Guebukanmonyet!

Salah satu sahabat terbaik saya Andri Gilang menulis di blognya bahwa ia akan memilih Presiden Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) pada Pemilu 2009 nanti. Alasannya, SBY telah mempimpin Indonesia ke arah yang lebih baik.

Saya berada di belakang Andri Gilang dan berjanji akan mencoblos SBY di Pemilu 2009. Bukan karena SBY adalah seorang pemimpin idola saya, dulu mungkin, tapi karena tidak ada lagi sosok pemimpin yang mumpuni.

Siapa lagi selain SBY? Tokoh-tokoh lama seperti Megawati, Gus Dur, atau Wiranto semakin lama semakin terdengar membosankan. Setidaknya SBY tidak terdengar “kosong”.

SBY memang bukan pemimpin sehebat Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, atau bahkan Barrack Obama. Para pemimpin besar dunia tersebut memiliki karisma yang menggetarkan dan mampu memberikan pidato yang mampu menggerakan emosi para pendukungnya.

Sementara pidato SBY biasanya membosankan dan membikin ngantuk. Saya langsung berdiri dan bertepuk tangan setiap kali SBY memberikan pidato tanpa teks.

SBY sering kali dinilai lamban dalam mengambil keputusan oleh para lawan politiknya. Kondisi ini mungkin ada kaitannya dengan darah Jawa yang mengalir di tubuhnya atau mungkin karakter pelan-pelan asal kelakon memang sudah menjadi karakternya dari dulu.

Namun begitu, apabila dibandingkan dengan tokoh-tokoh lain saya pribadi merasa SBY masih lebih baik. Ibaratnya, SBY adalah yang terbaik dari yang terburuk.

Saya tidak bisa membayangkan apabila Indonesia kembali dipimpin oleh Gus Dur atau Megawati. Masa lalu membuktikan mereka bukan pemimpin yang mampu memberikan perubahan yang diinginkan oleh rakyat. Jangan salah, saya adalah seorang pendukung Gus Dur tapi menurut saya ia lebih cocok berada di luar lingkungan pemerintah.

Banyak orang di Indonesia memimpikan kembalinya masa kepemimpinan Sukarno atau Suharto. Bagi yang cocok dengan gaya Bung Karno yang berani dan membara mereka merasa SBY terlalu lama dan lamban. Sementara bagi yang cocok dengan gaya Pak Harto mereka merasa SBY kurang tegas dan disiplin terhadap para pengacau.

Saya sendiri, kalau boleh memilih, menginginkan seorang sosok pemimpin yang memiliki gabungan karakter Bung Karno dan SBY. Seorang pemimpin yang berani bersuara lantang terhadap penjajahan model baru yang diterapkan oleh dunia Barat. Seorang pemimpin yang mampu memberikan orasi yang membuat bulu kuduk ini berdiri sambil berteriak bangga akan jati diri kita sebagai bangsa Indonesia.

Di saat yang bersamaan, saya ingin seorang pemimpin yang bijaksana, lemah, dan lembut dalam menghadapi segala perbedaan yang ada di Indonesia. Pemimpin yang tidak terburu-buru dalam mengambil keputusan.

Presiden impian saya bernama Sukarno Yudhoyono.

Sayang saat ini mimpi itu tidak mungkin terjadi. Jadi, yah mari kita pilih SBY di Pemilu 2009.

This article was published by The Jakarta Post on March 5, 2008. Read the article on The Jakarta Post, here.

This is the country where I was born. This is the land where I spent most of my childhood and early adult life. This is the place where I first learned how to cry and this is also the place where I learned how beautiful it was to laugh. This is God’s beautiful paradise and it is called Indonesia.

I’m not sure if I have the right to claim myself an Indonesian. What are the qualifications to be called Indonesian? I don’t live in Indonesia at the moment, does that fact make me unqualified for such title? Look at my proud name, it doesn’t sound like an Indonesian name. But, I do speak Bahasa fluently. I do love to eat rendang and sop buntut. I do have Indonesian friends who shared the pain and joy in my past. So, can I call myself an Indonesian?

