'Pentas Kota Raya' is more than just a Jakarta sketchbook

Pentas Kota Raya (Big City Stage) Fuad Hassan Pustaka Jaya 1996 Page 116

JAKARTA (JP): Fuad Hassan's Pentas Kota Raya (Big City Stage) is more than a sketchbook of Jakartans' daily, bittersweet life. It also shows how people seek happiness, and how universal these issues are.

The 22 essays are all based on Fuad's observations. Written in simple language and full of humanist views, the book only asks for sensitivity.

"This book does not contain anything extraordinary; on the contrary, the content is based on common experiences and realities; to find them, one does not need to be a careful observer; one just needs to be a caring one," Fuad writes in the foreword.

"The overall philosophy is in the foreword," said Fuad, who was once the Minister of Culture and Education.

But you will miss some good stories if you stop after the foreword. Fuad is both a careful and a caring observer. Besides delivering touching images and stories, he also delivers subtle criticism on social issues.

Berpeluh Tanpa Mengeluh (Sweating Without Complaining) is a piece that conveys his attitude to the widening social gap.

While sitting in the passenger seat of his black Volvo in a traffic jam, Fuad passed the flyover under construction from Slipi to Tanah Abang. He saw construction workers sweating, working under the sun and in the pollution.

The highlight of Berpeluh Tanpa Mengeluh is a poem, called Me, the Labourer, by a Samoan poet, Eti Saaga. Citing Saaga, Fuad Hassan expresses how unfair it is that once the road is finished, its big opening is held, and many cars will pass by. However, the workers will only stand aside. Hardly anyone will remember their hard work, let alone give them any recognition.

Coming to Jakarta in 1950 for a college education at the University of Indonesia, Fuad Hassan regards Jakarta his hometown. It was in Jakarta that he established his career, holding various important government as well as academic posts. Yet none of them seem to have destroyed his humanist philosophy.

He acknowledged that this book is written from a humanist's point of view. "It does not matter what someone's religion, race or title is; all humans are the same by nature," said Fuad Hassan, who is now a member of Supreme Advisory Council.

He caught many endearing glimpses of human interaction while he was stuck in traffic jams. He saw a newspaper boy who helped a beggar walk to the street side. He observed how someone pushed his cart patiently behind a big truck pumping out hot air from his hydraulic brakes while those in the air conditioned cars are swearing at the traffic Antara Rem Angin dan Rem Napas or Between Hydraulic Brakes and Human Brakes.

There are also scenes around his neighborhood. Pertemuan Menjelang Asar (A Meeting Before afternoon prayers) is a story of a cobbler and a drinks vendor; it is so simple and so touching that it sounds like a fable or fairy tale.

The cobbler comes across a drinks vendor. They chat a little, and without saying much, the cobbler fixes the vendor's shoes while he prepares him a drink. Fuad has watched all of this from the window of his house.

This book can raise our admiration for the poor. Despite their suffering, they manage to find beauty in life.

This book reflects an irony: The poor people seem to be happy and satisfied (Rapsodi Tengah Hari or The Midday Rhapsody) while the rich seem to develop new syndromes (Fonofilia or Phonophilia).

In Fonofilia, Fuad points out how obsessed humans are with devices like mobile phones, which allow their users to look busy and important.

"If the phonophilia epidemic spreads, even children will be receiving mobile phones as birthday gifts, even if they're toy phones" (p. 61)

The sentence may have sounded like a joke in 1994, the year the story was written. Two years later, toy mobile-phones are gift items for little children.

This is the result of human progress. Progress is not always bad, however. Progress is inevitable and makes humans different to animals.

Thus, to contrast humans with animals, Fuad also included stories in which the main characters are animals, Suatu Pagi Mendung (An Overcast Morning) and Antara Kuda dan Keledai (Between Horses and Donkeys).

There, we can see how routine and monotonous the days in animals' lives are. They are like cycles. Human days, however are bound to be different. "Because for every person, every day is the continuance of yesterday and preparation for tomorrow" (p.15).

Perhaps it is Fuad Hassan's academic background that makes him believe that people can learn things in many ways. Criticizing recent efforts to change foreign words into Indonesian, Fuad Hassan writes that the village people can learn from those billboards the meanings of "river," "hill" or "valley."

Although Fuad Hassan limits himself to Jakarta and surroundings, he does not limit himself to works and ideas from a specific geographical area.

That seems fitting. After all, aren't the issues of human's happiness and satisfaction universal?

-- Yenni Kwok