a madeandi's life

Sudah sejak lama saya tahu kalau Mohammad Sobary adalah alumni AusAID dari Monash University, Melbourne. Saya mengikuti tulisannya sejak lama, termasuk hasil perenungan dan kreativitasnya selama berskolah di Melbourne awal tahun 90-an silam.

Salah satu karyanya yang menarik adalah ketika Sobary bercerita tentang kegundahannya saat ada yang membakar Bendera Indonesia. Menurutnya, jika ada yang menghina pemerintah atau oknum aparat keamanan Indonesia, mungkin dia akan memaklumi karena kenyataannya memang banyak kelemahan yang layak dikritik. Namun ketika bendera yang mewakili sebuah bangsa dibakar, si pembakar secara simbolis telah menyatakan permusuhannya terhadap bangsa yang memilikinya. Dalam hal Bendera Indonesia, pembakaran terhadapnya berarti berhadapan dan menyatakan ketidaksetujuan kepada lebih dari dua ratus juta orang yang jelas di dalamnya ada orang baik. Begitulah Sobary membela bangsanya dengan ketajaman pena.
Saya tidak pernah bermimpi bertemu Mohammad Sobary sekaligus juga tidak pernah berharap. Bagi saya, menikmati idenya mungkin jauh lebih baik tanpa terlalu dekat dengan penulisnya secara pribadi karena seringkali menimbulkan subyektivitas berlebihan. Namun waktu berbicara lain. Saya dipertemukan dengannya dan sempat berbagi gagasan. Sebuah kesempatan hanya gara-gara kami sama-sama alumni AusAID. Pengalaman yang menarik.

Ketika saya minta Pak Sobary untuk berfoto bersama, beliau tidak keberatan dan bahkan membuka buku saya yang baru saya hadiahkan seraya berkata “Katakan pada orang-orang kalau Sobary saja sudah membaca buku Anda.” demikian Kang Sejo berkelakar.

Mengingat pengulangannya yang pasti setiap tahun, puasa tentu saja tidak begitu istimewa. Tidak ada kejutan karena bahkan bisa diprediksi kapan terjadinya hingga seratus tahun ke depan. Ada sahur di pagi hari, buka di sore hari dan tarawih menjadi ciri khas Ramadhan. Bagi seorang Made Kondang, semua itu biasa-biasa saja. Biasa saja karena Kondang memang tidak pernah puasa. Yang istimewa baginya hanya satu. Tidak ikut puasa tetapi selalu datang di manapun ada acara buka bersama. Ini yang selalu dinanti Kondang. Jadi, kalaupun Ramadhan menjadi istimewa baginya, pastilah karena buka bersamanya.

Meski demikian, kawan-kawan sepermainan Kondang seperti Ahmad, Zulkipli, Ali, Gaffar dan Solahudin, Ramadhan pastilah selalu istimewa. Entah apa itu, Kondang tidak ingin membahasnya. Sudah terlalu banyak ceramah di tv dan radio yang menyampaikan keagunagan dan keistimewaan Ramadhan. Kalau semua stasiun tv bisa menyiarkannya dan mempromosikan kebaikannya, pastilah Ramadhan memang baik adanya. Kondang yakin itu.

Di bale desa ada tulisan “Selamat menunaikan ibadah puasa bagi yang menjalankan. Bagi yang tidak menjalankan mari kita hormati yang berpuasa“. Indah sekali kata-kata itu. Tiba-tiba Kondang melihat masih ada ruang kosong di bagian bawah dan diapun dengan kreatif menambahkan kata-kata “Bagi yang berpuasa, maklumilah yang tidak puasa” dan inipun dilengkapi dengan tanda senyum di bagian akhir 🙂

You are currently reading a personal subjective opinion of mine. Anything expressed here are of my own and therefore are not aimed at representing the AusAID alumni’s. This is merely my personal impression concerning the conference and dinner we had on 6 September 2007.

