Aceh, I weep for you

Aceh, I weep for you

From Koran Tempo

I can still recall clearly the time when I performed my ritual Friday prayer at Baiturrahman Grand Mosque in Banda Aceh with Nurcholish Madjid as the preacher that particular day.

Taking part in the communal prayer was also the Aceh Governor Abdullah Puteh, now on trial for corruption.

I can also still recall clearly how local vendors sold us their merchandise and how gratifying it was to drink ice mixed with cucumber and syrup, which was sold beside the mosque.

Words pale before the devastation that a major earthquake and a massive tsunami have wreaked in Aceh. Buildings collapsed and corpses were scattered everywhere.

When you remember Aceh, you call to mind a certain pride as well as its several predicaments. Following this devastation, you can no longer sit in a leisurely way at a roadside coffee shop, sipping your coffee and reading a newspaper. You can no longer sit in an open-air cafe facing the sea in the afternoon while chatting with your buddies off of Olee Lheue Street.

Indonesia weeps. The plight of Aceh is the plight of all Indonesians whose conscience is filled with concern over the destiny of their fellow countrymen in Aceh. It seems that the plight that the Acehnese have to suffer is unimaginable. But, then, no man can do anything in the face of an act of God. We simply must believe that God has a plan, which is a mystery to us humans.

The enormous natural disaster that has hit Aceh has reunited us all as fellow countrymen to share the plight of our sisters and brothers in Aceh. The silver lining is that we now realize that we are still a nation that loves one another and is concerned with one another's sufferings.

Aceh, I weep for you. I gaze at you with a deep longing to touch you in God's love.

ANWAR M. NOER

Jakarta