The current economic downturn may ease up a bit as well. People of Chinese heritage worldwide are likely going to celebrate this special day merrily and for a total of 15 days.

We can expect to hear loud firecrackers, see a lot of bright red clothes, watch the famous dragon dance and eat the delicious Nian Gao rice cake and roast pork. Children expect you to give out ang pao or “red envelopes,” so make sure your pocket is full of them. Chinese New Year, or Imlek, is a joyous occasion and gives us hope for a better tomorrow.

Let’s extend a sincere Happy New Year to each other by saying, “Xin Nian Kuai Le.”

Residing an hour’s drive from San Francisco, most likely I’ll be celebrating in this foggy city’s famous Chinatown. San Francisco’s Chinatown boasts the largest Chinese New Year celebration outside of Asia, which will take place on Feb. 11.

The 2012 Miss Chinatown USA, who will be crowned on Feb. 4, is likely symbolizing the hostess of the festival. A 76-meter long golden dragon, the center of the occasion, will dance the night away with 100 acrobatic martial artists.

San Francisco’s Chinatown was established in 1848 and is both the oldest Chinatown in the United States and the largest Chinese community outside Asia. It is famous for its unique ambiance, which seems more like Hong Kong than an American city.

Chinatown boasts over 300 restaurants of various sizes, prices, and specialties, which would take nearly a year to try each one of them. With a total land area of only 3.5 square kilometers, its population of more than 100,000 makes it one of the most densely populated districts in the US.

Every Chinese New Year reminds me that I’m a part of one of the oldest cultures in the world. With 1.4 billion other Chinese individuals worldwide, including 40 million living outside Mainland China, it’s a great feeling realizing how grand the membership is.

The Han Chinese ethnicity is divided into 56 ethnic groups. Indonesia is home to approximately 7 million Han Chinese, with major populations based in other countries such as the US (3.8 million), Singapore (3.6 million) and Malaysia (7.1 million).

In Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, those who have assimilated into the Indonesian and Malay cultures are referred to as peranakan. By this category, I am considered a peranakan as well, even though my grandparents migrated directly from Northern China. I enjoy having spicy and rich peranakan cuisine and often wear my kebaya nyonya, proudly created by my own mother’s fashion designs.

Raised in a middle-class family by a single mother, I never considered myself financially wealthy. My high school and college classmates witnessed how I was used to taking public transportation to go to school, including the notoriously overfilled public buses and trains. However, the stereotype that “all Chinese are wealthy” stays with me to this very day, despite my family’s constant struggle to catch up with daily expenses. Such stereotypes taught me an important life lesson: Many people believe in illusions.

Most overseas Chinese, I believe, carry with them at least a longing to feel at home wherever they are, while at the same time feeling proud of their cultural heritage. For this, they try to find meaning through various allegiances and affiliations. Indian literary critic Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak said it well, “I attempted to fracture the totalizing logic of their representational practices by othering myself from the stereotypical consolidation of the rich, non-resident Indian subject.”

Spivak made a lot of sense because the “stereotypical consolidation of the rich” is merely a mirage, an illusion. Out of 7 million individuals of Chinese ethnicity in Indonesia, how many are “pure” Chinese? Could we even distinguish or identify those individuals?

This would be very hard to prove with DNA evidence, because, after all, ethnicity a politicized idea, an invention to divide a social structure. Furthermore, out of 7 million individuals, how many of them actually possess the economic power to influence a country? All 7 million of them? I doubt it.

Just looking at Forbes magazine’s list of 40 richest individuals in Indonesia doesn’t give a valid picture of Chinese-Indonesians’ wealth. One should also read ethnographic research findings about Chinese-Indonesians trapped in cycles of poverty, such as Vidhyandika Djati Perkasa’s Poverty in a Chinese Community in West Java, Indonesia: Survival, Identity, and Social Face.

As a Chinese-Indonesian in a Western country, I carry with me two beautiful cultures with which I strive for acceptance in whichever community I reside. Despite the stereotypes I had to endure, the New Year always brings new hope and aspirations.