Dinner is a tradition, which I do not know when was initiated. Dinner, in my personal opinion, is an interesting annual program, with the most important part: reunion. Reunion is with IALF classmates, with colleagues from the same university in Australia, or with friends from other Australian universities, who have kindly provided cheap (if not free of charge) accommodation for summer brake. Visiting different states in Australia during study was always an exciting experience, especially because there were always AusAID students with cheap or even free accommodation for the ‘poor’ travellers. But wait there is another interesting part of dinner: vote of thanks from a new alumnus. This is always able to come up with surprises, something fun or even touching. I usually could not wait to hear a vote of thanks.

Unlike the other dinners, the one on 6 September 2007 at Gran Melia Hotel, Jakarta was a bit different. To me, the conference made it special. If I am not mistaken, this kind of conference is a newly-established program. To me, this is a real breakthrough. However, this might be considered as a ‘business as usual’ conference and was merely a formality. If one comes up with that scepticism and ignorance, it is inevitable that the conference would be merely a formality. A conference, no matter how serious the preparation is, will be meaningless when it is ignored and is not listened to.

Considering that, I tried to put my attention quite seriously to the conference. Thank God, I was jobless so that I had more that enough time to sit and listen to conference speakers from 9 am to 4.30 pm. The fact that there are now around 10 thousands AusAID alumni in Indonesia indicates that the power of AusAID Alumni cannot be ignored. If Anand Krishna is convinced that 300 conscious people can ignite and develop consciousness all over the archipelago, then the figure of 10 thousands is more than enough for a good hope. This AusAID alumni conference, with around 10 thousands top-notch generation of Indonesia, undoubtedly offered something better that just ritual.

A warm welcome speech from Dr. Bob Mosse as an MC resulted in friendly situation in a family environment, but still with professional impression. HE Mr. Bill Falmer, the Australian Ambassador to Indonesia, then delivered a calming but impressive speech to the audiences. A peaceful, advanced, and prosperous Indonesia is the one Australia is also aiming for. This was one of the important points he mentioned in his speech. This might seem to be cliché and could be judged as merely a ‘lip service’. Once again, this article is a subjective one, and coincidently, I am not in the mood for a negative judgment. At the day, I was trying to believe what I heard, not what lies beneath. It seems to me that Indonesian people have been spending too much energy for suspicions. I do not want to waste my energy.

The keynote speaker was Dr. Carunia MH Firdausyi, a PhD holder in economics from the University of Queensland, who is currently a deputy for State Minister for Research and Technology (Ristek). He informed Ristek’s activities, particularly, those concerning research focuses and collaboration with Australia. He noted an important point that even though Indonesia-Australia political relationship is currently up and down, scientific collaboration is pretty much unaffected.

Mr. Falmer and Dr Firdausyi were enthusiastically responded by audiences with questions. Audiences were critical and could never accept something without questioning. The moderator had to refuse few other questions from being discussed openly in the forum due to lack of time. Interestingly, an AusAID alumnus suggested AusAID provide free journal and other electronic resource access for alumni. This is, responsively answered by AusAID people in the room indicating their good intention. However, we might need to put the dream aside as nothing will fall from the sky easily. Everything takes time and serious consideration.

The most interesting part to me is the fact that we discussed in English. I though only very few people in the room who could not speak Bahasa Indonesia well and almost all of them (ideally) understand it. It may be because most of the people in the room are Australian Alumni with minimal IELTS score of 6.5, so the discussion was in English. I could only guess.

The two speakers in Session I were Prof Sri Moertiningsih and Dr. Darni Daud (Rector of Syah Kuala University). Prof Moertiningsih delivered a topic of demography in a casual, interesting yet smart manner. She, with no hesitation, perfectly combined Bahasa Indonesia and English that often sparked laughter. Her funny and casual style of presentation brought a friendly and warm situation. Meanwhile, Dr. Daud asserted the need for investing in people. He neatly quoted a Chinese proverb “If you want months of prosperity, grow grain. If you want years of prosperity, grow coconut. If you want an ever lasting prosperity, grow people.” Both speakers were also bombarded by questions from the audiences. Few questions were stopped by the moderator for time reason.

