Blind street singer at Senen
JP/3/SINGER/0
Blind street singer at Senen
By Andreas Harsono -- 10pts metrolights CAP 1 col
JAKARTA (JP): Like millions of other migrants, 35-year-old Muhammad Muslim decided to leave his kampong in Kroya, Central Java, three years ago to try his luck in the capital.
For a man like Muslim, blind and without any formal education, it was a momentous decision. It is said that only the fittest can survive in an urban area such as Jakarta.
Nevertheless, the peasant-turned-street-singer, whose nickname "Slamet" literally means "safe," believes that even a blind man can sometimes hit the bulls-eye. "Life was getting more and more difficult in the province," he recalled.
His was the typical Third World villagers' reason to migrate to the city. Slamet remembers his parents as poor farmers. He had literally nothing to lose when he left his village for a new life in Jakarta.
Once in the capital, Slamet continued to work as a street singer. He concentrated on dangdut, an Indian-based form of music, which has become tremendously popular among the lower classes throughout the country.
"I just like it," Slamet related, saying that he is a fan of Mansyur Subhawannur, the famous dangdut singer cum songwriter whose recent hit Pelaminan Kelabu (Blue Wedding) has sold almost a million copies (Mansyur told The Jakarta Post that street singers like Slamet contribute to the popularity of his songs).
"At first, he could only play an ordinary bass instrument," recalled Slamet's partner, the 34-year-old Asni. The bass instrument which Asni referred to is a mere wooden box with three rubber strings attached to it.
Asni, however, encouraged her partner to improve his musical skills by playing a ketipung which is the dominant instrument in dangdut music.
The ketipung is a pair of small drums fixed together side by side. They are of the same height, but have different diameters and are beaten with the hands. It is similar to the bongo.
It is intriguing to note that Slamet's ketipung was made of PVC pipes and used X-ray film plates. Obviously he could not afford expensive leather drums.
At the time he asked a craftsman to make the ordinary drums which cost some Rp 45,000 (approximately US$22), no small sum for Slamet.
Slum area
Along with dozens of street singers, Slamet and Asni now hang around the Senen bus terminal. They wait in the parking lot and demonstrate their "talent" to passengers when bus drivers take a break.
With his raspy voice and energetic drum beats, coupled with Asni's impassioned high pitch in the background, they make a good duet. Each earns Rp 4,000 and Rp 5,000 per day, higher than the minimum wage for laborers of Rp 3,800. Sometimes other street singers join Slamet in Asni's absence.
According to Asep Aripin, a teenage street vendor at the terminal, Slamet and Asni are full of compassion and are always ready to help others.
"They are peaceful partners," Asep said, adding that it is rather unusual to find such people in a rough area like Senen which is a haven for hoodlums and swindlers.
Slamet and Asni are neighbors in the slum of Pedongkelan. They built a semi-permanent shack, only two square meters, which has been dismantled time and again by government officials.
"I just need a place to sleep at night without fear of being evicted," Slamet said. Nevertheless, he recognizes that he could never raise his family in this kind of environment.
Like many other Jakartans, the capital, to Slamet, serves only as a temporary home. "If I'm lucky and make enough money, I want to go back to Kroya when I'm old," he dreams.
His new wife, 27-year-old Winarsi, stands fully behind her man's idea of returning to the kampong one day to care for her stepson, from Slamet's late wife Tinah, who died last October.
Thousands of poor migrants like Slamet lack the funds to send sick family members to health centers. Slamet and Tinah were often forced to endure rain and sizzling daytime temperatures as they roamed the streets in search of money.
Her health deteriorated rapidly, and poor Tinah died while still entertaining dreams of a better life in Jakarta.
Apparently death is the best physician for poor people in this metropolis.