All we need is a good sense of humor

JAKARTA (JP): "I have a great idea," shouted Biran, a friend who has diabetes. His has already lost one of his legs to the disease. "When I die I want to preserve my body and display it at the Senayan traffic circle, so that everybody that passes is reminded of the disease.

"It could be quite a laugh. I'm still sexy, aren't I?"

Biran is a sculptor whose works have been collected by many. In spite of his deadly disease, he is an extraordinarily tough and humorous person. He can always come up with something funny in any situation.

"Hey, are you there?" he asked when I hadn't answered after a considerably long time.

"Oh, yes. And what a coincidence, I was just about to visit you. Just wait there," I lied.

The truth is, I was not ready to comment on his remark at all. How could he joke about his own death? I was worried. He could have been in a terribly stressful state. So I hung up and darted over to his residence a few blocks away.

Since his wife died three years ago and his only daughter got married, Biran has lived alone in his large house full of statues of his own creation; all with humorous expressions (one of them of me with my usual expression of worry -- something he always criticizes.)

I was happy to find that Biran was showing no traces of distress. In fact, he was exited about his approaching sculpture exhibition, for which he had finally secured sponsorship.

"Don't be too serious," he kept telling me. "In this kind of situation, what this country needs is humor. Otherwise we'll end up frustrated."

"You said it!" I agreed. "After all, what do you think government officials and political celebrities are doing? They keep making jokes to make the people laugh and forget their misery. Unfortunately, some of them do not have a good sense of humor."

Biran is a true artist who can translate words into works of art. I admired a statue of a skinny man carrying a BMW in which a man resembling the attorney general, with a smug smile, sat behind the wheel. No doubt it symbolizes the people of this country who, in their struggle against poverty, have to face the insensitivity of some government officials.

Another sculpture ridicules the demand to have the people of this poor country give Rp 200 million in severance pay to each member of the House of Representatives/People's Consultative Assembly at the end of his/her one-year service.

"Luxurious cars! Rp 200 million! How disgusting! With so many people suffering from lack of food, others are partying. What a sense of humor!" Biran shouted in anger. And when he saw me hold my stomach he dragged me away from the statue. "Don't be sick here."

"I am not going to throw up," I said. "I just get a funny feeling in my stomach every time I hear this kind of joke."

"Yeah, but it is terrible."

"But I think maybe they do deserve some kind of golden hand shake considering they spent a lot of money getting into the House," I told him.

"Excuse me, weren't they elected into the House?"

"Yes, theoretically. But they had to struggle and sacrifice a lot. Some of them had to sell their houses to provide grease money so that they could be elected. They may have thought they could make a fortune during their term, but unfortunately their services will be terminated early, before they can make enough money to reach the break-even point."

"Break-even point! The House is not a company for Pete's sake!"

"Oh, don't give me that dirty look. I'm only quoting what the papers say," I said, approaching one of his new creations. This one resembles a tall fat man chasing a small rat. His legs are tied to several ropes held by a number of fat rats.

"This was inspired by the government's vow to track down Eddy Tansil all the way to Fujian and drag him back to Indonesia. It's one of the funniest jokes I have ever heard," he told me.

Tansil is a businessman who was handed a life sentence for cheating a state bank. He escaped from jail without difficulty, just like a bird leaving its nest.

"What's so funny about it?"

"Oh, come on, think about it. Eddy is as slippery as an eel. Even here, locked behind bars, with a bunch of armed guards, he still escaped. How can you touch him in his own home? The government made the vow just to please the people."

"Yeah, it's all the same old bull! We don't have an extradition agreement with China. Even if we did, I doubt the government would seriously want to do anything about it considering how the case would generate a lot of controversy. Eddy is only small-fry. The money he took was a mere Rp 1.3 trillion. Peanuts! There are so many other cases, involving mega bucks."

"Besides, he was not the corruptor. He was only a businessman who played his cards right, used the right men for the right purposes. The government, from the beginning, should have jailed the officials who facilitated the racketeering and engineered his escape. I mean those fat rats."

I got a call from Biran a few days later, saying his sponsors had pulled out and his exhibition had been canceled.

"They are most probably under pressure from somebody who doesn't want my work displayed."

I felt sorry for him. He had been so looking forward to his exhibition. "Should I come over?" I offered.

"To console me?" he answered in a cheerful tone. "Forget it. The cancellation has inspired me to create yet another piece. In fact, I have already started work on it. So stay away until I finish it."

One thing I adore about Biran is his durability in facing hard times. I wish other people could take a leaf out of Biran's book and stay tough in enduring misery, including those silly jokes that are not funny.

-- Carl Chairul