Personally, the speaker of Session II was the one I waited for. I am a big fan of Mohammad Sobary. I never met him in person previously but enjoyed his works very much. He is one of my favourite writers. Should I be granted talent and chance for writing, I do not mind to be ‘just’ like Pak Sobary. I intentionally write this statement here without smile icon or other emoticon indicating that I am kidding because I AM not kidding, really. At least I am in the position to convince myself that to be like or to be more than Sobary is NOT impossible. [Honestly, I smile this time but only in my hearth].

Pak Sobary was the first speaker, who without hesitation delivered his presentation in Bahasa Indonesia. With personal capacity, which everybody in the room recognizes, using Bahasa Indonesia did not make him look bad. His decision to use Bahasa Indonesia positively drew admiration and I personally saw this as a representation of his character, which is very Indonesian. One important point Sobary marked in his presentation was that knowledge, to some extents, has nothing to do with behaviour. One might be knowledgeable, but she/he could be an evil and do corruption at the same time because the problem is in his/her hearth. Having knowledge only surely is not enough. To some extents, I do agree with this. This reminded me of a philosophical quote that I could not remember from where. Data should be processed to be information and then formulated into knowledge. Knowledge will be meaningless if it stops its journey in the stage of knowledge where it is ‘only’ taught and told. It has to be shifted into a higher stage called wisdom and ultimately completed the metamorphosis in the stage of enlightenment.

Sobary’s presentation in Bahasa Indonesia was followed by Dr. Amir Imbaruddin, a lecturer of STIA LAN Makassar. He too presented in Bahasa Indonesia delivering a very interesting topic. He highlighted the issue of human resource in local government. He stated the amount of money one should illegally spend to be a civil servant, for instance. This was not that surprising, but was really interesting when it was openly declared in an AusAID alumni forum.

These two speakers, just like the other speakers, were also bombarded with questions. It was quite obvious that enthusiasm of the audiences was maintained until late in the afternoon. This indicated their seriousness. The organizers, whoever they are, deserve positive appreciation for this. I can give my two thumbs up for a conference with such enthusiastic audiences.

Before lunch break, I took the chance to see Pak Sobary for a small chat. I too gave him my newly released book: “International Maritime Boundaries – A Technical and Legal Perspective” (in Bahasa Indonesia). For Pak Sobary, I am sure the book is not directly useful, considering that he has nothing to do with maritime boundaries. However, I did not really care about usefulness. I wanted to present my work to Sobary, that’s all. A photo of us was taken with Pak Sobary holding my book. I believe it should be an excellent endorsement.

During the exciting conference, I met some fellow alumni of the same batch and we shared a lot. We talked about many things ranging from something funny and unnecessary to something seriously philosophical that causing tears. But this is another story.

The next speakers are the Mayor of Banda Aceh, Mawardi Nurdin, and Agus Sumule, PhD, senior adviser of Papua Governor. An interesting issue that I got to record from the mayor’s speech was the serious effort of the mayor to listen to women’s opinion in Banda Aceh. This, undoubtedly, brought positive attention from the audiences.

Meanwhile, the presentation by Pak Agus, to me, was amazing. Data and facts he presented showed how rich our Papua is but it is now known as one of the poorest provinces in Indonesia. It is unbelievable seeing how primitive the way our brothers and sisters live their life in some villages in Papua, while Papua has with it great amount of natural resources. Pak Agus ended his presentation with conclusion that was worth noting. He presented to the audiences current condition of Papua, followed by efforts that have been done and about to be done to achieve an ideally more prosperous Papua. However, should the efforts be failed, something unpleasant might happen. The claim for independence and other forms of separatism will remain in the history of the nation called Indonesia, he asserted.

The three last speakers were from WWF (Fitrian Ardiansyah), from Andalas University (Prof. Dachriyanus) and from the National Committee for Transportation Safety, KNKT (Ruth Hanna Simatupang). Bapak Fitrian presented such a popular and interesting topic of climate change and global warming and their impacts to man kind. The impact would be borderless and it applies to every single place on Planet Earth. The danger is coming to mankind as a group of civilization, which therefore requires unity of people on Earth to fight. Fitrian asserted that Earth is the only place where human can live; therefore we, together, need to save the planet.

