana semua orang bayar, apakah mereka memiliki anak atau tidak.
I could give many more examples to support your president’s comments. He sent his second son Edhie to a university in Perth where I used to teach. Vice president Boediono was educated in Australia and there are currently more than 16,000 Indonesians studying in Australia.
Saya bisa memberi contoh lebih banyak untuk mendukung komentar presiden anda. Ia mengirim putra keduanya Edhie ke universitas di Perth tempat dimana saya biasa mengajar.
Wakil Presiden Boediono sekolah di Australia dan saat ini terdapat lebih dari 16.000 warga Indonesia yang belajar di Australia.
Then there’s business. Few Australians realise that trade between Indonesia and Australia is huge, worth 4.5 billion Australian dollars every year and growing.
Kemudian ada bisnis. Beberapa orang Australia menyadari bahwa perdagangan antara Indonesia dan Australia sangat besar, senilai 4.5 milyard dolar Australia setiap tahun dan terus bertumbuh.
Despite all these facts I argue that it would be difficult to find two nations that are so close, yet their history, outlook, culture, foods and lifestyles are so completely different.
Walaupun semua fakta ini, saya berpendapat bahwa akan sulit untuk menemukan dua negara yang begitu dekat, sekalipun sejarah, pandangan, budaya, makanan dan gaya hidup sangat berbeda.
Of course that’s true in some parts of Indonesia; you can always find examples to make a point, but it doesn’t change my attitude. My opinion is based on being a regular visitor to Indonesia for many years, living in Surabaya and Malang for long periods and visiting many parts of Indonesia. I’m also married to an Indonesian from North Sulawesi but who spent most of her life in East Java.
Tentu saja itu benar di beberapa bagian Indonesia; Anda selalu dapat menemukan contoh-contoh untuk membuat poin, tapi tidak mengubah sikap saya.
Pendapat saya didasarkan pada ketika saya menjadi pengunjung tetap ke Indonesia selama bertahun-tahun, tinggal di Surabaya dan Malang untuk waktu yang lama dan mengunjungi banyak daerah di Indonesia. Saya juga menikah dengan seorang Indonesia dari Sulawesi Utara namun yang menghabiskan sebagian besar hidupnya di Jawa Timur.
If you reject my argument you will think everything is fine between our two countries. We can smile a lot at each other, make happy speeches and assume nothing much needs to be done.
Jika anda menolak argumen saya, anda akan berpikir semuanya baik antara dua negara kita. Kita bisa banyak tersenyum satu sama lain, membuat pidato bagus dan menganggap tidak banyak yang perlu dilakukan.
If you accept my reasoning then you’ll be extremely concerned. You will realise that we all have to do a lot of work to make sure we maintain our friendships so that you and I and our children can live in peace with each other.
Jika anda menerima alasan saya, maka anda menjadi sangat prihatin. Anda akan menyadari bahwa kita semua harus melakukan banyak kerja, untuk memastikan, agar kita memelihara persahabatan supaya anda dan saya serta anak-anak kita bisa hidup dengan damai satu sama lain.
Being a good neighbour is like having a good marriage. You must work on the relationship every day, showing courtesy, respect and understanding based on knowledge. And that’s difficult.
Menjadi tetangga yang baik adalah seperti memiliki pernikahan yang baik. Anda harus berusaha menjaga hubungan setiap hari, menunjukkan kesopanan, hormat dan memahami berdasarkan akan pengetahuan. Dan itu sulit.
Black American leader Martin Luther King said that nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity, and I believe that we have a large amount of both ignorance and stupidity in both countries.Pemimpin orang Amerika berkulit hitam Martin Luther King mengatakan bahwa tidak ada di dunia yang lebih berbahaya daripada ketidaktahuan yang tulus dan kebodohan yang teliti, dan saya percaya bahwa kita memiliki sejumlah besar baik ketidaktahuan dan kebodohan di kedua negara.
I’ll start with the ignorance and stupidity in Australia. Surveys of public attitudes show that about half the population doesn’t trust Indonesia. That figure is probably growing as more refugees from Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Iraq come to Indonesia and then take fishing boats to sail illegally to Australia.
Saya akan mulai dengan ketidaktahuan dan kebodohan di Australia. Survei terhadap sikap publik menunjukkan bahwa sekitar setengah dari penduduk Australia tidak percaya Indonesia.
