Ati Nurbaiti, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
""Without fireworks,
nor a barbecue,
I partied,
all alone ...
The sky turned crimson,
the moon laughed,
the stars peeked out,
a shimmering gold ocean
hastened,
to bring the news to all --
that my wife can now boldly bathe,
on the beach of Vinaroz.
Just like a child!""
An enraptured audience listened to the story, of a joyous man watching his wife who had had a breast removed, ""peeled like a watermelon"", because of cancer; who had now mustered the courage to put on a bathing suit and plunge into the waters off the crowded Vinaroz beach in eastern Spain.
The lines were read out by philosopher Toety Herati, a close friend of Ramadhan KH, the writer of On the beach of Vinaroz (originally Di tepi pantai Vinaroz, 1971).
Born to the family of a local official of the Dutch colonial administration, he is best known for his 1988 biography of Soeharto, which brought out the chilling side of the benevolent authoritarian and ""father of development"", when Indonesians thought they might be stuck with him forever.
But friends who gathered last Saturday at the Taman Ismail Marzuki (TIM) Arts Center shared many other features of the former journalist's work; his novels on characters caught in a web of corruption, poems on romance and freedom; and his role in the management of the arts community, since the early inception of TIM and the Jakarta Arts Council.
The 78-year old recipient of the 1993 Southeast Asian Writers Award has been battling prostate cancer in the past few years. The Saturday event brought friends and family close to him as he lies critically ill in Capetown, South Africa, where his current wife, Salfrida Nasution, is Indonesia's consul general.
Vinaroz and Capetown are only a few dots on his travel map so far; his stays in several cities including Geneva, Paris, Los Angeles and Berlin have been more than enough to feed a writer's imagination, thanks in part to the diplomatic careers of the late Pruistin, his wife in Vinaroz, and now of Salfrida.
Both have described him as a pestering husband; and the best part of the gathering was that he called his family in Jakarta the next morning, demanding to know all the details! That was in contrast to the feeling of dread the night before, when poet Taufiq Ismail, himself a survivor of prostate cancer and who led prayers for Ramadhan, said his friend ""is currently between the first life and the second.""
'Coquettish' man of letters
Ramadhan Kartahadimadja, born in Bandung, West Java in 1927, also pesters anyone else who he thinks needs a push and has potential; ""terrorizing"" was the word used by the current chairperson of the Jakarta Arts Council, the playwright Ratna Sarumpaet. Ramadhan pushed her into accepting the position of having to manage bickering artists, she said.
But more importantly, the writer of the once banned Marsinah play on the murdered labor activist cited how he was not among fellow artists who considered her attempts at ""mixing politics and the arts"" inappropriate, at a time when survival meant playing safe.
Others in the audience also testified to the writer's ""terrorizing"", a source of motivation that they say has contributed to their life's work in various fields.
Among them was fellow initiator of the arts center, Ayip Rosidi, who started a publishing house with Ramadhan to encourage the literary development of West Java, their home province; and pianists Marusya NF Nainggolan and Iravati M. Sudiarso, the current director of the Gedung Kesenian Jakarta (GKJ) and long-time member of the arts council, respectively.
Despite some rowdy guests the musicians' enjoyable contributions helped to maintain the audience until the end of the function, cosponsored by another close acquaintance, lawyer Adnan Buyung Nasution -- one of many people the author had encouraged to write memoirs.
Marusya played Pelangi (Rainbow), a piece that reflects ""everybody's hopes for peace"", which she composed in the wake of the Australian Embassy bombing in Jakarta. Stage actor Jajang Pamuntjak joined her in a duet with tinkles from a little bell and poetry reading.
""You know, he's quite coquettish,"" said Jajang of Ramadhan, and she read fitting poems of ""a couple kissing away the night"" and My Love!
These are excerpts from the famed collection dedicated to his homeland, Priangan si Jelita (Priangan the beautiful). It was the winner of a 1957 national literary prize, and, since 2003, has been easily accessible in English, French and German apart from the original Indonesian, in one book.
International cooperation is another feature of Ramadhan's life work, through his exposure to literary greats from Germany and Spain. Some of his own works are also found in cross-country collections, including in Yoko Ono's commemoration of John Lennon, a collection titled Strawberry Fields.
His German editor Berthold Damshuser writes how Ramadhan believes strongly in the importance of cultural ties among nations. But the source of his notable works, among over 40 books, seems to be the deep emotions brought about by his own country; the anger, bewilderment and love of Indonesia despite the stereotyped parochialism of fellow West Javanese, or Sundanese.
The Priangan collection, his editors write, followed his frustration on his return from a visit to Europe in the 1950s, on witnessing the turmoil of his tranquil land during the Darul Islam rebellion, which sought to establish an Islamic state.
Many of the seemingly light-hearted lines of the poems may represent, he once wrote, his private war against the rebels, expressing not only the need for locals to fight back and win back their lives, but the feelings of love and sensuality, feelings which were even suppressed as fear gripped whole towns.
The TIM event provided the younger generation a glimpse of their country's literary legacy, through one writer's musical lines, however outraged, sorrowful or fearful he may have been.
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