But if an Indonesian is simply someone who lives in Indonesia then I should be called more than just a regular Indonesian because I have lived in various places in the country. I was born in Jakarta but soon my family moved to Cirebon. After that, I had the opportunity to live in more cities like Dumai in Riau, Malang in East Java, Cimahi in West Java, Semarang in Central Java, and Kebumen in Central Java. In Malang I first learned how to speak Bahasa Jawa, an ability that so I’m proud of. And after spending three years abroad I came back to Indonesia and spent six years in Jakarta.

Now, I have been living in Washington, D.C. for more than 16 months. And if you ask me whether or not I enyoy living in this country with no doubt I will say that I have so much fun. What’s better than living in America in this 21^st century? What’s better than living in a country where you don’t have to worry to find a tukang ojek or warung rokok every time you try to locate an address? Just go to Google Map or Map Quest on the internet and get the exact directions of the place that you want to go to. And if you are too lazy to do that you can get yourself a GPS for less than $500 that you can put on your car dashboard and it will tell you when to turn right or left. I mean, what’s better than living in a country where ordering a pizza can be done on the screen of your computer? Read the full article

Happy birthday to www.guebukanmonyet.com!

It’s been a year since I first decided to blog. What a wonderful year I had. It was a simple thing that I wanted to do but now that simple thing has been evolving so nicely like a newborn butterfly in the sky. I thank all the people who have been giving me support, loyalty, and love. I wish you all the best.

I’m intended to improve the quality of my writing. I think I need to learn more about a lot of things in this life and the more I learn the more I realize that I’m so not perfect. But, I also discover that the more I learn the more I know that this life is so much bigger and so much more wonderful and that’s so exciting. Yes, there are so many miseries out there, the things that will make us cry and distressful. But, they are also the things that will rise us high and put us in a cheerful box.

Happy birthday. I wish you the best, like always.

He’s gone. The former president Soeharto is finally gone. After some years struggling with his health, today God decided it was his time. Should I be happy or should I be sad? I’m not sure.

There are people who hated him for the corruption and oppression they accusse he did during his 32 years of presidency. They claim that Soeharto was one of the most vicious leaders in the world that he was responsible for the unfair political condition in Indonesia for so many years, putting the wrong people into jail. They say Soeharto granted his children and cronies a lot of economic priviliges and left people with frustrating debt and a crippled government. They cheered when Soeharto was announcing his resignation, they claimed their victory and they were relieved that now they were looking at the better Indonesia ahead. Freedom of speech, at last.

But I know that there are people who loved him and thought that he was a great president who once transformed this nation into a proud and prosperous nation. Those people think that Soeharto’s government was better than the one we have right now. The political condition may not have been so democratic but the economy was good and everything was affordable, they say. They don’t care about reformation. The word they used to hear every single day in 1998 is nothing but a souvenir from the past right now. No one really talks about it anymore. They see condition is more chaotic. They see people act so uncontrollably and rebelliously. No more Indonesian manner. They wanted their Soeharto back.

I remember Soeharto was my favorite when I was still in the elemantary school. The New Order and all its ministers were my heroes. I guess I was a victim of New Order’s brainwash strategies, I remember I had to study PMP (Pelajaran Moral Pancasila) in order to be a good citizen. No question was allowed. I remember how I loved him and how I idolized him, he was simply my hero.

As a grownup I hated him. I hated him knowing the fact that he’d been a dictator instead of a Bapak Pembangunan. I hated him knowing the fact that he’d faked our economic condition and corrupted people’s money for so many years. I hated him knowing the fact that he’d stolen people’s freedom and rights.

Now, he’s gone. But is he really gone?

Sahabat sejatiku membuka sebuah tempat makan yang mungil dan sederhana beberapa bulan yang lalu. Tempat makan tersebut ia namakan Ayam Bakar Si Buncit. Aku mengacungkan ibu jariku sembari berkata, “Lo memang luar biasa!” Ketika ia pertama kali mengabarkan berita gembira tersebut, wajahku langsung ceria dan hatiku menjadi bahagia. Akhirnya sahabatku dapat mengubah sebuah mimpinya yang besar menjadi kenyataan. Sebuah tempat makan yang unik dan istimewa. Tempatnya boleh saja sederhana, tapi rasa makanannya aku yakin sangat nikmat dan berkualitas. Aku ingat ketika dulu sering berkunjung ke rumahnya, satu hal yang paling aku tunggu adalah tawarannya untuk mencicipi menu yang ibunya telah siapkan. Aku masih ingat dengan jelas berbagai menu makanan khas Flores dihidangkan di atas meja yang begitu menggoda seleraku. Aku selalu bertanya kepadanya, “Kenapa Nyokap lo gak buka restoran aja?”