After Fitrian’s presentation, Professor Dachriyanus from Andalas University presented his idea concerning the possibility to obtain natural medicine from Indonesian rain forest. Unlike Pak Agus from Papua who emphasized the utilisation of wood from forest, Prof Dachriyanus offered a different perspective to get as much advantages as possible from the forest by discovering natural medicine. Apart from his excellent presentation, the way he spoke, which sounded like Kuala Lumpur Malay brought different yet funny and casual situation.

Ibu Ruth, presenting after Prof. Dachriyanus, delivered something actual and hot: air transportation safety. The issue has been one of the most famous concerns in Indonesia lately. As you might guess, the topic drew enthusiastic response from the audiences. Some questions were addressed and some other delivered comments and suggestions only. It can be concluded from the discussion how important it is to enhance our concerns toward better air transportation.

As highlighted by Pak Sobary, it is not the time to ask ”do you know it?” but ”have you done something?”. ”Know” and “do” are two completely different things.

Dinner started at 7 pm. Dinner participants seemed to be more than those who came for conference. This is not uncommon, I guess. Something worth noting was the touching speech by Mr. Falmer, especially when he talked about Ibu Alison Sudrajat, one of the casualties in Garuda accident, in Yogyakarta, early this year. It is unquestionable how great her contribution to Indonesia and Australia is. This motivates an idea for the Australian Government to establish an award in her name. The best four Australian Leadership Award (ALA) grantees of this year will automatically be granted Alison Sudrajat Awards. These four grantees will receive additional facilities that the other grantees do not, such as being involved in Australian government activities, Australian research centre, etc.

A touching speech was also delivered by Prof Roem, a cancer warrior of Indonesia. She is an alumnus of Colombo Plan in 1975 and has been devoting her live and energy to fight cancer in Indonesia. She is surely in her late age, but her toughness and achievements are amazing. These inspire me personally to achieve better in life. This is to me an ideal profile of an AusAID scholar: tough, persistent and wise at the same time.

The one I waited for with impatience was the vote of thanks by Novi, an alumnus of Flinders University. Coincidently, we are from the same institution Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta and had a chance to meet up in Adelaide back in 2005 for a conference. The speech was touching and funny at the same time. It was touching since it reminded us of difficult struggle in Australia but also funny as the speech accurately described small unimportant yet impressive facts and phenomena during our study in Australia. Those small things, frankly speaking, were those that developed image and impression about Australia, making it unforgettable.

I do not want to be a flatterer, but I must say that the organizer deserve my appreciation. The conference went well and it seems to me that it met its objective. However we are waiting for relevant follow ups. On the other hand, the dinner was really impressive. If you think there are people who devote so much energy and time for all of the success, they must be those from IDP and all other institutions that I do not know. No matter whom the great people are, their hard work and dedication deserve our appreciation.

See you in a better conference and dinner next year.

Bagi seorang dosen UGM., berada di Hotel Manhattan di Kuningan Jakarta mungkin tidak istimewa. Akan tetapi bagi seorang anak petani yang Bapaknya tidak sempat menyelesaikan pendidikan SD, ini bisa menjadi cerita. Saya adalah anak petani desa yang masih saja terbawa oleh perasaan rendah diri yang saya tahu sudah tidak perlu.

Menolehkan kepala ke luar jendela menyaksikan kerlip lampu di gedung-gedung tinggi Kota Jakarta selalu menyisakan kesan. Kesan indah karena memang kemilau sekaligus pilu karena di baliknya konon ada duka jutaan manusia Indonesia. Tapi cerita ini bukanlah tentang duka, tetapi tentang keberuntungan.

Keberuntungan ini hinggap pada seseorang bernama saya yang kini di lantai 29 Hotel Manhattan Jakarta. Tentu bukanlah Hotelnya yang penting, tetapi alasannya yang patut disimak. Saya berada di lantai tinggi ini untuk melanjutkan perjuangan untuk menjadi pemimpin di masa depan. Ya begitulah ‘judul’ yang diberikan pada acara ini. Apakah saya memang sehebat itu? Sang sayapun meringis malu ketika ditanyai.