Let’s remind ourselves that our identity isn’t determined by stereotypes, but by the quality of our work and the content of our character.

The writer is an award-winning author and columnist based in Northern California.

JP/Matheos V. Messakh

JAKARTA: Actor-turned-director Lola Amaria is working on a film titled Hua Qiao, which tells the story of an Indonesian-born Chinese who repatriates to China following the 1959 presidential decree that forbade foreigners and their descendants from running small-and medium-sized businesses in rural areas.

The regulation had a major political, economic and social impact, resulting in racially motivated riots in the country and the exodus of Indonesian-born Chinese.

In her research for the film, Lola spoke to several Chinese Indonesian families in Central, East and West Java and West Kalimantan starting in June 2011. She also tracked down people who fled Indonesia for Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Wuhan, China.

Lola explained that she was still in the early stages of production but hopes she can start shooting by November of this year.

“I think this is an interesting theme for a movie as it contains a historic story about Indonesia,” she said.

Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo paid a courtesy call Friday on Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, during which they discussed various issues regarding the bilateral relationship between China and Indonesia.

Presidential spokesman Dino Patti Djalal said Dai regularly met with his Indonesian counterpart, this time with Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto.

Dino said such meetings had been conducted since Yudhoyono still served as chief political minister in the early 2000s.

“This is a mechanism of consultation at the coordinating political, legal and security affairs minister level, which has been taking place annually,” Dino told a press conference after Dai’s meeting with Yu-dhoyono at the Presidential Office.

Yudhoyono, Dino said, expressed his satisfaction with the strategic partnership between Indonesia and China that was signed in April 2005.

“The President said the bilateral consultation mechanism should be improved and done more frequently, not only formally but also informally,” he said.

“The President also emphasized that cooperation between Indonesia and China would also be applied at regional and global forums, such as at APEC, ASEAN-China, and G20 forums.”

Meanwhile, Dai, according to Dino, recognized the importance of Indonesia to China as a “pillar” country in ASEAN and Asia.

“He praised Indonesia’s success in maintaining unity, improving prosperity and preserving social cohesion, as well as its active roles in regional and international forums.”

Dino said the much talked-about ASEAN Free Trade (AFTA) issue was not specifically discussed by Dai and Yudhoyono, saying the two had only agreed on the importance of further strengthening economic cooperation between the two countries, including their roles in the G20 economic forum.

Defense and security issues, meanwhile, were discussed at greater length during Dai’s meeting with Djoko earlier in the day.

He said Indonesia and China had been developing partnerships in the field, with military cooperation having become a “crucial” part of their strategic partnership in the past few years.

Dino stopped short, however, of mentioning details of the meeting between Dai and Djoko.

Dino said Yudhoyono planned to visit Shanghai in the middle of the year, and had expressed hope that Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao could also visit Indonesia later this year.

Earlier Thursday, Dai and Djoko witnessed the signing of an action plan of strategic partnership for political, legal and security sectors to follow up on the 2005 strategic partnership.

The action plan was signed by director general for Asia, Pacific and African affairs at the Indonesian Foreign Ministry, Hamzah Thayeb, and Chinese Ambassador to Indonesia, Zhang Qiyue.

Both countries agreed on several crucial issues on cooperation in the political, legal, security, social, cultural, economic, and trade sectors, Antara news agency reported.

“The action plan was formulated in 2006 and is now being implemented by both countries in the coming years as part of the strategic partnership,” Djoko said.

Indonesia has said it will soon discuss with China its plan to delay the implementation of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (FTA) which came into effect on January 1 this year.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said his government has to protect the interests of its people, but at the same time does not want to be seen as to renegade on the agreement which was first mooted in Indonesia.

The Indonesian leader stressed that Jakarta will continue to cooperate with ASEAN and its other partners.

The Indonesian parliament has called on the Yudhoyono administration to delay and renegotiate the China-ASEAN FTA after fears that the agreement may hurt local industries.

Indonesian lawmakers have listed 15 local industries that needed to be protected, including footwear, textile, and food and beverages.

They have given the government six months to take the necessary steps in addressing the issue.

