Blind street singer at Senen
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.