Ratna's 'Alia' puts human face on Aceh's tragedy<\/p>\n
By Rita Sri Hastuti<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): White ropes hung down from the ceiling,
\nseparating the stage and the audience at Graha Bhakti Budaya at
\nTaman Ismail Marzuki Cultural Center (TIM). The black cloth
\naround the stage radiated a sense of grief.<\/p>\n
Sorrow and sadness were the dominant themes from May 12 to May
\n17 in Teater Satu Merah Panggung. Directed by Ratna Sarumpaet,
\nthe 2.5-hour play Alia, Luka Serambi Mekah (Alia, Wounds of
\nSerambi Mekah) told of the human tragedy happening in Aceh.<\/p>\n
Alia is a tough Acehnese woman who is disturbed about what is
\noccurring in her homeland. Sounds of machine guns and soldiers
\nmarching haunt her. Massacres and rape by security personnel have
\nbecome commonplace; Alia herself is one of the hundreds of rape
\nvictims in Aceh.<\/p>\n
In her 30s, Alia continually questions the meaning of true
\nfreedom.<\/p>\n
Her complaints are typical. \"We don't have a sense of
\nsecurity, even when we bow in prayer to God ... We in Serambi
\nMekah (Aceh) have been crying too much ... We Acehnese have
\nnever been given the right to choose.\"<\/p>\n
Alia is strong and intelligent. She asks her fellow Acehnese
\nto exhume the remains of people buried in a mass grave and rebury
\nthem according to Islamic custom. She believes her father's body
\nis among the skeletons.<\/p>\n
The authorities consider her act \"subversive\". An official,
\nwho is her own uncle, tries to arrest her. When her boyfriend
\nFarhan asks her to flee Aceh, she scolds him, \"Surrendering is
\nthe last option I would ever do\".<\/p>\n
Her father, Tengku Saiful (L. Halim), turns out to be alive
\nand well. When he asks her to join the Serambi Mekah
\nproindependence movement, she replies, \"Can the move make Aceh
\nsecure and free from fear?\" Her father cannot answer the
\nquestion.<\/p>\n
Ratna is known as a director who raises vivid sociopolitical
\nissues. She emerged as \"defender\" of labor heroine Marsinah when
\nshe performed Marsinah, Nyanyian Dari Bawah Tanah (Marsinah: Song
\nfrom the Underground) in 1994 and Marsinah Menggugat (Marsinah
\nAccuses) in 1997.<\/p>\n
There is no resolution to the drawn-out Aceh affair. \"It has
\nbeen going on for a long time but what the government has been
\ndoing is politicking which does not touch the substance,\" she
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Ratna hopes Alia will encourage people to find out more about
\nAceh and the crux of the matter. She needed three months to write
\nthe script based on newspaper clippings, not on her personal
\nobservations in the province. She enriched the clippings with
\ndata from Jejak (Footprint), an institute she founded to monitor
\nhuman tragedies that the government refuses to resolve.<\/p>\n
She said she decided not to personally visit Aceh \"so that I
\nam not leaning to either side of those in the dispute\".<\/p>\n
In Alia Ratna does try to stay neutral, which is no doubt
\ndifficult because she has been highly involved in political
\nactivities over the last two years. The Soeharto government
\njailed her for two months in 1998.<\/p>\n
She is determined to return to art and she wanted to make Alia
\nfree from political slogans.<\/p>\n
\"Politics is too heavy for me. I feel I am needed more in the
\narts.\"<\/p>\n
Ratna, who received Rp 120 million in donations from
\nbusinesspeople to stage the production, said Alia was her first
\nstep in her effort to devote herself to the arts.<\/p>\n
\"There are no political motives behind this work but people
\nare free to interpret it otherwise after seeing the play,\" she
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Still, Ratna has not changed. Although the political content
\nof Alia is presented in a refined way, the overtones are obvious.<\/p>\n
It is shown in Alia's final statement: \"It's unimportant
\nwhether Alia dies or not. What counts is if truth calls you,
\nfollow it even though the road is bumpy.\"<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/ratnas-alia-puts-human-face-on-acehs-tragedy-1447893297",
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