There are fears that Southeast Asia’s largest economy could see thousands of citizens lose their jobs if local companies cannot compete with cheaper Chinese products entering into Indonesia.

Indonesia’s Trade Ministry has already informed the ASEAN Secretary-General of its intention to renegotiate. – CNA/ms

The Indonesian and Chinese governments are exploring the possibility of forging bilateral cooperation in the field of security and defense industries to strengthen their relations.

“The two countries have agreed to strengthen their already good relations through cooperation in the field of security and defense industries,” vice presidential spokesman Yopie Hidayat said here on Friday.

Hidayat made the statement after Vice President Boediono had received Chinese Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Dai Bingghuo.

The vice president on the occasion was accompanied by Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Djoko Suyanto and Foreign Affairs Minister Marty Natalegawa.

Quoting Bingghuo, Hidayat said China regarded Indonesia as an important and strategic partner, and thus it wanted to help Indonesia develop its security and defense industries.

“China also asked that all the cooperative relations so far established between the two countries would continue to be stepped up for mutual benefit,” Hidayat said.

He said this year would mark the 60th anniversary of Indonesia-China`s bilateral relations and therefore there would be no more freezing of diplomatic relations.

“As we all know, Indonesia-China diplomatic relations once soured but they hope there will be no low tide in the 60th year of bilateral relations,” Hidayat said.

Asked if China had offered its weapons to Indonesia to buy, Hidayat said it was not discussed at the meeting of Vice President Boediono and Bingghuo.

“The vice president and his guest only discussed political and security matters besides other issues related to the improvement of cooperation in various fields,” Hidayat said, adding that Bingghuo also invited Boediono to make an official visit to China later.

A vendor selling hair at Pasar Baru. (JG Photo/Ade Mardiyati)

Chan Mie Ling can be found most days looking after customers at her modest shop, which sells prayer-related paraphernalia.

The shop, where she also lives, sits in a small alley in the Pasar Baru area of Central Jakarta. It is just a few meters away from a Dutch colonial-era building on which can be made out the faded writing “Tjap Potret Njonja Meneer,” a famous brand of herbal medicine.

Maria, Ling’s Indonesian name, runs the shop with her mother-in-law, an elderly woman in her 80s whom she calls popoh (grandmother).

“Please, make sure that you won’t cause me any problems with my talking to you,” Maria says at the beginning of our short chat. “We often experience unpleasant treatment, being of Chinese descent.”

Besides running the shop, the 64-year-old also collects plastic cups and bottles from the street and piles them at the front of the house to sell to recyclers.

“You see, we are poor people, too. But when the local [Indonesian] trash pickers see me pick up the litter, they get really angry. They say, ‘You Chinese can’t pick up trash here. This area is ours,’ ” she says.

But her husband’s family has been living in the area since the 1800s.

“I’m not sure of the year, but I think my husband belongs to the third generation,” she says. “We’ve been here a long time. This alley used to be a wet market, and our shop was one of many in the neighborhood.

“Now that we are the only remaining shop [in the alley], I close the entrance door most of the time although we are open.”

Maria’s family is a living testament to the changing face of Pasar Baru, one of the few places in Jakarta where you can study the history of the city through the architecture, food and shops. Pasar Baru, or Passer Baroe, as written on a new gate built at the entrance to the market, was established in 1820, during the Dutch colonial era.

To get to the gate from the main street, Jalan Pasar Baru Raya, you have to cross a small asphalt bridge that spans the Ciliwung River. Old-timers say there was a time when the trash-clogged river was clean, though it’s hard to believe.

After passing through the new gate, the journey into the past begins. The market is a huge, open-air shopping area, with a variety of stores. Vehicles, once not allowed to enter, now merrily drive down the road that passes through the heart of the pasar .

Pasar Baru, which literally means “new market,” was once of old Jakarta’s most important business centers for the mostly Chinese, Indian and Malay traders who settled down and opened stores here.

Back then, the market mostly catered to the rich. It is said that young Dutch girls loved to walk up and down the market’s two sides in white dresses, umbrellas in hand.

Today, the market’s clientele is more diverse, with fair-skinned foreigners rarely seen in the area.