Angka ini mungkin tumbuh sebagaimana bertambahnya pengungsi dari Afghanistan, Sri Lanka dan Irak datang ke Indonesia dan kemudian menggunakan perahu nelayan berlayar secara ilegal ke Australia.
This is not a big issue in Indonesia. It is a very big issue in Australia and many people are angry because we believe the Indonesian government should stop these people, and because President SBY promised to help stop people trafficking.
Ini bukan masalah besar di Indonesia. Ini masalah yang sangat besar di Australia dan banyak orang marah karena kita percaya bahwa pemerintah Indonesia harus bisa menghentikan orang-orang ini, dan karena Presiden SBY berjanji akan membantu menghentikan perdagangan manusia.
Much of the news we recive about Indonesia is bad or strange, or both. For example in the week before I wrote this speech the newspaper and television stories about Indonesia were about a two-year old boy who smokes 40 cigarettes a day, and an Aceh official buying 20,000 skirts to stop women wearing tight jeans.
Banyak berita yang kita terima tentang Indonesia adalah buruk atau aneh, atau kedua-duanya.
Misalnya dalam seminggu sebelum saya menulis pidato ini, cerita-cerita dikoran dan televisi tentang Indonesia adalah tentang seorang anak laki-laki berumur dua tahun yang merokok 40 batang sehari, dan seorang pejabat Aceh membeli 20,000 rok untuk menghentikan perempuan-perempuan mengenakan celana jins ketat.
Then there was a photograph of men sitting on the roof of a train from Depok to Jakarta – nothing unusual for Indonesians but for Westerners an example of Asian chaos and lack of discipline.
Lalu ada foto tentang orang-orang yang duduk diatap kereta api dari Depok ke Jakarta – tidak ada yang tidak biasa untuk orang-orang Indonesia tapi untuk orang Barat adalah sebuah contoh kekacauan orang Asia dan kurangnya disiplin.
These images are not representative of your great nation.
Gambar-gambar ini tidak mewakili bangsa anda yang besar.
The truth is that Australia doesn’t really know where it’s supposed to be in the world. It’s a large island off Southeast Asia mainly populated by white-skinned Europeans following a Western culture whose best friends are far away.
Yang benar yaitu, Australia benar-benar tidak tahu di mana seharusnya Australia berada di dunia. Sebuah pulau besar keluar dari Asia Tenggara yang dihuni terutama oleh orang-orang Eropa berkulit putih dengan membawa serta budaya Barat, dimana teman-teman mereka yang baik sangat jauh.
A cartoon map in a Malaysian newspapers once had Australia positioned in mid Atlantic, half way between Europe and the US. For many people that’s where their heart is – physically between the Indian and Pacific Oceans - but emotionally in the Northern Hemisphere, far away from Indonesia.
Sebuah peta kartun disurat kabar Malaysia pernah menunjukkan Australia diposisikan pada pertengahan Atlantik, setengah perjalanan antara Eropa dan AS.
Bagi banyak orang di sanalah hati mereka berada - secara fisik antara Samudra Hindia dan Pasifik - tetapi secara emosional di belahan bumi utara, jauh dari Indonesia.
Most people know that Indonesia is a heavily populated small country and that Australia is large and empty. For every one Australian there are ten Indonesians.
Kebanyakan orang tahu bahwa Indonesia adalah negara kecil berpenduduk padat, dan bahwa Australia adalah negara besar dan kosong. Untuk setiap satu orang Australia terdapat sepuluh orang Indonesia.
Looking at these facts, and remembering the Bali bombs, many Australians assume that Indonesia would like to invade Australia and if that happened, it would be almost impossible to defend the country without outside help. This is why Australia is such close friends with the United States.
Melihat pada fakta ini, dan mengingat bom-bom Bali, banyak orang Australia menganggap bahwa Indonesia ingin menyerbu Australia dan kalau itu terjadi, itu akan hampir mustahil untuk mempertahankan negara tanpa bantuan dari luar.
Inilah sebabnya mengapa Australia seperti teman dekat dengan Amerika Serikat.
