Mt. Carmel resounds with 'Indonesia Raya'

Mt. Carmel resounds with 'Indonesia Raya'

Text and photos by Oei Eng Goan

HAIFA, Israel (JP): Despite the absence of diplomatic ties
between the two countries, some Indonesian culture, including the
national anthem and a number of folk songs, seem to be quite
popular in Israel.

For example, Indonesians who visit Mount Carmel may hear their
national anthem, Indonesia Raya (Great Indonesia), resound from
the hill overlooking Israel's chief port of Haifa and the
Mediterranean Sea.

This was affirmed by a group of Indonesian journalists who
recently visited Haifa. No sooner had they begun to enjoy the
scenery of the Mediterranean Sea far below them than a busker
approached them and asked what country they were from.

One of the journalists reluctantly replied, thinking the
busker only was asking as a formality. The busker nodded and then
took out a trumpet from its case, stood at attention and began to
play Indonesia Raya in the correct, march tempo.

Understandably, all eight of the Indonesian journalists were
stunned. They exchanged glances and then looked at the musician
with admiration and questioned him after he had finished playing
the anthem.

"I come from Byelorussia after ... Chernobyl. I play 52
countries ... and many songs," explained Yevgeni in broken
English, referring to the number of national anthems he could
play on his trumpet.

Through an interpreter, Yevgeni, of Jewish descent from the
former Soviet Union, said he, his wife and one daughter emigrated
to Israel in late 1986 following the world's worst civil nuclear
accident in Chernobyl, Ukraine, which lies adjacent to
Byelorussia (White Russia). But he declined to answer when asked
if he was formerly a member of the Soviet military band.

As a reward for playing the Indonesian national anthem, the
journalists dropped a few shekels into his trumpet case. Yevgeni
then played an American hymn and anthem: Battle Hymn of the
Republic and The Star Spangled Banner.

Another Indonesian song was sung by Israel's most famous
folksinger, Shuli Nathan, at Givatayim Theater in Tel Aviv on
Feb. 19, after the theater's director announced, during a break
in the ethnic music concert, there was a group of newsmen from
Indonesia in the audience.

Accompanied only by the guitar she played, Nathan sang Butet,
a heart-rending Batak folk song from North Sumatra. The song
tells of a daughter's yearning for her father, who is off
fighting in the revolutionary war.

Nathan, in her late 40s, said she could sing seven Indonesian
folk songs, which she learned some years ago while attending a
course offered by the Subud faith healing and spiritual
organization in Cilandak, South Jakarta. She entered Indonesia
with a British passport.

Another Israeli artist, poet Ronny Sommeck, a Baghdad-born
Jew, said he knew and admired the work of Rendra, Indonesia's
renowned dramatist and poet, with whom he has met and exchanged
literary views at several international gatherings.

Art and culture, unlike politics and ideology, have the power
to bring human beings closer together regardless of their racial
and religious backgrounds, Sommeck said.