Program brings literature closer to students

I Wayan Juniartha, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar, Bali

Noted poem Taufiq Ismail, whose poems are richly endowed with expressions sympathetic to poor people and student activists engaged in a difficult struggle against a dictatorial government, has probably never been in a situation where somebody has asked him questions so hauntingly difficult that most other poets would have rather discussed them privately, alone.

On Monday, inside the dimly-lit large meeting hall of Sukawati's SMA 1 senior high school, Taufiq came face to face with those questions.

"By writing those poems do you think you have been fighting for that important struggle too?" a female student asked him point blank.

"Have you ever been afraid of the things that you have written about and the consequences that might arise?" another student queried.

"Can a poet survive financially?" the last student asked.

The answers to those questions were not as important as the questions themselves. It turned out later that Taufiq, who was very busy answering numerous other "easy" questions, forgot to answer the first two "difficult" ones, and managed only to answer the last with a "no", which was immediately followed by an elaborate description of his dream of becoming a livestock breeder in one of the unpopulated islands in the Malacca Straits.

"The questions are important because they reflect the students' deep understanding of the various obstacles -- physical and psychological -- that a poet must overcome in order to achieve his objective of producing an influential literary work. It is so refreshing to learn that these students, contrary to the popular assumption, are not indifferent toward the literary world," local poet Tan Lioe Ie said.

Of course not all of the 300 students from seven different senior high schools, who packed the large hall on the first day of the Sastrawan Bicara, Siswa Bertanya (authors speak, students ask) program, known by its acronym SBSB, were that serious about literature. In the course of the three-hour program, some of them obviously felt that discussing literature was not their favorite way of spending a very hot day. Instead of paying attention to Taufiq, who was posing for a photographer from a local newspaper, the students were busy chattering with each other, or silently slipped away from the corrugated iron-roofed hall into the cozy school cafeteria nearby.

"Some people might perceive this program as pointless -- a waste of money and energy. But, we, the poets, are very fond of dreaming and hoping. And in this case, we are dreaming and hoping this program will play a critical role in the birth of one, not hundreds, no, one would be enough, great literary figure in Bali. Just one, and that will make us very, very happy. Just one, and this program will not end up as a pointless initiative," another influential local poet Frans Nadjira said repeatedly.

The 2002 SBSB program will be held at 41 senior high schools in 24 cities across Bali, West Nusa Tenggara and East Nusa Tenggara. Some 39 poets, essayists, authors and playwrights will participate in it.

Funded by the Ford Foundation, the program is organized by Indonesia's leading monthly literary magazine, Horizon, whose five-year-old supplement, Kakilangit, has featured 500 literary works of students from 63 senior high schools all over Indonesia so far.

In 2000 to 2002 the SBSB program was held at 82 senior high schools in 60 cities, involving 60 literary figures, and at least 43,000 students and teachers. The program also published two anthologies, Dari Fansuri ke Handayani (From Fansuri to Handayani) and the four-volume Horison Sastra Indonesia (Indonesia Literature Horizon). Five free copies of each anthology were sent to all the schools that hosted the program.

"This year, there are 16 schools in nine cities in Bali that will host the program. The Bali program starts on Aug. 5 and will end on Aug. 29, when the finale will be held at Denpasar's SMA 1 senior high school, featuring Bali's own Putu Wijaya, an internationally acclaimed playwright, director and actor," SBSB Bali program coordinator Wan Anwar said.

In the program, the literary figures, who usually comprise both Jakarta-based poets and authors and their respective local counterparts, present their works and then engage in active discussion with the students concerning various aspects of the creative process and the work itself. Also included in the discussion are any other things the speakers and students deem to be either important or interesting, such as, in Taufiq's case, isolated animal husbandry in the Malacca Strait.

The first day of the SBSB Bali Program featured poet Taufiq of Jakarta and Frans Nadjira and Arief B Prasetyo, both of Denpasar. The event was also attended by some of the island's poets, such as Tan Lioe Ie, Warih Wisatsana, Arief B Prasetyo and I Made Sanggra of Sukawati, an aged poet widely respected within Bali's literary circles.

Yet, it was the cameo presentation of Dewi Yull and her husband Ray Sahetapy, both well-known as movie and television stars, that drew the students' attention the most. Both have been involved deeply in the literary world, particularly after they set up Oncor community theater several years ago.

Ray Sahetapy gave a beautiful reading of Hartojo Andangdjaja's poem Rakyat (The People), while Dewi Yull enchanted the teenage students with her reading of Muhammad Ali's short story's Kisah di Kantor Post (story at the post office).

"For me, it is a chance to learn once again the beautiful art of literature, and also an opportunity to promote the importance of literature among students. Hopefully, one of them will find out that literature is the call of his or her life," Dewi Yull said.

When the first day had ended, most of the students, and the teachers too, flocked around famous Dewi Yull, waiting for a chance to get an autograph or a joint photo session. Yet, there were also a few of them who approached the not-so-famous Made Sanggra, asking for his address and, if possible, for a copy of his anthology of poems. There were students who openly said the program was boring though there were others who said the opposite. A female student, however, found the program enlightening.

"I used to think of literature, poems and poets, as jutek (complicated and difficult); now I realize that it is fun, really, it is fun," she said.

Frans Nadjira would have been very happy to hear that.