One indicator of Pasar Baru’s past is the vendors displaying old Indonesian coins and bills in front of some of the shops. The money dates back to the colonial era up until the 1980s. One vendor had a stack of old Acehnese money on display, which he said was original. He was selling the paper money for Rp 25,000 ($3) a banknote.

Most of the people who buy the old bills are either collectors or men about to get married.

“I’m getting married on January 22,” said Teguh , a 24-year-old civil servant. “The dowry will be Indonesian bills that [will signify] the date 22-1-2010 put in a frame.”

Warman, who was manning a table stacked with old money, said he had a minimum of five regular customers a day and earned between Rp 100,000 ($11) and Rp 150,000. “Coins don’t really sell. It’s really only bills, which people frame bills for their dowries,” said the 60-year-old father of seven.

Passing through the market’s stores, one can discern a pattern: Most shoe shops are owned by ethnic Chinese, while most of the textile shops belong to ethnic Indians.

There are also shops selling housewares and accessories, and Matahari, once one of Jakarta’s most prestigious department stores before glitzy shopping malls overtook the city, also has a branch here.

Mixed among the older buildings with distinctive Chinese-Dutch architecture are more modern-looking shops, with their big glass windows. Among the area’s architectural gems is the Lee Ie Seng stationery store, built in 1873, and a herbal medicine shop located at the other end of the market.

One side of an intersection dividing the shopping complex leads to the legendary narrow street known as Gang Kelinci, or Rabbit Alley. A popular song of the same name in the 1960s explains the story behind the name. As the song goes, the population in the area grew “like rabbits” in the old days, which made the street crowded.

This alley holds some of the area’s best-known noodle eateries, the largest one being “Bakmi Gang Kelinci” (“Gang Kelinci Noodles”).

Bakmo Aboen is a far more modest Chinese noodle shop, located in an even narrower alley off Gang Kelinci. This is where lovers of non-halal noodles go, as the small shop, which has been around since 1961, serves pork dishes.

A few meters further down Gang Kelinci is Shalimar, an eclectic Indian mini-market that offers food items like thin, long rice for briyani — a hot Indian dish — spices and samosas alongside accessories and makeup. Located nearby are tailors that specialize in Indian saris.

At the other end of the market are two buildings that are obviously not from the same period.

The newer one is called Harco Pasar Baru, popular among beauty salon businesses. Harco is also known as a place where you can get good deals on cameras and camera equipment.

Metro Atom, the neighboring building, is home to old and new cameras shops, including some stores offering repair services. One can also find vendors in both buildings hawking all sorts of goods, including second-hand clothes.

Standing out from among the surrounding shops in Metro Atom is Utpala, owned by the ever-friendly Hans. Selling mostly traditional spa items like aromatherapy oils, soaps, home fragrances and other herbal products, Hans’s products have sexually-suggestive labels.

“They’re eye-catching and people know what the items are for without having to ask me,” said the Javanese man, who has been running the shop for five years.

“The shop is refreshing for customers after looking at cameras, clothes and other stuff, as this is the only shop of its kind here in this area.”

A jar containing small boxes of breast-firming powder is labeled “ montok , kenceng , padet , sintal ,” which basically means plump and firm. Another jar contains a formula of some sort that women are meant to apply for promised “tightness and pleasure.”

Outside Metro Atom exists another world, one filled with food sellers and people just hanging out with the vendors.

To make ends meet, Johan has been engraving steel rings for the past 18 years at the entryway to Metro Atom.

“My clients are young couples. They love to wear rings with their boyfriend’s or girlfriend’s name on it,” the 40-year-old said. “Married people don’t place orders. They have real wedding rings.”

A bizarre-looking scene marks the end of the market complex. There, vendors sell what they claim to be human hair, displayed on modest wooden racks or low pedestals.

“The hair come from agents in Brebes [Central Java],” said one of the vendors, Doni. “I sell quite a lot of hair a day.”

He said prices varied, depending on the length, and the hair was sold in bunches of about 100 strands each.

