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."