a column by I Wayan Juniartha
Translated by Putu Semiada
B O M B
All members of the local drinking club are staring at the television. They are not watching a cinetron, nor talkshow with a lot of bullshit.
The presenter is describing about the Jakarta bomb. The pictures shows people running, ambulance come and go, and injured victims. They are featuring the tragedy over and over and it make the members get sick of it.
“I am sorry to see an old man, powerless, with blood all over his body by the roadside. Nobody helps him. The passers by just look at him and some busy take pictures of him. It seems that we the Indonesians do not really practice our Five Principles (Pancasila),” says I Made Alim Jaim (I Made Nice and Atractive).
I Made is really a nice person. He is a religion teacher and also a custodian at Dalem Temple. He is supposed to be a leader. But nobody ever chooses him as head of banjar (traditional community leader) or village head. The voters now prefer to choose one who give them more money. They don’t really mind having a corrupt leader, as long as he is generous.
“Oh My God, the tourism sector will suffer again, just at the time when it recovers. So we have to be ready to suffer again,” says I Wayan One Dollar Two Rangda.
I Wayan does not work at tourism sector. He is not a hotel employee, nor a guide, nor have an artshop. I Wayan is only a member of ‘Permata Bunda’ (Persatuan Makelar Tanah Bungut Daki)―an ‘Association of Dirty Mouth Realtors’ who specialising at looking for rice field areas to sell to tourists who want to have a villa or a house in Bali.
“Well, my dream to watch Manchester United has gone. If there had been no bomb, I would have been able to see Indonesian team ‘kick’ them, I Ketut Bonek Leklek (I Ketut Crazy Hooligan) interrupts.
I Ketut is a fanatic fan of Indonesian football team. According to I Ketut, only Indonesia football players have ‘complete ability’. They can kick ball and they dare to ‘kick’ opponent’s heads too.
“When they loose the game, they will get angry and ‘fight’ the opponent,” he further says.
“That’s why we need a strong and brave leader, instead of a smiling, soft one who always move his hands when talking like a conductor,” says I Kadek Poli-Tikus (I Kadek Dirty Politician).
He might say that as his favourite lost during the presidential election. That’s why he always says like that which refer to the current president, wherever he is. He thinks that everybody is cheating, especially the Election Commission. I Kadek has used a lot of his money; he bought a lot of fund-raising vouchers and gave donation. Everytime he meets his friend, he always talk something bad about SBY (the current president). He might think that if the president were Mega or JK, there wouldn’t any bomb explode.
The only person who doesn’t give any comment is I Nyoman Belog Polos (I Nyoman Honest and Humble). He keeps thinking about his rice planting that spoiled by rats, and his rice field that ‘surrounded’ by villas, about scarcity of fertilizers, rain that hasn’t come yet, and the more and more levies.
“If the situation is keeping like this, I will never be able to be a farmer anymore,” he says to himself.
But what kind of job he is going to do then. That’s another problem. He is not so good at speaking, so he will not be able to be a politician, he is a very honest person, so he doesn’t fit to be a realtor.
“If the situation is keeping like this, I might die soon,” he then says.
The others are busy talking about the bomb, Pancasila (the Five Principles, MU, tourism industry, presidential election and they don’t really have time to discuss Nyoman’s problem. Everybody is talking big, and forget about ‘small’ things. Everybody talk loud when bomb explodes in Jakarta but nobody say something when million of farmers are suffering.
