A tale of Atma Jaya student's suffering

A tale of Atma Jaya student's suffering

By Yogita Tahil Ramani

JAKARTA (JP): Most people go through their entire lives with
an understanding that bullets normally either cripple or kill
their targets.

However obvious in language or attitude this seems, most have
no way of knowing first hand how a single bullet can alter a
person's life for good.

This unfortunately was not to be the fate of Fema Faizan
Akhmal, a 19-year-old economics student who enrolled himself into
the Atma Jaya University, in South Jakarta, last August.

According to Ferry Akhmal, Fema's father, the boy used to be
handsome.

Today, Fema can only murmur sounds. He has stitches zig-
zagging from the end of his right jaw to the corner of his lip.

Beni S. Latif, the jaw surgeon at the Jakarta Hospital nearby
the university, said a two-hour operation had resulted in 200
tiny, but strong-threaded stitches, being sewn inside and outside
Fema's mouth.

Ferry added that for the next month, his 19-year-old son will
have to daily drink 450 grams of Isolak, a nutritious powdered
milk dissolved in water, through a straw.

"He can't eat, you see. The boy lost 10 of his teeth, on the
right side of his jaw. I want to get angry and kick the shell of
the bullet that did this to my son," Ferry told The Jakarta Post.

"The problem is, I can't. The bullet just whizzed past his
unknowing cheek. It went through his jaw, dislodged his teeth and
then it carried on past him. See the luck."

Fema Akhmal was hit by a bullet on the evening of Sept. 23,
the first of two horrific days for the parents of many student
and civilian protesters.

Angry protests that spread across the capital on those two
days were mainly against the endorsement of the military-
initiated state security bill.

"My son was new at all this. He didn't know. That evening, at
about 7:30 p.m., he had just returned with his friends from
dinner at the Graha Purna Yudha Hall, very near the university,"
said the 42-year-old marketing officer.

"He used his friends Firman's cell phone to notify me that the
roads were closed, due to protests that were building up near the
Semanggi flyover. I told him to stay inside the university."

Numb

Quoting his son's words, Ferry said that all his son heard was
a "Nggunnggg!". His face then instantly went numb. He ran towards
the university. His friends helped him, took him to the Atma Jaya
medical post ... and then transferred him to the Jakarta
Hospital."

Ferry said that at about 8:30 p.m. he received a call from a
nurse at the emergency ward of the hospital, telling him that his
son was in a serious condition and that he had been hit by a
bullet.

"I panicked. My wife overheard me and started crying. I called
Firman. Firman told me that my son had been shot in the chest. I
almost broke down, but had enough sense to callback the
hospital."

This time, Ferry said, the hospital immediately transferred
him to the doctor at the emergency ward who was taking care of
his son.

"Doctor Gunawarman told me that my son was strong, was
conscious and was hit in the cheek. I relaxed. I then surrendered
everything to God, but still decided to drive to the hospital,
despite my neighbor's pleas that I should not leave the house,"
he said.

Ferry, a resident of Pamulang subdistrict, South Jakarta, said
he received instructions from people on the road to enter the
hospital from Jl. Casablanca, Kuningan subdistrict, Central
Jakarta.

"Upon reaching there, both people and cars were leaving the
hospital. No car was going in, except for mine. When I reached
there, the gates were tightly secured by tired-looking
youngsters," he said.

"When I told them that I had come for my son, they relented,
opened the gate, and let me in."

Ferry found that his son was being operated on by Doctor Beni
and his staff, on the second floor of the hospital.

Beni came out two hours later, to tell him that his son had
repeatedly told him not to tell his father that he had been shot.

"Fema told me to tell you that he has just been hit badly,"
Ferry remembered the doctor saying.

Move

Fema's unconscious body was wheeled to the five-bed Aster
ward. There were seven in the ward, all of whom were bleeding
from various parts of their bodies.

"I ... could not easily adjust myself to what I saw. There was
this student from the Pancasila University with left eye bleeding
badly," Ferry said.

"I later asked my son to be moved the next day to the Pondok
Indah hospital in South Jakarta."

For the next 10 days, a part of Fema's face was bandaged. His
food came through a thin intravenous tube which ran straight from
his left nostril to his intestine.

For those 10 days Fema spoke to his father by writing to him
on torn pieces of paper.

"He went through another operation to fix his distorted lower
jaw. When he came out of that operation, I saw him cry," he said.

"All in all, I paid nearly Rp 12 million (US$1,550) for Fema's
13-day stay at Pondok Indah hospital."

When asked how Fema's friends and girlfriend reacted after the
operation, Ferry said that they had supported him all the way.

"They have even offered to take class notes for me, until I go
back to university next month," he said.

"Doctor Beni told me that new teeth will be made for my son."

But, he said, Fema once wrote to him telling him to kill a
tiger and get its teeth.

"He said he wanted the tiger's teeth to eat up all the men in
green uniforms."