Thoby Mutis the singing rector
Thoby Mutis the singing rector
Bona Beding, Contributor, Jakarta
Senior lecturer-cum-economist Thoby Mutis is a reputable expert, but few know as a productive songwriter and praiseworthy crooner.
He once performed with Trie Utami in the parking lot of Trisakti University -- where he is a rector.
The event was the release of an album by Thoby, who has an Oscar Harris-like voice, and a number of prominent musicians, including the high-pitched Trie, drummer Gilang Ramadhan, Kiboud and Ireng Maulana, The Fly, Wayang and many others.
Timely, the album, Senandung Untuk Kedamaian (Songs for Peace), was released recently to welcome the new leadership in the country.
"We want to spread peace among people from all walks of life. And I believe music is the most effective way to reach them, including politicians who are bustling with each other for power," said Thoby.
Thoby takes his music career seriously, not just for commercial gain but as a way of bringing into the open the amount of political horse-trading done in the name of the people.
Once chairman of the outspoken Rectors Forum, which frequently issued significant political statements, Thoby changed course and took a more mellow approach to making political statements.
Long before he wrote songs laden with peace messages, Toby composed at least 280 gospel songs, producing his first gospel album in 2002. It was followed a year later by a second album of the same genre.
"I have to place God first before other interests, so I write songs to praise Him before writing other types of songs. My praise is also a manifestation of my gratitude for the talent He has endowed me with," Thoby said in an interview at his residence on Jl. Kecubung Raya, Duren Sawit, East Jakarta.
Of the 10 songs in the new album, eight of them were composed by Thoby.
Drummer Gilang Ramadhan, in a separate interview, said he was impressed that Thoby had produced the album. He suspects Thoby tried to overcome strong emotions related to what happened on his university campus in May 1998.
Four students were fatally shot during an anti-Soeharto rally at Trisakti University. The students' deaths fueled massive protests that led to widespread riots, after which Soeharto resigned.
"I met him on a night of vigil to observe 'gray' May (this year). I guess Prof. Thoby has deep wounds if he recalls the tragedy," Gilang said.
The album tells how Indonesia is a peace-loving country, except that some people taint its image and resort to violence and dirty practices to gain power for their own interests.
"Freedom and peace are like two faces of the same coin. In freedom there is a responsibility to create peace, which in turn promotes freedom," Thoby explains.
In the wee hours when most people are still asleep, Thoby wakes up, and starts strumming his old Yamaha guitar to create songs.
He inherited his music talent from his paternal side. "Because of his profound love of music, my father had most kinds of musical instruments and he was very strict with me about learning how to play them when I was a second grader," he reminisced.
Potong Padi (Cutting Paddy), traditional songs Bolelebo, Sisi Kolesisi, Benggong and Nina Noy are songs from his childhood that still thrill him, as they always remind him of his father.
Music and crooning are not his only passions. He also ponders a lot about developing cooperatives and soccer.
When he attended Syuradikara high school in Ende, Flores, Thoby excelled in music and soccer -- he had a band and a soccer team.
"But how was I to make a living from music? It was not a promising option at that time. So when my father found out that I intended to make a career out of music, he flatly said no. He wanted me to continue my studies and even promised to sell his cows to pay my school fees," said Tobby, who once worked as a bus driver while still at university in Jakarta.
Thoby, father of 26-year-old Fransiskus Paschalis, has spent more than half of his career developing cooperatives, and helping small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) people's economics and marginalized people.
To realize the development of cooperatives and SMEs, in 1976, after bagging an economics degree from Trisakti University, Thoby chose to study organizational development and specialized cooperatives. In 1984 he got a doctoral degree from the Southeast Asia Interdisciplinary Institute (SAIDI) in Manila, the Philippines.
Living a peaceful life, Thoby says he thanks Him for his numerous blessings.
"My obligation, and I think everybody's, is to share their happiness, luck and kindness received from others, just like paying back God," he said.
His fourth album, blending East Nusa Tenggara traditional music and Spanish, will be released next month. Thoby worked with Spanish crooner Carlos Blanco Fadol on the album.
"I pray to God that He allows me to continue pursuing my favorite hobbies."