Emha protests with poems, songs

Emha protests with poems, songs

By T. Sima Gunawan

JAKARTA (JP): Say it with songs. Some sing to express love and
joy, others to express their pain. But songs can also be a means
of protest.

Composer and singer Franky Sahilatua and poet-preacher Emha
Ainun Nadjib recently released an album called Perahu Retak
(Cracked Boat) in protest against social, economic and political
injustices. Franky composed the songs and Emha wrote the lyrics.

Theirs is no polite protest: "Aku heran, aku heran/Yang salah
dipertahankan/Aku heran, aku heran/Yang benar disingkirkan (I'm
amazed, I'm amazed/The flawed is upheld/I'm amazed, I'm
amazed/The righteous is ousted)...," they say in Perahu Retak.

The album received a warm welcome from Abdurrahman Wahid,
chairman of the largest Moslem organization, Nahdlatul Ulama.

"Music can reach things which can't be reached by politics and
ideology," Wahid said earlier this month in a discussion on the
album.

"The music of protest is free of human, time and power
dimensions ...," Wahid continued.

Wahid said that unlike most music, which is generally here
today and gone tomorrow, protest music is more memorable. He also
believes that it has a longer life.

Wahid said he was happy with the fact that the culture of
protest still lives on in art when most people are afraid to
protest. Not many people dare to protest because protest is
considered a "big sin," he said.

New experience

For Emha, writing lyrics was something new. But, it was not
his first protest.

Emha, also called Cak (Brother) Nun, was born in Jombang, East
Java, on May 27, 1953. Emha has never hesitated to protest at
injustice. Even as an elementary school student, Emha was
concerned with justice. He was once expelled from class because
he challenged his teacher. He told Kompas in 1993 that as he
disagreed over something with the teacher he jumped over the
table and kicked him.

He went to Muhammadiyah high school in Yogyakarta, and then
continued his studies at the School of Economics of Gadjah Mada
University. He wrote poems and worked as the editor on Masa Kini
newspaper as well. Emha never finished his university education
as he was more absorbed in poetry.

Earlier he had studied at Pondok Gontor Moslem boarding school
in Ponorogo, East Java. He learnt a lot about religion from his
father, a graduate of Tebu Ireng Moslem boarding school in
Jombang.

Emha was born Muhammad Ainun Nadjib, but he shortened his
first name to MH (pronounced Emha), which he used when he wrote
poems. He later adopted Emha as his name.

Emha has published a number of books of poems, essays and
plays. Among them are M. Frustrasi (M. Frustration -- 1970),
Sajak Sepanjang Jalan (Poetry Along the Road -- 1977), Lautan
Jilbab (A Sea Of Headscarfs -- 1991), Cahaya Maha Cahaya (Light
of the Light -- 1991), Sastra Yang Membebaskan (Literature which
Liberates -- 1984) and Indonesia Bagian Dari Desa Saya (Indonesia
a Part of My Village -- 1992).

He took part in a theater workshop in the Philippines in 1980,
the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa,
U.S.A. (1984), the International Poets' Festival in Rotterdam
(1984) and Horizonte Festival in Berlin, Germany (1985).

In 1990 he joined the Association of Indonesian Moslem
Scholars (ICMI), but later resigned his membership when he
realized that the organization lacked commitment to the common
people.

Today, Emha is known not only as a poet and Moslem scholar,
but also as one of the country's most popular preachers.

Emha married Neneng Suryaningsih in 1978 at the age of 25.
They divorced seven years later. He has a son from the marriage.

Rumors say he dated Neno Warisman, an artist and singer. He
says they're just good friends. Another singer, Novia Kolopaking,
admitted that she had a relationship with Emha.

Earlier this month Emha invited Neno and Ike Nurjanah, a
dangdut singer to his house. Along with Wahid and Franky they
sang Kemesraan (Intimacy).

Emha met Franky by chance and said he liked Franky because he
was a good man. The fact that Franky is a Christian did not
affect their relationship.

"What's important is the product, not the religion," he said.

Emha said that he might write lyrics for dangdut songs,
provided the composer was a good person.

Emha calls his songs lagu kebangsaan (people's songs).

Lamentable

In fact, Emha is concerned not only about the social,
economical and political condition of the country, but also
people's sense of nationhood.

Emha said he believed that most people were reluctant to share
what they had.

He also lamented the lack of democratization and lashed out
those who did not want to listen to others.

"Our sense of civic responsibility is eroding because of many
factors, including materialism and the degradation of spiritual
values," he said.

"Our sense of nationhood is tattered.... We often fail to be
proper patriots."

Emha lamented the current political condition.

"The current political scene is rotten," he said.

Even though our politics are rotten, many people accept this
because they are used to it, he said.

"There are different kinds of people," he said. "Some can
survive even in decay, others suffer or die when things are
rotten. Indonesians can survive in the midst of decay."

He observed that although people were surrounded by injustice
and crime, they survived. They even kept calm, although they are
surely restless and sad, he said, but the degree of their
restlessness was not great enough to create a movement. The
movement was always local and sporadic.

Why don't people fight injustice?

"Because we have been trained to suffer. If the suffering is
just so-so, it's not enough to make them stand up."

"According to the theory of revolution, a big movement will
emerge from economic injustice. But here the economic injustice
cannot make people rise. We believe that if we suffer, our
children will be happy. So this has much to do with our
mentality".

Emha observed that while economic and political injustice
could not make people rise up, they might rebel if their religion
is challenged.

"If a Moslem has the right to five plates but you give him or
her only two plates, they may not get angry. But if you say
something bad about prophet Muhammad, he or she will kill you,"
he said.

"If you insult Islam, there will be a revolution."

But he said that it was not religion which could make people
rise.

"It is the ethos, the way they perceive religion, not the
religion itself," said Emha.