I say this thinking is nonsense. It’s no secret that the Indonesian armed forces are not large and are not well equipped with modern weapons. Apart from that I have yet to meet anyone who thinks having a war with Australia would be a good idea. In fact most Indonesians are happy at home and few want to live anywhere else.
Saya katakan pikiran ini adalah omong kosong. Bukan rahasia bahwa angkatan bersenjata Indonesia tidak besar dan tidak dilengkapi dengan senjata-senjata modern.
Selain itu saya belum bertemu seseorang yang berpikir, berperang dengan Australia merupakan ide yang baik. Kenyataan sebagian besar rakyat Indonesia bahagia berada di rumah dan beberapa yang ingin tinggal di negara lain.
That’s because the differences are serious, and I’m not just talking about climate, language and food. Let’s go through the list starting with history.
Itu karena perbedaan-perbedaan yang serius, dan saya tidak hanya bicara tentang iklim, bahasa dan makanan. Mari kita lihat melalui daftar mulai dengan sejarah.
In the 1930s skulls found at Ngandong near the Solo River in Central Java were identified as belonging to a now extinct branch of our ancestors that may have lived about 100,000 years ago.
Pada tahun 1930 tengkorak-tengkorak ditemukan di Ngandong dekat Sungai Bengawan Solo di Jawa Tengah, yang diidentifikasi sebagai milik dari cabang nenek moyang kita yang sekarang sudah punah, yang mungkin telah hidup sekitar 100.000 tahun yang lalu.
The terraced wet rice cultivation system that you see in Bali and Java came from Vietnam about 3,000 years ago, so you can see that people have been living on these islands for a long time. You have developed a long and rich culture that goes far back, long before Islam and Christianity.
Sistim budidaya padi dengan tanah teras basah yang anda lihat di Bali dan Jawa berasal dari Vietnam sekitar 3.000 tahun yang lalu, sehingga anda dapat melihat bahwa orang-orang telah tinggal di pulau-pulau ini untuk jangka waktu yang lama.
Anda telah mengembangkan kebudayaan yang panjang dan kaya, yang pergi jauh ke belakang, jauh sebelum Islam dan Kristen.
However Europeans didn’t arrive in Australia in numbers until 1788 so modern Australia is really only 222 years old.
Bagaimanapun orang Eropa tidak tiba di Australia dalam hitungan bilangan sampai tahun 1788 jadi Australia modern adalah benar-benar hanya berumur 222 tahun.
Australia, like the United States, is an immigrant society. Indonesia is not. This is a most important fact when understanding the differences between our countries.
Australia, seperti Amerika Serikat, adalah masyarakat imigran. Indonesia bukan. Ini adalah fakta yang paling penting ketika memahami perbedaan antara negara kita.
In Australia you can find people who are Australian citizens living permanently in the country who have come from Italy, Singapore, Afghanistan, Turkey, South Africa … just about every ethnic group and nation on earth. That’s not the situation in Indonesia.
Di Australia, anda dapat menemukan orang-orang yang adalah warga negara Australia yang tinggal permanen di Australia berasal dari Italia, Singapura, Afghanistan, Turki, Afrika Selatan ... hampir setiap kelompok etnis dan bangsa di muka bumi. Itu bukan situasi di Indonesia.
But distrust is not exclusive to Australians. Indonesian officials do not trust people like me.
Tetapi ketidakpercayaan bukan eksklusif bagi orang Australia. Pejabat-pejabat Indonesia tidak percaya orang seperti saya.
In Indonesia I cannot own a house, a business or a bank account and even if I stay in Indonesia for the rest of my life and eventually gain Indonesian citizenship (which would be very difficult) I would never be considered Indonesian. That’s because I will always be a bule, a foreigner with a white skin.
Di Indonesia saya tidak bisa memiliki rumah, bisnis atau rekening bank dan bahkan jika saya tinggal di Indonesia untuk sisa hidup saya dan akhirnya mendapatkan kewarganegaraan Indonesia (yang akan sangat sulit).
Saya tidak akan pernah dianggap orang Indonesia. Itu karena saya selalu akan menjadi bule, orang asing dengan kulit putih.
That’s not the situation in NZ where we now live. My wife Erlinawati is a permanent resident. Together with me she owns a house, a business and a bank account.
Itu bukan situasi di NZ di mana kita tinggal sekarang. Istri saya Erlinawati adalah penduduk tetap. Bersama dengan saya, dia memiliki rumah, usaha dan rekening bank.
