Mursidi, living witness to tragedy

Mursidi, living witness to tragedy

Fadli, Contributor/Batam

The Vietnamese refugee camp on Galang Island in Riau province may have many bitter tales to tell of the tragedy that befell countless victims of the conflict between two opposing ideologies at the peak of the Cold War. For Mursidi, however, it is the place where he spent sixteen of the best years of his life in the camp working to relieve their plight.

Over the years, Mursidi witnessed the arrival of about 250,000 boat people on this island. As the present caretaker of the Sinam camp, he helped take care of these refugees, who made the perilous trip to the island to escape the war between communist North Vietnam and first France, and then America in South Vietnam.

The war -- which did not end until the North Vietnamese captured Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City, the capital of South Vietnam, on April 30, 1975 -- claimed millions of lives and forced about 12 million Vietnamese to seek refuge and a decent life in other countries, like the United States, Canada and Australia.

"They left their country in wooden boats. Hundreds of refugees were packed like sardines in boats capable of carrying only around a dozen passengers," Mursidi recalled.

He said that the first Vietnamese boat, carrying 24 refugees, reached West Bunguran (now Natuna regency) in the Riau Islands on May 22, 1975.

"These refugees used as a guide the flames from Udang, an oil field owned by PT Conoco. They staked their lives to get here, braving the huge waves of the South China Sea," he went on to say.

After their safe arrival, these first boat people were housed in the Jemaja regency hall, Anambas island, Kepri regency.

More and more refugees arrived and at the initiative of Kepri regency administration these boat people, who by then numbered as many as 250,000, were housed in a number of different places: Air Baja, Tanjung Unggat and East Bintan.

At the time, Mursidi knew little about the boat people.

In 1979, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) took over the responsibility of caring for the refugee and decided, after reaching an agreement with the Indonesian government, to set up a refugee camp on an 80-hectare site on Galang island.

It was then that Mursidi began to get involved in caring for the boat people.

He recalled that in the 1960s, he worked for an plantation company, PT Mantrust, in Bandung, West Java. But in 1967, the company ran into financial difficulties and most of the workers were laid off.

He was offered a job at the company's pineapple farm at Kilometer 18, Tanjung Uban, North Bintan, Kepri regency.

"I was still young and unmarried then. So I accepted the offer. What mattered most to me was that I could earn a living," he said.

After spending some time in Kepri regency, Mursidi was transferred to the company's pineapple farm on Galang Island on Aug. 8, 1967, where he worked as a supervisor. He stuck with the job for another four years. In mid-1972, the farm was closed, but Mursidi decided to stay on the island.

"I preferred to stay on Galang. The island was very sparsely populated then. I made up my mind not to return to Java," he added.

Mursidi, who is an elementary school graduate, did various odd jobs for a living. He worked for a number of families on the island, doing such things as collecting wood and minding local farmers' cattle.

The year 1979 ushered in a great change in Mursidi's life. In that year, the UNHCR conducted a feasibility study on its plan to establish a refugee camp on Galang island. Mursidi was recruited by PT Karya Titan, one of the contractors for the UNHCR-funded construction of the refugee camp.

He was employed as an electricity generator technician.

It was then that he got his first experiences of dealing with the Vietnamese boat people.

"I even dated two pretty Vietnamese girls. Although I did not speak good Vietnamese, I could communicate well with them. We also used English here," he said.

In 1994, tension rose to a peak among the Vietnamese refugees as the UNHCR was unable to guarantee their future. Many refugees went on hunger strike. They demanded clear decisions on what was going to happen to them: whether they qualified as refugees and which countries they would be sent to.

"Many refugees were disappointed at the results of the screening that was carried out to determine whether they qualified as refugees. This was crucial to deciding whether they would be sent to third countries or whether they would be deported back to Vietnam," he said.

Many of them failed to qualify as refugees. One of the reasons, according to the UNHCR, was that some of them had criminal records back in Vietnam. The thought of going back to Vietnam, however, caused great distress among the boat people.

A tragic mass suicide ensued when on Sept. 2, 1996, the UNHCR closed down the refugee camp and deported the remaining refugees to Vietnam as no third countries were willing to accept them.

"There are 503 graves of Vietnamese boat people here and most of these people committed suicide because they refused to be deported back to Vietnam. I also felt their sadness. They shouted in despair and many of them cut their own throats just like slaughtering chickens," he noted.

"Third countries, particularly the United States, the third main choice after Canada and Australia, were selective in accepting Vietnamese refugees. One of the main requirements was that they must have certain skills, and be clever and rich.

"If you are poor and not very smart, don't expect to be allowed to immigrate to these three countries," said Mursidi, who was appointed caretaker of Sinam camp by the Batam Industrial Development Authority (BIDA) with the status of a non-permanent employee in 1997.

"When I first took up this job, I earned only Rp 167,000 (US$18) but now my pay is three times the prevailing minimum wage. For me, being here is my destiny. I thank God for this and enjoy it very much," said Mursidi, who is set to retire next year.

A father of four, Mursidi has made sparsely-populated Galang island his permanent home. His house in Sijantung village, Galang district, is about 1 kilometer away from the refugee camp.

Today, he continues to tell stories to visitors to the refugee camp about the plight of the Vietnamese boat people.

The way Mursidi tells the stories brings to life the despair of the Vietnamese boat people. Among those who have visited the camp are some famous names, like noted drama actor Didi Petet, movie actress Rina Hasyim, and Said Aqil Siradj Al Munawar, the present religious affairs minister.