Muna Panggabean was trying to comfort her four-year-old daughter. The little girl cried after a confrontation with her friend.

Sobbing, little Janis told her mother that her friend did not want to befriend her anymore because her God – Jesus Christ – was a liar.

Her daughter’s story struck Muna like lightning in the daylight, raising an alarming idea that children could be infiltrated by misleading understandings about living in diversity.

The matter made the mother of five observe Jakarta’s environment, capturing people’s concerns on the present situation, where humanity is placed in the backseat, unlike religious or ethnicity issues.

Muna shared her thoughts with friends of different religions and backgrounds to find out that many people still believed and fully supported the creation of harmony in plurality.  

“The voices of pluralism do exist, but they are sporadic and quiet. I am moved to contribute something beneficial to this country, no matter how small,” she told The Jakarta Post.    

Fired by a passion to bring harmony and pluralism to people, Muna came up with the idea of publishing short stories and interpreting excerpts through song. 

She challenged members of two email lists — HKBP (Huria Kristen Batak Protestan) and Cyber GKI (Indonesia Christian Church) — to submit short stories highlighting pluralism and humanity.

“I chose short stories because they will smoothly convey our ideas. Short stories, which contain many events and characters, have the ability to mesmerize readers, even those who don’t really like reading,” Muna said.

Her challenge received a warm response. She garnered 30 short stories and selected 17. She herself wrote another short story for a total of 18 inspirational stories.

Muna wrote songs based on the short stories while her husband, Sahat Parulian Siagian, created most of the music. 

Musician Fariz RM, who sang and arranged some of the songs, agreed to join the project after learning that his music and the project shared a similar strong humanitarian message for the community.

“Music belongs to all people regardless their race, ethnicity, religion, language or country. Listen to the 18 songs and find the harmony, our dream in this country,” Fariz said in a statement.

Other singers, including soprano Diani Sitompul and Untung Parlindungan Siahaan, a choir trainer, also expressed their excitement for the project.

Diani said she was one of Fariz’s biggest fans when in senior high school, while Untung admitted that his short story, Mario Christo, was based on his experience as a father who lost an unborn child.

“One day, I received a birthday reminder for our son from my wife. Our beloved unborn son would have been six years old now if he was alive,” he said.

He said that having a son was everything for a Batak.

A full, respected funeral ceremony could only be held for a Batak man who had a son, he added.

“I think that kind of paradigm should be shifted because it’s not in line with the current situation anymore,” Untung said.

Sahat said recording Untung’s voice took six days because he could not help but to cry when singing about his unborn son.

Rejection, he said, was an undeniable challenge. He said some fellow Christians showed reluctance when they knew that the book did not contain religious-related preaching.

Muna also shared s similar experience from her own religious community.

“My friends asked whether the songs were the religious ones or the ‘worldly’ ones,” she said, adding that some of them frankly refused to support the project.

Surprisingly, she said, her friends from other religions gave a warm welcome and lent their support after hearing that the book and songs were ready for sale.

After a tiring two years of editing and recording, the compilation of short stories and songs was proudly published under the title Dari Sebuah Guci, which literally means “from a jar”.

The short stories in the book feature various problems in the daily life of a multicultural country such as Indonesia, including complications from religion, ethnicity, race, social status and gender.

Eleven stories feature Batak themes or settings, but other stories are inspired by things such as love, as in a heart moving story titled Cinta (Love), which tells about a letter from a mother who hopes that her daughter would grow up as a pluralist and generous person.

The songs cross several music genres but mostly showcase female voices.

One song, Dalam Perih Ku Berbisik Lirih (In pain I whisper), sweetly reflected the short story Moksa, or  positive state of completeness, which tells about a mixed religion marriage and a family argument about what religion that will be used to bury one of the couple.

Sahat said that for the project, he applied a unique marketing strategy, which limited early promotional efforts to websites and door-to-door introductions.

“We wanted to have up to 2,500 readers first before actually starting to advertise. The readers were expected to give positive testimonials,” he said, adding that he targeted to reach 1 million readers in two years.

Sahat said the strategy might backfire if people did not like the product, but he was sure that a good quality product would stand out.

The project, he said, involved people from various religions and ethnicities, who shared something in common — a willingness to take care of the country with its plurality characteristic.

He hoped many people will read the book and believe that harmony and pluralism should go together.

For more information, visit: www.darisebuahguci.net or www.darisebuahguci.com

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