Modern Indonesia had to fight for independence in a bloody four-year war. Australia became separate from Britain in 1901 because we asked for independence, but remain part of the Commonwealth with the Queen as our head of State.
Modern Indonesia harus berjuang untuk kemerdekaan dalam perang berdarah empat-tahun. Australia menjadi terpisah dari Inggris pada tahun 1901 karena kita meminta kemerdekaan, tetapi tetap menjadi bagian dari Commonwealth dengan Ratu sebagai kepala Negara.
Because we still recognise our British heritage we keep the union jack, the flag of the United Kingdom, on our flag, and the Queen’s face on our money.
Karena kita masih mengakui (sebagai) warisan Inggris, maka kita memakai the union jack, bendera Inggris Raya, pada bendera kita, dan wajah Ratu tertera di uang kita.
Some people think this means we are still a colony of Britain. That’s not true, but we are members of the Commonwealth which the Queen heads, and which has 54 independent nation members, including Malaysia and Singapore.
Beberapa orang berpikir ini berarti kita masih koloni Inggris. Itu tidak benar, tapi kita adalah anggota Commonwealth yang dikepalai oleh Ratu, dan yang mana memiliki 54 anggota negara independen, termasuk Malaysia dan Singapura.
I’m often called a Belanda, though I am not Dutch, have never been to Holland and despise colonialism.
Saya sering kali disebut Belanda, walaupun saya bukan orang Belanda, dan saya tidak pernah ke Belanda dan saya tidak mendukung kolonialisme.
I’m also considered to be rich just because I’m a Westerner, when in my own country I’m just lower middle class. There are more seriously rich people in Indonesia than there are people in the whole of Australia.
Saya juga dianggap kaya hanya karena saya orang Barat, ketika di negara saya sendiri, saya hanya kelas menengah bawah. Ada lebih banyak masyarakat kaya di Indonesia daripada orang-orang di seluruh Australia.
I don’t like being called a rich immoral colonialist – just as you don’t want to be called corrupt terrorists. The media in both countries needs to do a lot of work to change these bad images – and education is the best way.
Saya tidak suka disebut orang kolonialis kaya tidak bermoral - juga dengan Anda tidak ingin disebut orang-orang teroris yang korupsi. Media di kedua negara perlu melakukan banyak kerja untuk mengubah image-image buruk ini - dan melalui pendidikan adalah cara yang terbaik.
Please urge your students to continue their education – make it life long. Open their minds, encourage them to read widely, listen to many people from different backgrounds, religions and cultures. Tell them to question everything. Travel overseas. The message is: Don’t just believe what you hear – go and find out for yourselves
Silakan mendorong murid-muridmu untuk melanjutkan pendidikan - dan buatlah hidup bermakna, buka pikiran anda, banyak membaca, dan dengarkan banyak orang dari latar belakang yang berbeda, agama dan budaya.
Bertanyalah tentang segala sesuatunya. Berliburlah ke luar negeri .. Jangan hanya percaya dengan apa yang Anda dengar - pergi dan temukan sendiri.
There are good scholarship opportunities for post graduates in Australian and NZ, but you must have good English (minimum IELTS 5 – and for many courses higher). You must be disciplined and determined because there are many distractions.
Ada kesempatan beasiswa yang baik untuk S2 dan S3 di Australia dan NZ, tetapi anda harus bisa berbahasa Inggris yang baik (minimum IELTS 5 – dan banyak bidang lain dibutuhkan yang lebih tinggi). Anda harus disiplin dan mempunyai tekat karena ada banyak gangguan.
To live in peace with each other it is important to be frank. And in case you are wrongly thinking that I am criticising Indonesians let me add that I would say exactly the same thing to Westerners.
Untuk hidup berdamai dengan satu sama lain, sangat penting untuk berterus terang. Dan jika anda salah berpikir bahwa saya mengkritik orang-orang Indonesia, izinkan saya menambahkan, bahwa saya akan mengatakan hal yang persis sama dengan orang-orang barat.
American journalist Ron Suskind, writing about the gap between Muslims and others, said: “Making contact with people who are not like you is one of the best things a person can do.”
