Almost every public service slogan in Jakarta falls flat or is ignored by people. Despite public apathy, an activist is using a similar method to try to raise solidarity and respect among people, one note at a time.
Ester Jusuf, a human rights activist and founder of the Solidarity for the Nation (SNB) group, launched a one-woman movement last year and has been posting tiny homemade scotch-taped messages in public places ever since.
“I post small encouraging messages on things we encounter everyday, so that people read them and can change positively,” Ester said Tuesday.
She said that the messages could eventually raise public awareness of human rights and solidarity.
“People can, and always want to, change into better people who always respect others,” she said.
One message encouraging pluralism reads: “Regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, we are all brothers and sisters”.
Another sticker quotes humanitarian activist Beni Bevly: “Anyone who lives in Indonesia or is an Indonesian citizen is entitled to receive equal treatment, without violence and discrimination.”
Ester, who is also a lawyer, often puts up messages on benches in district courthouses, on chairs in cafes throughout Jakarta, on the seats of kopaja public buses and on garbage cans.
She even attaches the stickers to menus at her favorite restaurants in Gajah Mada Plaza, Central Jakarta.
“It’s nice to find that my messages are still there,” she said, adding that some people, including cafe attendants, often smile when reading the notes.
“It’s cheap and everyone can read the message,” she said.
“Anyone can support the movement with only a pair of scissors, scotch tape and the printed slogans.”
She said that once she attached a message on a ketchup bottle at Solaria cafe in Plaza Semanggi, Central Jakarta. However, one waitress, Tina, said she never found any scotch-taped message in the
restaurant.
“It was probably washed off or someone pulled it off the bottle. We’d probably remove a sticker attached to our condiment containers,” she said.
Vendors at one food center in Blok S, South Jakarta, welcomed the idea of messages on their ketchup bottles or food stalls.
“It is okay to put messages here,” a vendor said.
Ester said she encouraged volunteers at her NGO to create and post their own messages in public places.
She added that she hoped everyone encouraged their friends to do the same so the movement
would grow.
“I always tell my friends to continue the campaign if they find my messages,” she said.
Lisa, an SNB volunteer, said the organization distributed slogans attached to cookies to schools in South Jakarta in May.
The children were keen to read the messages and said: “Let’s decorate Indonesia with your flickering work,” Lisa said.
“It’s nice to see children happy reading the messages,” she added.
Lisa said volunteers also told the children stories about human rights and solidarity. (ipa)
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