Membuka sebuah tempat makan memang sudah menjadi mimpi sahabatku. Sepertinya darah kuliner mengalir deras di dalam tubuhnya. Aku masih ingat betapa ia begitu bersemangat menceritakan bagaimana tempat makan impiannya akan dijalankan. Kejar Sahabat Sejatiku

“I tried to find Him on the Christian Cross, but He was not there; I went to the Temple of the Hindus and to the pagodas, but I could not find a trace of Him anywhere. I searched on the mountains and in the valley and across the deserts, but neither in the heights nor in the depths was I able to find Him. I went to the Kaaba in Mecca, but He was not there either. I questioned the scholars and the philosophers but He was beyond their understanding. I then looked into my heart and it was there where He dwelled that I saw Him; He is no where else to be found, for words are useless (specially sentences) and life defies definition.”

~ Jalal Uddin Rumi.

Last week I had the chance to visit Baltimore with a friend. I hadn’t been there since last summer and the memory of the beautiful harbor and the old buildings had been haunting my mind for months and I just couldn’t wait to go there again. This time I decided to spend my time not at the harbor but instead I chose to explore another part of the downtown which was just a few blocks away from the harbor where they have antique stores and old restaurants. My one-and-a-half-hour drive was so worth it.

When my friend and I finally arrived it was raining pretty hard and the weather was very cold. When I got off the car, my fingers started to shake as I could feel the freezing weather struck my very deepest bones. I quickly wear my gloves so that my fingers could feel a little bit warmer. Do you have the same wish?

I love christmas. I don’t know why but everytime christmas is near I feel great. I’m not a Christian and of course I don’t celebrate christmas as Christians do but somehow I just feel the excitement. One thing for sure christmas means a long holiday. It’s a long excitement, when christmas passes we still have new year to celebrate. I can’t think of anyone who hates a long holiday, a time when I can relax my mind and do a lot of stupid and unnecessary things. A time when my family and I could share a lot of beautiful and memorable stories.

The second good thing about Christmas is because christmas means good movies. Since I’m a big fan of movies, christmas is the moment when I can have a hot cup of chocolate on my left hand and a snack on my right hand while sitting in front of my big screen TV watching Home Alone. Do You Love Christmas?

Abd Al-Rahman Al-Rashed, former editor of the London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, made a controversial article which he titled The painful Truth is that All of the Terrorists are Muslims after the Beslan attack in September 2004, he wrote:

For certain, not all Muslims are terrorists, but sorrowfully we must say that most of the terrorists in the world are Muslims.

Those who kidnapped the schoolchildren in [North] Ossetia were Muslims.[1] Those who kidnapped the cooks and the Nepalese workers likewise were Muslims. Those who are committing rapes and killings in Darfur are Muslims, and so are their victims.

Those who blew up the residential building complexes in Riyadh and Khobar were Muslims. Those who kidnapped the French journalists were Muslims. The two women who blew up the two planes a week ago were Muslims. (more…)

Sebagai mantan warga Jakarta yang berniat untuk menjadi warga Jakarta lagi di masa depan saya merasa begitu sedih dan prihatin melihat kondisi kota tercinta ini. Selama enam tahun hidup di Jakarta saya tahu betul bagaimana kejamnya ibukota Indonesia tersebut dimana tawa dan canda hanya bisa dirasakan oleh sebagian masyarakat di dalam gedung-gedung beton yang kokoh dan arogan sementara suasana di jalan-jalan terasa begitu mencekam dan mengerikan. Setiap orang tampak saling taruh curiga dan tidak pernah memberikan senyum mereka secara cuma-cuma. Saya kadang bertanya kepada diri sendiri, “Apakah ini wajah bangsa kita? Apakah seperti ini wajah masyarakat Indonesia yang selalu dibanggakan di dalam buku sejarah murid SD sebagai masyarakat yang sangat ramah dan suka menolong?” (more…)