Jurnalis Amerika Ron Suskind, menulis tentang gap antara orang-orang Islam dan lainnya, mengatakan: “Untuk berhubungan dengan orang yang tidak seperti kamu adalah salah satu cara yang terbaik seseorang dapat lakukan.”
Thank you for inviting me to talk to you today.
Terima kasih telah mengundang saya untuk berbicara dengan Anda hari ini.
(An edited version of a speech given at an international seminar at Bukittinggi, Sumatra on 18 July. sponsored by Muhamadiyah University, Pos Indonesia and Bank BTN)
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FAITH IN INDONESIA
(Above: Victoria University's gamelan orchestra performing at St Andrew's on the Terrace in Wellington NZ before an audience including many local Muslims.)
Easter marked our first year at St Andrew’s since shifting from an Anglican parish where we’d worshipped since arriving in Wellington in 2007.
Erlinawati and I come from Indonesia where religion is heavy duty. The standard media tag is ‘the world’s most populous Muslim nation.’ That claim rests on statistics showing almost 88 per cent adhere to Islam.
Every Indonesian has to follow one of the government’s six approved religions – Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Catholicism and ‘Christian’, meaning Protestantism.
During his term as president between 1999 and 2001 the late Abdurrahman Wahid, better known as Gus Dur, allowed Confucianism to be recognised.
The Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, but not freedom from religion.
Every citizen’s religion is stamped on her or his compulsory ID card. Islam is the default. So the millions who follow Kebatinan, the original religion of Java, or any other unrecognised faith – or no faith – get listed as Muslims.
The Minister for Religious Affairs recently opposed a law revision because this “could spark unlimited freedom of religion.”
Protestants and Catholics form ten per cent. That’s 24 million – more than the population of Australia.
At last count there were 80 plus Protestant denominations, many formed when congregations split over theological interpretations and personality clashes – something not exclusive to Indonesia.
Richard Daulay, head of the Communion of Churches, jokes of a liner rescuing a shipwrecked Indonesian. As the ship steams away the captain asks the lone castaway about the three buildings on his island.
The man replies: “The first was my house, the second my church.”
“And the third?” asks the captain.
The Protestant responds with contempt: “That’s the church I used to belong to.”
Churches are always packed in Indonesia and only early birds get a perch near a window, door or air conditioner, necessary because services can be marathons. At Easter and Christmas, marquees in carparks and streets accommodate overflow crowds following services on closed circuit TV.
The heartland of Indonesian Protestantism is North Sulawesi, Erlinawati’s homeland. When Dutch colonialists arrived in the 17th century with guns and Bibles the Minahasa people of this remote area converted en masse.
Their rewards were higher education opportunities, jobs in the public service and places in the army where they were used to put down Muslim rebellions in Java. Not a good start for inter-faith relationships.
The Catholics carved off the Eastern islands but Protestants can be found in most regions, often funding ostentatious palaces of worship.
Foremost is Bethany with the slogan ‘successful families’. Its Surabaya church is like an H G Wells’ flying saucer that’s landed among the slums. It can seat 20,000 and has five-star fittings and décor.
These and other factors have led to a common view that Protestants are rich and mainly ethnic Chinese, keen to ‘Christianise’ poor Muslims. This became a serious charge after the 2004 tsunami clean up in Aceh where some US aid agencies were allegedly proselytising.
Early this century church burnings in Java and open warfare between Christians and Muslims in the Moluccas stoked tensions nationwide. Although the big conflagrations have died down, the embers of hate still glow, particularly in West Java and Sumatra where churches have been torched this year.
The targets aren’t always Christians. Muslim mobs have razed mosques and compounds belonging to Ahmadiah, a sect that claims other prophets followed Muhammad.
By NZ standards most church services are sterile events where the God of joy is sadly absent. Puritanism is widespread and the hunt for sinners can be spirited.
Fundamentalism is not exclusive to Islam. Evangelists have been blamed for inter-faith strife by shouting hallelujahs in crowded Muslim neighbourhoods. Others have used religious differences as excuses to settle ethnic, political and business feuds.
Dr Paul Tahalele, chair of the Indonesian Christian Communication Forum, argues that Christian survival in Indonesia means taking a low profile, wearing plain clothes on Sundays, not driving Mercedes to church and doing welfare work among the poor without banging the Bible.
