JP/24/BURNA

JP/24/BURNA

Poetic guardian of Meratus Dayak tradition

Oyos Saroso H.N.
The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Wearing a black pullover, blue vest and black hat, the gentleman
was very modest in appearance.

With graying hair and moustache, he had a firm expression on
his face. That evening, he was one of a dozen poets from
Kalimantan whom the Jakarta Arts Council had invited to read
their poems at the Cakrawala Sastra Indonesia 2 (second
Indonesian Literary Horizons Forum), held in mid-September.

His modesty off the stage disappeared, however, the moment he
took center stage in the New Theater building at Taman Ismail
Marzuki, Central Jakarta.

The hundreds of people in the audience sat mesmerized as they
listened to the incantations of the Meratus Dayak tribe contained
in the poems he read. Silence reigned supreme in the hall.

Sitok Srengenge, poet and activist from the Utan Kayu Community
(KUK), clicked his tongue in admiration right after the poet,
Boerhanuddin Soebely of Kandangan, Hulu Sungai Selatan, South
Kalimantan, began reading his works. "Great!" he whispered while
giving the thumbs-up.

Sitok and most of the people in the audience expressed their
appreciation as the poet recited his poem titled Megatruh and
Senja Kuning (Yellow Twilight), which, while ostensibly focusing
on the funeral procession of a Meratus Dayak tribal chief,
describes how modernization has signaled the death of the Meratus
Dayak community as a whole.

"iii....laaahhh/panjampaian janji panutusan hajat/maut dunia
maut karama/sambut ka Nining Raja Kuasa" was the incantation that
Soebely read out in the Meratus Dayak language while groaning
sorrowfully.

His Megatruh ended with the following lines (translated): To
the white mountain, to the white mountain, that is the
destination, the mountain where days and months lead on/to a land
where there is neither morning nor night/to a land with diamond
sand and grass made of gems.

The poems that Soebely read that evening forcefully
articulated the sorrow of the Meratus Dayak tribe as they find
themselves left behind by modernization. Through his poems, the
sorrow becomes gripping, while at the same time expressing the
magic nuances of beauty.

Meratus Dayak spokesperson

Of Banjar Malay blood, Soebely, born in 1957, is very close to
the Meratus Dayak people, a tribe that lives in the Meratus
mountain range of South Kalimantan. He often visits the homes of
Meratus Dayak people and overnights there.

As he is very close to the Meratus Dayak people and also
because many of his literary works voice the sorrow of that
people, fellow writers from Kalimantan call him the spokesperson
of the Meratus Dayak community.

"Pak Soebely may be regarded as the spokesperson for the
Meratus Dayak people because many of his works dwell on the
problems they face.

"Indeed, as he gets along very well with many Meratus Dayak
people, his poems and plays contain a strong Meratus Dayak
element," said Jamal T. Suryanata, a poet and an elementary
school teacher in rural Kalimantan.

It is rarely the case, he noted, that a writer living with an
isolated tribe writes about the tribe.

Soebely, however, said that the only thing prompting him to
come to the defense of the Meratus Dayak people was humanity and
solidarity. The Meratus Dayak people, he said, should be defended
because they did not enjoy proper access to development and had
sacrificed a lot despite their own local wisdom.

"A few years ago, a gold-mining company proposed that the
Meratus Dayak people be evicted from their protected forest on
the grounds that their age-old land cultivation system was
detrimental to the environment," Soebely said.

It was true, Soebely said, that the Meratus Dayak people burn
felled trees to open up new land as part of their slash-and-burn
cultivation system. However, he went on, the people had their own
ways of preventing forest fires.

They made fire partitions 45 meters wide to stop the fires and
ensure that they did not spread, That way, the soil in the place
where the felled trees were burned would be fertile.

"The Meratus Dayak people living in uplands here have never
used fertilizers or pesticides. They have their own traditional
wisdom to ensure that the soil structure is not be damaged. This
local wisdom differs from modern farming systems," Soebely said.

As they were being forced out of the forest, in June 2002
hundreds of representatives of the Meratus Dayak tribe from 300
centers across South Kalimantan came together for a four-day
congress.

One of the motions adopted by the congress rejected the
exploitation of the Meratus Mountains Protected Forest in any
form.

A father of two teenagers, Soebely said that the fight by the
Meratus Dayak people against the relocation proposal was legally
well-founded.

Theatrical involvement

Soebely is no newcomer to the literary arena in South
Kalimantan. Having devoted himself to literature since 1979,
Soebely, a graduate of the Open University's School of Politics
and Social Sciences majoring in state administration, has
published several collections of poems, including Palangsaran
(1982), Patilarahan (1987) and Ritus Puisi (Poetic Rite, 2000).

His three novelettes, titled respectively, Reportase Rawa
Dupa (Report from the Swamp of Incense), Seloka Kunang-Kunang
(Stanza of Fireflies) and Konser Kecemasan (Concert of Worries)
won the serialized story writing competition held by Femina
magazine in 1997, 1998 and 2001.

A civil servant working for the Hulu Sungai Selatan regional
administration, Soebely is also actively involved in theatrical
activities along with his Teater Posko La-Bastari theater group.

They have performed in several cities in Kalimantan and also
in Surabaya, Jakarta, Bali, Yogyakarta, Bukittinggi (West
Sumatra) and Melaka (Malaysia). Most of his plays dwell on social
and political issues related to the well-being of the Meratus
Dayak people.

Almost 50 years old now, Soebely promises that he will
continue writing poems and plays and taking part in theatrical
activities.

He is determined to voice the sorrow of the Meratus Dayak
people through his poems.

"I will take the road of solitude as a poet to let the public
hear the innermost voice of the Meratus Dayak people. I will not
stop writing my testimony until such time as my hands can no
longer write," he said.