Kang Giman

Kang Giman
By Ngatini Rasdi

Kang Giman - Kang is the Javanese way of addressing an elder
brother - returned from his rice field with a frightened face
and immediately threw his hoe and his bamboo-made broad conical-
shaped head covering to one corner of the kitchen. Then he
hurried into his bedroom and lay himself on his small bed.

It was still early in the morning and Marti, his wife, was yet to
leave for the market. Their children had just left for school.

"What's up, Kang?" Marti, worried, asked. She also came into the
bedroom and saw the pale face of her husband. "When you left, you
said you would return only late in the afternoon, Kang. Why have
you returned home now?"

"I'm scared!" he replied. His body was shivering.

"Of whom?"
"The police"

Marti thought for a while. What has really happened to Kang
Giman? she wondered. Kang Giman had a small rice field and would
work there all day long. He had never got involved in any
political or social affairs in their village. He also took part
in the village's cleaning program. He was law-abiding and would
always pay taxes. She wondered again whether her husband had ever
violated the law. Why has he suddenly felt afraid of the police?

"I saw many policemen in the rice field. They are sure to take
possession of our rice field," he said with a trembling voice.

Marti began to understand why her husband had got scared. Lately,
some policemen were seen in the rice fields in their village. She
had heard people say that a big factory would soon be built on
these rice fields.

They did not say what factory it would be but if the plan was
implemented, the owner would first have to force the villagers to
give up their rice fields. He would ask the help of local police
to come to these rice fields, apparently to force the villagers
to sell their rice fields to this rich man at prices that he set
himself. In the neighboring villages, this rich man successfully
got hold of the villagers' rice fields with the help of some
policemen. He bought their rice fields at very low prices.

"Don't be afraid of these policemen, Kang. They will not arrest
you because you are not a criminal. They may just want to find
out what the rice fields look like. Who knows they just want to
get acquainted with people like you, Kang," Marti said, calming
down her husband.

"But one of them talked rudely to me. He shouted at me!" Kang
Giman said.

Marti chuckled. "It was just what you thought, Kang. Perhaps this
policeman only wanted to command respect. Don't you think that a
policeman must be firm in his attitude?"

Kang Giman pouted his mouth.

"Come on. You are not a criminal nor a fugitive. What must you be
afraid?" she said. Then she left for the market.

At home, Kang Giman could not dispel his fear. He thought it
would be better to confine himself in his bedroom. He shut the
door and all the windows. "Nobody will think that I'm inside," he
thought.

An hour passed but Kang Giman could not sleep. His fear was
mounting. He imagined himself being arrested, detained and beaten
up. This imagination tortured him. He remembered telling his
fellow villagers, a long time ago before the plan about the new
factory came to their village, to unite and defend their rice
fields to the last drop of blood. "Isn't it possible that these
policemen were here because someone had told them something about
me?" he said to himself.

***

On her way to the market, Marti saw some policemen in the rice
field. They were together with several smartly-dressed gentlemen.

Strangely, there was no farmer around. "Are all the farmers
afraid of these policemen?" she wondered.

Marti walked faster. She wanted to finish her business at the
market as soon as possible and then returned to her home. She was
afraid her husband was still under the attack of his excessive
fear. Several months ago, Pak Marto, a neighbor, committed
suicide because of his excessive fear when several policemen came
to his house along with the businessman that was eyeing his rice
field.

When she finally arrived at the market, she realized that she was
some people were strangely staring at her.

"Please, is there anything unusual about me?" she asked one of
her neighbors there.

"Is your husband still in his rice field?" this woman asked back.

"What did my husband do there?" Marti asked.

"I saw a policeman shout at your husband and point his gun at
him," she said.

"Why?"

"People said your husband dared to look at the policeman in the
face."

"Just that?"

"it was also said your husband once said to defend the rice field
to the last drop of blood."

Marti snorted. Many of the villagers had been talking about Kang
Giman's determination to defend his rice field. It would be like
a mental terror for him.

"You'd better advise your husband not to fight. Little people
will never win."

Marti snorted again and then hurried home. She felt increasingly
worried about Kang Giman, alone at home.

She became very worried when she found the door and the windows
closed.

"Kang Giman!" she shouted.

There was no answer.

"Get up, Kang. Open the door!"

Quiet still.

Marti became greatly worried. Her heart beat fast. "Has he
committed suicide?"

She wildly knocked at the door and shouted her husband's name.
After some time, she decided the break the door open. She did but
panic overcame her when she found the door of the bedroom locked.

"Get up, Kang! Get up! Open the door!" she shouted, crying.

Still there was no answer.

She gathered up her strength and, once again, broke the bedroom
door open.

There, on their small bed, her husband, pale and shivering, was
tucked up.

"Come on, Kang, don't be afraid of the police. Come to yourself,
Kang!" She cried and hugged him closely. Still, Kang Giman said
nothing.

****

Kang Giman refused to leave his bedroom. Days changed into weeks
and weeks into months. Marti asked several psychics to help her
husband but to no avail.

After three years had elapsed, Kang Giman began to leave his
bedroom and sit in the veranda. Sometimes, he walked a short
distance. Local kids would tease him, saying :"Police are coming.
Police are coming". Hearing this, Kang Giman would run helter
skelter to his house and hid himself in his bedroom.

That morning, Kang Giman was ready to leave the house. He was
carrying his hoe and wearing his usual head covering.

"Where are you going, Kang?"

"Where else? To the rice field, of course."

Marti could not hold her tears. Kang Giman looked normal again
and would again work in his rice field. Every morning he would
carry his hoe and wear his bamboo-made broad conical-shaped head
covering. Unfortunately, all the rice fields had been converted
into a factory site. The construction of the factory itself was
neglected because of the protracted economic crisis.

"Don't go, Kang. There are policemen in the rice field!" Marti
said. She would say this every day to her husband, who would
return to his bedroom, frightened and pale.

Grobogan, February 10, 2004