The Catholics have been better at this than the Protestants, running hospitals and schools attracting large numbers of middle-class Muslim students seeking high quality education with discipline.
In the East Java town of Malang where we retain a home, a progressive Muslim teacher called Yusman Roy, an Indonesian version of John Wycliffe, was jailed for two years for reading the Koran in Indonesian.
Roy reasoned few in his congregation understood Arabic and the crowds agreed. But his popularity attracted truckloads of fundamentalists from afar claiming he was a blasphemer.
Still in prison in the same city are 40 members of a Christian student group that videotaped a training session. This included abusing the Koran. Police saw the DVD. Mainstream Christian leaders gave fulsome public apologies and riots were averted.
There are many parallels with the Reformation making Indonesia an exciting place for a journalist. Leading the movement is the Jaringan Islam Liberal, (Liberal Islamic Network) a small group of Jakarta-based intellectuals pushing uphill against the mighty weight of the Majelis Ulama Indonesia (Indonesian Islamic Scholars).
This conservative group is opposed to pluralism. It’s also the body seeking to control halal meat imports from NZ.
There’s nothing half-hearted about faith in Indonesia. Military dictator Soeharto kept a tight rein on all religions for 32 years with intelligence agents vetting sermons. Public discussions of issues involving race, religion and ethnicity were banned.
Following the strongman’s fall in 1998 the leash has been off and fundamentalists have been getting a free run. Their targets are ‘neo-liberals’, meaning anyone who thinks differently. There’s been a welding of radical Islam with nationalism.
The death of Gus Dur last December deprived Indonesians of an outstanding Islamic scholar and democrat, a champion of tolerance by word and deed – and an exceptionally funny and decent man.
So far no one of his intellect and standing has filled the gap, leading many Christians to fear a resurgence of persecution. The growth of Sharia law, financially backed by Saudi oil money is an issue, though so far mainly impacting on moderate Muslims.
The propensity for mob violence simmers just below the surface, threatening the nation’s claim to be the custodian of moderate Islam.
(First published in St Andrew's on the Terrace News, July 2010)
Easter marked our first year at St Andrew’s since shifting from an Anglican parish where we’d worshipped since arriving in Wellington in 2007.
Erlinawati and I come from Indonesia where religion is heavy duty. The standard media tag is ‘the world’s most populous Muslim nation.’ That claim rests on statistics showing almost 88 per cent adhere to Islam.
Every Indonesian has to follow one of the government’s six approved religions – Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Catholicism and ‘Christian’, meaning Protestantism.
During his term as president between 1999 and 2001 the late Abdurrahman Wahid, better known as Gus Dur, allowed Confucianism to be recognised.
The Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, but not freedom from religion.
Every citizen’s religion is stamped on her or his compulsory ID card. Islam is the default. So the millions who follow Kebatinan, the original religion of Java, or any other unrecognised faith – or no faith – get listed as Muslims.
The Minister for Religious Affairs recently opposed a law revision because this “could spark unlimited freedom of religion.”
Protestants and Catholics form ten per cent. That’s 24 million – more than the population of Australia.
At last count there were 80 plus Protestant denominations, many formed when congregations split over theological interpretations and personality clashes – something not exclusive to Indonesia.
Richard Daulay, head of the Communion of Churches, jokes of a liner rescuing a shipwrecked Indonesian. As the ship steams away the captain asks the lone castaway about the three buildings on his island.
The man replies: “The first was my house, the second my church.”
“And the third?” asks the captain.
The Protestant responds with contempt: “That’s the church I used to belong to.”
Churches are always packed in Indonesia and only early birds get a perch near a window, door or air conditioner, necessary because services can be marathons. At Easter and Christmas, marquees in carparks and streets accommodate overflow crowds following services on closed circuit TV.
The heartland of Indonesian Protestantism is North Sulawesi, Erlinawati’s homeland. When Dutch colonialists arrived in the 17th century with guns and Bibles the Minahasa people of this remote area converted en masse.
Their rewards were higher education opportunities, jobs in the public service and places in the army where they were used to put down Muslim rebellions in Java. Not a good start for inter-faith relationships.
The Catholics carved off the Eastern islands but Protestants can be found in most regions, often funding ostentatious palaces of worship.
