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.