Besok saya mengikuti wawancara sebagai kandidat penerima beasiswa ALA, Australian Leadership Awards untuk studi Doktor di Australia. Cerita ini bukan untuk membahas apakah saya berpeluang diterima atau tidak. Sekedar membagi kegelisahan di ruangan dingin karena AC serta keberuntungan dan ‘kebetulan’ yang menyertai ceritanya.

Saya berada di Australia ketika menyerahkan persyaratan ALA dan baru tahu kalau ternyata ada proses wawancara dalam seleksi ALA. Ini berbeda dengan yang terjadi tahun lalu. Sayapun pasrah saja dan tidak berharap banyak. Tidak mungkin saya mendapat beasiswa ini karena untuk mengikuti seleksi lengkap saja tidak mungkin. Saya ada di Australia.

Keajaiban (atau apapun namanya) memang masih terjadi. Karena alasan yang masuk akal, saya ada di Jakarta dan ditelpon oleh ALA. Saya diundang wawancara tanggal 10 September padahal tanggal 14 harus segera kembali ke Australia dan beberapa hari sesudahnya mungkin sudah ada di belahan bumi lainnya. Mobilitas saya memang tinggi belakangan ini. Wawancara ALA terjadi di Jakarta dan tepat ketika saya ada di Jakarta. Inilah yang saya maksud dengan keberuntungan dan ‘kebetulan’ tadi. Eh, sebentar! Bukankah kebetulan itu tidak ada? Pastilah ini bukan kebetulan, apalagi kesalahan. Jelas bukan. Apapun itu, ini layak sekali saya syukuri dan bagi ceritanya kepada istri, anak, orang tua dan mertua. Juga kepada Anda.

Kejadian ini tidak membuat saya menyerahkan hidup begitu saja kepada tangan tak tampak, tapi setidaknya membuat saya percaya adanya hukum yang bekerja maha sempurna.

“Gua walaupun sekarang tinggal di Kota Tengah, di Kota Pinggir tetap punya kos-kosan. Soalnya Gua paling gak betah tinggal sama sodara-sodara gua. Resek semua orangnya. Paling banter gua kuat bertahan 2 minggu doang, abis itu pasti berantem kerjaannya. Terus gua pasti ngabur deh ke kos gua. Males banget gua ama mereka.” salah satu lulusan luar negeri itu menumpahkan kehebatannya dalam berkata-kata. Kondang menyimak tapi tetap terdiam. Betapapun berusaha keras dia mencoba, tak semua kata-kata itu dia mengerti.

“Kalau aku sih tinggal sama ortu, gak kos. Tapi masalahnya bapak gua suka resek orangnya. Dia kan udah pensiun tuh, kerjaannya main piano mulu. Aku kan jadi terganggu. Udah gitu, pakai nyanyi-nyanyi lagi. Mending suaranya bagus, lumayan. Ini, gak sama sekali deh! Gua sering kesel tuh di rumah kalau dia udah main piano.” seorang lulusan luar negeri lain menimpali. Nampaknya isi pembicaraan mereka sama walau Kondang tidak begitu paham. Tapi Kondang tetap diam.

“Di rumahku yang paling nyebelin tuh, Ibuku. Dia sukaaaa banget tanya-tanya. Apa aja ditanyain. Pokoknya suka banget deh ngobrol yang gak penting. Suka tanya inilah, tanya itulah, ngobrol anulah. Sebel pokoknya. Gua sering bentakin tuh, “eh gua kan lagi baca, entar aja deh tanya-tanyanya”. Sebel gak sih?” orang ketiga juga tidak kalah seru memamerkan kepandaiannya merangkai kata-kata. Singkat kata Kondang takjub dan terkesima. Ternyata setelah lulus dari luar negeri itu bisa hebat ya. Bisa memaki ibu, membentak ayah dan bertengkar lalu kabur dari sodara. Memang lulusan luar negeri ini memiliki kepribadian yang hebat. Kondang bergumam….

Kondang tiba-tiba ingat dengan anak perempuannya. Entah apa alasannya, Kondang rasanya tidak ingin membiarkan anaknya sekolah ke luar negeri.