“A bunch of hair 60 to 65 centimeters long sells for Rp 200,000. It’s Rp 350,000 for hair 80 centimeters long,” Doni said.

When tired of the hustle and bustle of the many shops in Pasar Baru, people can find some peace and quiet inside one of the nearby Chinese temples. Situated behind the “Njonja Meneer” herbal medicine shop building, Sin Tek Bio — or Wihara Dharma Jaya, the temple of the business god, built in 1698 — is visited mostly by people seeking success in their career or business, said Santoso Witoyo, who has been managing the temple for 29 years.

Just behind this temple is another one, known as Koan Im Bio, or the temple of the goddess of love and affection. According to Acau, a caretaker, people come to the temple to pray and find answers to their personal problems.

“Many [of the problems] are relationship or marriage-related,” he said.

The temples welcome anyone and everyone.

“If you are thirsty or hungry, you can go to the kitchen, we have bihun [thin rice-noodles] there. Please, make yourself at home,” Santosa said. “Please, come whenever you want.”

Indonesia has asked to re-write a new regional trade pact with China, citing fears of job losses due to a flood of cheap Chinese imports across various sectors, officials said Wednesday.

The government has sought to maintain 228 tariff lines for another two years rather than cut them as required under the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (ACFTA), which Jakarta first signed in 2002 and took full effect on January 1.

“The letter of notification on negotiations to discuss modifications to the 228 tariff items was submitted on December 31,” Trade Ministry official Gusmardi Bustami said.

Trade Minister Mari Pangestu has refused to comment on the pact and would not confirm that a formal request for further protection had been sent to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

“I won’t comment on the notification letter. I’ve informally discussed the 228 tariff items with ASEAN,” she told reporters in response to repeated requests for clarification of Indonesia’s position.

She had previously said only that Indonesia would honour its commitments under the free trade pact.

Industry ministry spokesman Muhdori said a two-year reprieve from zero tariffs was required in sectors including electronics, machinery, furniture, steel, textiles and chemicals.

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Taipei Times | By Loa Iok-sin, STAFF REPORTER | 14 January 2010 p.2

Immigrant rights advocacy groups yesterday staged a demonstration outside the National Immigration Agency (NIA), calling on the agency to sanction a junior high school teacher for allegedly making a racist remark against a student whose mother is Indonesian.

Activists protest outside the National Immigration Agency in Taipei yesterday, demanding disciplinary measures against a junior high school teacher. PHOTO: LO PEI-DER, TAIPEI TIMES

A junior high school student in Kaohsiung County’s Linyuan Township (林園) — born to a Taiwanese father and an Indonesian mother — said the teacher, Hung Yu-wen (洪裕文), last month asked if she was a “barbarian” and told her to go back to Indonesia and be a “savage” like her mother after Hung saw the student tear up a test paper.

The student said she tore up the paper because she was upset after being scolded by Hung. She said before the latest incident, she had already been subjected to Hung’s abusive remarks three times.

The Chinese-language Apple Daily yesterday reported that Hung had admitted to making several inappropriate remarks to the student, but added that he never intended to humiliate the student and his comments were meant as a joke.

Neither the student nor the immigrants rights advocates found his “jokes” funny.

“If the student were my own daughter, I would fight with my own life to defend her,” Hong Man-chi (洪滿枝), a member of the TransAsia Sisters Association Taiwan (TASAT), said during the demonstration.

Now a naturalized Taiwanese citizen, the Vietnamese-born Hong came to Taiwan more than 10 years ago after marrying a Taiwanese man.

“It’s not enough to punish the teacher with an NT$30,000 [fine] or to give him demerits,” Hong said. “He should be fired because he is not suitable to be a teacher.”

Hong was referring to a clause in the Immigration Act (入出國及移民法) which states that any person who discriminates against another on the basis of their nationality, ethnicity, skin color, social class or place of birth could be fined a maximum of NT$30,000.

TASAT executive secretary Yadrung Chiou (邱雅青), who originates from Thailand, said as an immigrant spouse, she felt “very uncomfortable to hear such a remark.”

“This is a humiliation, not only for the student and her Indonesian mother, but for all immigrants and their children,” she said.