Foremost is Bethany with the slogan ‘successful families’. Its Surabaya church is like an H G Wells’ flying saucer that’s landed among the slums. It can seat 20,000 and has five-star fittings and décor.
These and other factors have led to a common view that Protestants are rich and mainly ethnic Chinese, keen to ‘Christianise’ poor Muslims. This became a serious charge after the 2004 tsunami clean up in Aceh where some US aid agencies were allegedly proselytising.
Early this century church burnings in Java and open warfare between Christians and Muslims in the Moluccas stoked tensions nationwide. Although the big conflagrations have died down, the embers of hate still glow, particularly in West Java and Sumatra where churches have been torched this year.
The targets aren’t always Christians. Muslim mobs have razed mosques and compounds belonging to Ahmadiah, a sect that claims other prophets followed Muhammad.
By NZ standards most church services are sterile events where the God of joy is sadly absent. Puritanism is widespread and the hunt for sinners can be spirited.
Fundamentalism is not exclusive to Islam. Evangelists have been blamed for inter-faith strife by shouting hallelujahs in crowded Muslim neighbourhoods. Others have used religious differences as excuses to settle ethnic, political and business feuds.
Dr Paul Tahalele, chair of the Indonesian Christian Communication Forum, argues that Christian survival in Indonesia means taking a low profile, wearing plain clothes on Sundays, not driving Mercedes to church and doing welfare work among the poor without banging the Bible.
The Catholics have been better at this than the Protestants, running hospitals and schools attracting large numbers of middle-class Muslim students seeking high quality education with discipline.
In the East Java town of Malang where we retain a home, a progressive Muslim teacher called Yusman Roy, an Indonesian version of John Wycliffe, was jailed for two years for reading the Koran in Indonesian.
Roy reasoned few in his congregation understood Arabic and the crowds agreed. But his popularity attracted truckloads of fundamentalists from afar claiming he was a blasphemer.
Still in prison in the same city are 40 members of a Christian student group that videotaped a training session. This included abusing the Koran. Police saw the DVD. Mainstream Christian leaders gave fulsome public apologies and riots were averted.
There are many parallels with the Reformation making Indonesia an exciting place for a journalist. Leading the movement is the Jaringan Islam Liberal, (Liberal Islamic Network) a small group of Jakarta-based intellectuals pushing uphill against the mighty weight of the Majelis Ulama Indonesia (Indonesian Islamic Scholars).
This conservative group is opposed to pluralism. It’s also the body seeking to control halal meat imports from NZ.
There’s nothing half-hearted about faith in Indonesia. Military dictator Soeharto kept a tight rein on all religions for 32 years with intelligence agents vetting sermons. Public discussions of issues involving race, religion and ethnicity were banned.
Following the strongman’s fall in 1998 the leash has been off and fundamentalists have been getting a free run. Their targets are ‘neo-liberals’, meaning anyone who thinks differently. There’s been a welding of radical Islam with nationalism.
The death of Gus Dur last December deprived Indonesians of an outstanding Islamic scholar and democrat, a champion of tolerance by word and deed – and an exceptionally funny and decent man.
So far no one of his intellect and standing has filled the gap, leading many Christians to fear a resurgence of persecution. The growth of Sharia law, financially backed by Saudi oil money is an issue, though so far mainly impacting on moderate Muslims.
The propensity for mob violence simmers just below the surface, threatening the nation’s claim to be the custodian of moderate Islam.
(First published in St Andrew's on the Terrace News, July 2010)
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
GRACE PAMUNGKAS
Treating history with grace Duncan Graham
Grace Pamungkas got fed up working for the government.
As an architect with social justice ideals she became frustrated when called on to research public housing and restoration projects, and prepare budgets.
“When the money was allocated we got only 30 to 50 per cent to do the job,” she said. “The rest went elsewhere – who knows?
“I realised I wasn’t suited to working for government departments. I wanted to make a difference, and it was clear that many public servants were not servants of the public. They were just concerned with money. It was time to move.”
This wasn’t her only bad experience with the bureaucracy. The next lesson was about cultural imperialism and it didn’t come from a textbook.
After graduating in architecture from the University of Indonesia she went to Flores with UI staff. Her job was to assist planning the rehousing of people who’d lost their homes in the 1992 tsunami that followed a 7.8 magnitude offshore earthquake.
