Despite a lotta appreciation and aknowledgement around, I am not sure how many Indonesian bloggers get inspired by my call to blog in English to make Indonesian voices heard to the outside world. Yet, I found one or two bloggers who have explicitly stated that they start blogging in English because of the encouragement from or inspired by me.

One of those are Dedy W. Kusuma who starts blogging in English. In his english-posting debut, he says
He further said:
“… when i see that some of my indonesian brothers/sisters who study abroad write very good in their blogs in english, i feel that it’s time to practice the ‘learning by doing’ methode in improving my english. I hope that day by day my english will be better.”
 
“I believe that when indonesian students write more and more in the most popular language in the world, the people from all over the world will give better appreciation on Indonesia.”
Dedy is among those Indonesian youth who study in the middle-east. There are roughly 10.000 Indonesian students in the region mostly in Egypt (Al-Azhar University), Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia, Marocco, Libya, Sudan, etc. Most of whom belong to pesantren (Islamic boarding school) background. Hence, in terms of socio-cultural affiliation they are the offspring of NU (Nahdlatul Ulama)–the biggest Islamic organization; and Muhammadiyah–the second largest.

Indonesian madrasah* gets five-minutes fame in the US media for the “wrong” reason: Senator Barack H. Obama, a hot presidential candidate from Democrat allegedly was educated in Indonesia’s madrasah during his childhood years in Indonesia along with his mother.

The news emanated from Insight Magazine, an American right-wing-stripe media owned by the same company as the Washington Times (not to be confused with the blue-stripe Washington Post).
The news then debunked by CNN as false. According to its Jakarta bureau, “Obama lived in Indonesia as a child, from 1967 to 1971, with his mother and stepfather and has acknowledged attending a Muslim school, but an aide said it was not a madrassa.”

On early December 2006, an American expat in Jakarta, a free-lance journalist, emailed me. He requested my little time and put up several questions mostly regarding journalism in Indonesia. As formality, he started with, “I have been impressed by your blog” kind of thing.

One question that I want to share here is regarding Goenawan Mohamad, the man behind the leading Indonesia magazine, Majalah Tempo.

What he asked was “What has Goenawan Mohamad’s contribution to journalism in Indonesia been?”

I thought back then that as a journalist who resides in Indonesia he must have known Goenawan Mohamad (better known as GM)’s crucial role so far as Indonesia journalism goes. So, I gave him an indirect answer which is actually unrelated, yet I considered interesting: GM’s role in introducing Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid in the national level by giving free space to Gus Dur to write whatever he wants in Majalah Tempo during 1970s-1980s before he’s getting busy involved in the largest Muslim organisation, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), and help in a big deal making NU known in not only in national stage but also in international level as well.

Gus Dur took the full advantage of it by writing mostly on pesantren and was compiled into book later entitled Bunga Rampai Pesantren..

The ‘love fest’ relationship between GM and Gus Dur at the time is such that whenever Gus Dur came to Tempo’s office, he just sat down in one of editorial desk, write something he wanted to write and then leave the office without telling any editors or anyone outthere. His piece would surely be published in the next edition. That’s why Nurcholis Madjid in his speech in commemorating the first year of Tempo closure caused by Suharto government’s ban repeatedly mentioned Tempo’s role in introducing Gus Dur, pesantren, NU and hence, Indonesian moderate Muslim and strongly criticised the government’s ban.

Tempo, or Gunawan Mohamad in this matter, therefore has given the Indonesian moderate Muslim symbolized in Gus Dur personality, a launching pad to come to the fore nationally as well as internationally. Since then nothing could stop him, not even his blindness to travel the world over representing Indonesia and Muslims. Interesting to note that during that time, NU (pron. en-uw), were often called with deregotary term like kaum sarungan (people who wear saroong, a traditional clothes worn only by villagers).

***

One might not like all of Gus Dur idea which are sometimes controversial from traditional Muslim perspective. But we may agree that he’s one of few, if not the only Indonesian intellectual who are at ease to communicate with everyone: from high ranking officials, foreign diplomats, ulama, intellectuals, businessmaen and other well-healed society to downtrodden under-poverty-line people. He has the capability to be arrogance or humbled whenever necessary.

I admire his never-die spirit and good sense of humor. During his state visit as president to India in early 2000s, he’s been already visually challenged at the time, he told us that he likes Indian film, especially God Mother which was just released. And then he calmly said, “Once my eyes is cured, I would watch it.” Everyone was in laughter knowing that his eyes will never be cured.

He also talked about Bombay (India’s industrial city, now Mumbai) as the only “bomb” that can laugh.

For Englsih readers you can also see some of his jokes here and for Indonesian here.

Picture: Kyai Haji Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid along with some Indonesian students in India in the late 2003–his second visit, the first one as President– on the invitation from Indian Government to deliver a speech on commemoration of Mahatma Gandhi. Photo taken in Hotel Ashok, New Delhi where he stayed during the visit.

Pesantren or Pondok Pesantren are Islamic boarding schools in Indonesia. According to one popular tradition, the pesantren education system originated from traditional Javanese pondokan; dormitories for Hindus to learn martial arts and meditation. Institutions much like them are found across the Islamic world and are called pondok in Malaysia and Southern Thailand and madrasa Islamia (Islamic madrasa) in India and Pakistan and much of the Arabic speaking world. Pesantren aim to deepen knowledge of the Koran, particularly through the study of Arabic, traditions of exegesis, the Sayings of the Prophet, law and logic. The term pesantren derives from the root word santri or student — pe-santri-an or the place of the santri

As social institutions, pesantren have played a major role over the centuries. They emphasise cores values of sincerity, simplicity, individual autonomy, solidarity and self-control. Young men and women are separated from their families, which contributes to a sense of individual commitment to the faith and close bonding to a teacher.

It is therefore very ridiculous when a popular online dictionary such as thefreedictionary.com gives a very misleading meaning and definition of pesantren as
Noun 1. pesantren – a Muslim school in Indonesia operated by religious leaders; produces young militants skilled in jihad

Modern Pesantren
In the history of Islamic education in Indonesia, this type of pesantren is said to be the first institution to create the principles for reforming Islamic education within the pesantren system. Pesantren Darussalam Gontor Ponorogo, founded on September 20, 1926 by three brothers (KH. Ahmad Sahal, KH. Zainuddin Fannani, and KH. Imam Zarkasyi) was the first modern pesantren designed to provide education able to respond to challenges faced by the Muslim community amidst changes in the socio-cultural life in Indonesia in the modern-day period.

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Wikipedia
ibid
Mbah Parto