Beloved daughter still awaits father's return

Urip Hudiono, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

"Come on, Ibu, let's both knock harder so Ayah will hear us and wake up from his sleep..."

Nur Qomariyah could not find the words and nor did she have the heart to tell her five-year-old daughter Isma Rizki Amalia, who was knocking on Asep Saefudin's coffin, that her father was not just sleeping.

Asep was killed after a bomb exploded outside the Australian Embassy on Jl. Rasuna Said, Kuningan, South Jakarta, on Thursday. He had been passing the embassy on his motorcycle to meet a client at Great River Plaza on the same street as the embassy.

The 32-year-old surveyor with Bank International Indonesia (BII) Financial Center was one of nine fatalities in the bomb blast that also injured 182 others.

"We tried to explain it to her, but Isma couldn't understand," Nur said. "She kept knocking on her father's coffin, expecting him to come out at any moment."

Nur finally had to ask one of her relatives to take Isma away for a nap, as they would soon prepare Asep's body for the last rites.

Asep had been the family's bread winner. With his death, Nur is worried about how she, Isma and their eight-month-old son, Rifki Haikal Kamil will be able to survive.

Fortunately, BII president Henry Ho, who also attended the funeral, promised to help pay for the children's schooling by providing full scholarships for them until high school and on to further education.

Nur recalled that Asep had left for work as usual at around 8:30 a.m. on Thursday.

"But yesterday morning, Isma hugged Asep for such a long time as if she didn't want to let him go," she said. "Isma was very close to her father. He loved her very much, so much so that he always found the time to sing her a lullaby before she went to sleep at night."

She also said that several days before the tragedy Asep had become more silent than usual. "He specifically told me to take care of Isma and Rifki."

On Friday, the small alley in front of Asep's modest house in Cilincing, North Jakarta, was packed with relatives, friends and neighbors, who wanted to pay their last respects to the warm and friendly person they all knew.

At midday, during Friday prayers, Asep's body was taken by the crowd to the nearby Jami'al Mutasysyirin mosque for the last rites. The harmonious strains of Islamic prayers for the deceased were heard chanted along the way.

Isma was not the only one who had a difficult time accepting Asep's death.

Asep's younger sister Duriah was still weeping, as she recollected memories of her brother.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Please forgive me. Please don't go, kakak (big brother)," she cried out.

Relatives, themselves red-eyed, tried to comfort Duriah, telling her to be strong and to let Asep go, so that he could be peaceful in his afterlife.

Asep's father, Masduri, explained that it was understandable that Duriah felt the most anguished by Asep's death, as she was very close to Asep.

"Although Asep was her elder brother, they had always been in the same grade and always went to prayer school together," he said.

After Friday prayers, the chanting resumed as Asep's coffin was placed in the hearse, and then taken to his final resting place at the nearby Budi Dharma cemetery.

The family learned of Asep's death when his friends informed them that there had been an explosion in Kuningan.

At around 2 p.m., the family tried to contact him through his cell phone. "It wasn't his voice and it was immediately hung up."

The family finally found Asep's body when they were contacted by friends to help identify a body at the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital (RSCM) morgue.