The army was responsible for providing temporary housing, which inevitably became permanent. But many homes were left unoccupied.
“The planners were from Java and looked at the project as though the homeless were farmers,” Ms Pamungkas said. “But these were fishers, people of the sea and the houses provided were not suitable. The locals weren’t consulted, or if they were their views weren’t heard.”
Back in Jakarta she took to walking to university and work and rapidly discovered a world invisible from the tinted windows of limousines. City poor are not so obvious as those in the villages. They live in kampong burrows, packed tight, squashed into airless and unsanitary low roofed, flimsy-walled rooms, or squat in old industrial buildings abandoned by their owners.
The gap between the wong kecil, the ordinary folk, and the rich was far wider than the multilane freeways that separated their homes.
“I was concerned about public housing for the poor,” she said. “I came across the gemstone workers who live alongside the railway tracks in Jakarta and learned about their lives in a very historical area. It was just a coincidence.
“The rich can pay to build what they want where they want. But the poor have to wait for government housing and this isn’t a good standard.”
But not all the rich are indifferent to history. With noted historian and Jesuit priest Adolf Heuken, who she met at a seminar, Ms Pamungkas was commissioned by Jakarta businesswoman Susilawati to research Galangan Kapal Batavia.
This was the 300-year old Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC – the United East India Company) shipyard on the banks of the river Kali Besar. Like many Dutch era buildings it had been used as a warehouse. Despite a study construction its ill-maintained timbers had rotted and brickwork fretted.
The building has now been renovated to become the VOC Рthe Very Old Caf̩. Father Adolf and Ms Pamungkas had their work published as a book, complete with quaint and ancient drawings of a busy waterway full of swans alongside wide paddocks with prancing horses Рareas now densely packed with houses and markets.
The pair then went on to another book, this time on buildings in the swish suburb of Menteng.
As the child of a Dutch Reformed Church pastor helping build schools for the needy Ms Pamungkas, 39, had the benefit of living in many parts of the archipelago - and the disadvantage of having nowhere to call home.
Though born in Bandung she spent only three years in the West Java city before moving to Riau. Then it was off to Sulawesi, Sumatra again and back to Java. Although good at art and design she chose to study architecture because it offered practical opportunities, though she found her natural talents in research.
Which is what Ms Pamungkas is doing at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand. While improving her English she’s investigating floating eco-houses, an idea pioneered in the Netherlands to cope with flooding.
Next year she hopes to take up a scholarship so that she can study the preservation and conservation of old buildings. To fund her studies she and her graphic artist husband Enrico Halim sold their house in Jakarta.
Her thesis, which is still under review, will look at the way the Dutch imposed their building styles and town planning on Jakarta. When the walled city proved unsuitable the colonialists had to reset their attitudes to suit the tropics, borrowing from local wisdom.
She will compare the situation in her homeland with the way the British took their architecture to rugged earthquake-prone Wellington, which is reputed to be the world’s windiest city.
The newcomers had to rapidly modify their attitudes, learning from the Maori who built to survive a harsh climate, not hang on to hard-set ideas imported from another continent.
“When I get back to Indonesia, hopefully with a Western education, I plan to teach the importance of saving our past,” she said.
“The new generation doesn’t harbor hatreds against the Dutch and are more inclined to respect historical buildings.
“History education in Indonesian schools has just been a memorising of dates and places. Studying history has meant meeting an obligation to fill marks. Sadly it’s not part of our culture now to respect our ancestors, though I suspect it was different in the past.
“Look at the way we demolished the house where (first president) Soekarno read the proclamation on Indonesian independence. Elsewhere in the world that would be a nationally important part of our heritage.
“Jakarta is a coastal city but we don’t care for our rivers and the sea. They’re just used as trash bins, bad places for poor people to live. I want to see a return to our respect for water, as we had in the past, to resurrect the beliefs of our ancestors.
“Cultural tourism is a significant business elsewhere in the world. The Dutch made a big effort, importing, for example, tiles from Czechoslovakia to beautify their buildings.
“If we could preserve and renovate some of the old buildings in Kota we could sell our city to the world, maybe rivalling Singapore in attracting visitors. What happened in the past is valuable for our future.”
(First published in The Jakarta Post 30 June 2010)
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