JP/Ganug Nugroho AdiPradjarta Dirdjosanjoto is inseparable from Kampoeng Percik or Persemaian Cinta Kemanusiaan (Nurturing Love for Humanity), an NGO in Salatiga, Central Java, set up by a number of former lecturers at Satya Wacana Christian University (UKSW).
Known as an advocate of pluralism and interfaith dialogue and as a defender of marginalized people, Pradjarta angered the New Order regime when in 1996 Kampoeng Percik held a seminar on Confucius. The event was even on the agenda of Nur Kebajikan (Light of Virtue), a group formed by then vocal Muslim leader Gus Dur to seek recognition of minority faiths.
After the seminar, Percik was placed in the category of amorphous bodies by New Order authorities. “After the program we were frequently terrorized. Many of us were under surveillance by military intelligence, including our guests at home,” recalled the 65-year-old man.
Still, Pradjarta again caused a “nuisance” with Percik by advocating interfaith marriages, which had thus far raised the objections of certain religious adherents due to the suspicion that they might cause compulsory religious conversions, among other objections.
“Actually we were encouraging couples who weren’t getting married because their faiths weren’t recognized by the state or they practiced different religions. We were conducting advocacy instead of campaigning,” Pradjarta said. He admitted his effort didn’t always succeed, and some couples were forced to postpone or cancel their wedding plans in the face of their parents’ resistance.
Today, the institution — borne out of the frustrations of UKSW’s former teaching staff — has made headway by facilitating interfaith discussions, pursuing democratic values and advocating for human rights. It has also become a research forum of considerable weight.
Pradjarta’s work in Percik began in 1996. Satya Wacana faced a crisis in 1994 and Pradjarta had just finished his doctorate in anthropology at Free University in Amsterdam. He returned to his campus only to witness a muddled situation.
At first he wanted to stay neutral without siding with any of the two camps in the dispute: the pro-democracy group comprising lecturers opposing the university’s decision to dismiss Arief Budiman (an academic of Chinese descent), and the other group backing rector John Ihalauw’s decision.
However, as Pradjarta realized that the university previously known to uphold democracy, pluralism and to support the marginalized began to veer from the right course, Pradjarta changed his mind. He chose to quit and work independently.
“The UKSW conflict wasn’t just a matter of Arief’s discharge, but was more triggered by the university’s fading idealism,” said the courteous man commonly referred to as Totok. He was sad to have left the UKSW campus, but he was even more depressed as his “opponents” were his longtime peers.
“Those at the campus are personally still my friends and I’ve never seen them as my foes. But I have no idea what they think of me,” he said. Pradjarta and 11 other UKSW lecturers forced to leave due to the internal conflict that lasted from 1992 to 1995 established the Percik Foundation, later more popularly known as Kampoeng Percik.
Long before departing UKSW, Pradjarta had assiduously researched interfaith and local issues as well as marginalized groups. His views regarding inter-human relations are largely based on his personal experiences and research so far.
Born in Yogyakarta on April 5, 1947, Pradjarta was brought up in a modest household, with his father, Sahid Dirdjosanjoto, working as a teacher and his mother, Sutini, a nurse. He studied law at Satya Wacana with a church scholarship. He lectured at the school from 1983 to 1995 with a four-year term (1985-1988) as dean of the law school.
“As a child I was taught to be a puritanical Christian. On the other hand, I was considerably influenced by daily experiences like the world of spirits and Javanese beliefs. In college, my anxieties about the realities outside Christianity continued to grow,” he said.
He said his parents’ home in Wates, Kulon Progo, was behind the village hospital, facing the morgue. At an early age he was used to hearing sounds and seeing strange shadows in front of his house, frightening him practically every day.
In high school, Pradjarta lived in a lodging house in Yogyakarta where his room had once been the scene of a murder, again causing him to awaken frequently at night for fear of the space being haunted. “Psychologically, there was the urge within me to search for the essence of life in order to counter my fears. My Christian teachings could not satisfy my curiosity about something out there,” he said.
He also referred to his research at the Kiai Sahal Mahfudz Islamic boarding school in Kajen village in Pati, Central Java, which taught him how inter-human relations should be conducted. He chose Kajen because it had been the site of violence against a Christian group. With prejudice overwhelming him, the first night he couldn’t sleep.
“I spent six months [there] and everything was eventually alright. It turned out that by dispelling prejudice, I managed to start with something new. Living without prejudice will make us free. I found another reality outside Christianity,” said the father of two.
While studying sorcery for a time, he was challenged by his teacher to attempt it. But at the time Pradjarta rejected the offer. “I didn’t dare to try for fear of sin and gossip. But if I was offered now, I would accept. Sources of local wisdom are everywhere, covering beliefs,” he said.
An understanding of localism that appreciates pluralism and the unique phenomena of life is applied at Kampoeng Percik, and some of the NGO’s researchers have also had experiences connected with local beliefs. According to them, Percik is in Salatiga so studying local issues is extremely beneficial.
“Many local issues are part of the nation’s problems. Local phenomena have their own dynamism,” explained the author of Konflik dan Kekerasan pada Aras Lokal (Conflicts and Violence at the Local Level).
At his advanced age, the man dubbed Lurah Percik (village chief) is also a lecturer at the Institute for Community Development Studies (ICDS) in Jakarta, the Center for Religious and Cross Cultural Studies (CRCC) at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, and a dissertation advisor to PhD students at several universities.
“Wherever I go, I’ll always return to Percik. This institution is not just a meeting place of different views, thoughts and ideas, but has become my home,” Pradjarta said.
