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."