Tseng Chao-yuan (曾昭媛), the secretary-general of the Awakening Foundation, said the case was only the tip of the iceberg.

“Taiwanese in general are not ready to embrace ethnic diversity and school teachers are not being trained to teach students to respect diversity,” she said.

Tseng said while immigration issues are discussed in textbooks, “immigrants are often portrayed as the source of ‘social problems.’”

“The textbooks don’t teach students how to appreciate the different cultures brought by immigrants or their contributions to society,” she said.

Accepting a petition from the demonstrators, NIA Acting Deputy Director-General Hu Ching-fu (胡景富) said the commission would launch a probe into the incident, with the results to be announced within three months.

Taiwan Association for Human Rights secretary-general Tsai Chi-hsun (蔡季勳) said the commission’s decision would serve as a test as to whether the government is serious about respecting diversity and promoting human rights.

More than 26,000 out of a total of 420,000 new immigrants in Taiwan are immigrant spouses from Indonesia, said Wu Chia-chen (吳佳臻), director of TASAT’s North Taiwan Office.

If the government does not put a stop to such discriminatory remarks and punish those responsible, it could have an adverse impact on ethnic equality, she said.

Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo will pay an official visit to Indonesia and Brunei from Jan. 21 to 26, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said Thursday.

Dai is visiting at the invitation of Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Political, Law and Security Affairs Djoko Suyanto and the Brunei government, Jiang said at a regular press conference.

Editor: Zhang Xiang

Soon after he stepped down as Indonesia’s fourth president, I met Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid at a drugstore in Pamulang, and would frequently do so up until his death. There, on the wall next to the entrance, was a big picture of Gus Dur in shorts and a T-shirt.

The owner of the drugstore, a Chinese-Indonesian and a Christian (if the crucifix on the wall was anything to go by), was pictured standing next to the sitting Gus Dur.

In the picture, the former president is smiling as though he had no worries in the world, or possibly letting visitors know that no obstacles are impossible to overcome.

He may as well be saying, “All illnesses have their own medicines. There is also a panacea, a medicine for all kinds of illnesses, and that’s our willingness to smile and make ourselves and others around us relaxed.”

The drugstore owner stands proudly, possibly with a feeling of deep peace or gratitude. Never for a moment does the picture come across as an attempt by the drugstore owner to draw more customers. No, it is more about a son feeling at peace in the presence of his father.

But now the son seems to be in angst. He has just lost his guardian father and I am not sure whether he has found another one to ensure things remain on right track as before.

The father has gone and the son is now likely to be an orphan for the rest of his life if a (hopefully good) stepfather does not come into his life.

The drugstore owner is not alone in facing that destiny. I vividly remember the greengrocer from my previous housing complex. Because I was not watching TV the night Gus Dur passed away, it was she who told me about his death. I did not believe her at first, because we always joked as Gus Dur used to. But she was not joking this time. It was true, Gus Dur had passed away.

The greengrocer’s family, Muslim and Javanese, seemed to need another great figure as soon as
possible. I do not believe they are floating voices socially, culturally or politically.

Gus Dur was someone special for them, mostly spiritually. Given the opportunity, they would have left for Jombang, where Gus Dur was buried, and taken soil from around his grave as a talisman.

There was another story. A close friend, a financially less well-off government employee (a division head), told me the movements for a multicultural and pluralist Indonesia were in difficult straits.

The activists now face a big problem after having just lost a powerful guard who was able to defend them before the religious radicals and the oppressive government.

He may have exaggerated a bit, but there was some truth to it. First, even though it has only happened in Malaysia so far, the ban on non-Muslims from using the word “Allah” seems to reflect the escalation of religious radicalism stemming from trivial affairs in Southeast Asia.

In Indonesia, the word has been in use for a long time, albeit with a slightly different pronunciation, and it is not impossible that the radicals are going to issue a similar monopoly on its use or that of any other words, claiming them as exclusively Islamic and not applicable for non-Islamic use.

If Gus Dur were still alive, he would joke about it as he did about other incidents related to misunderstanding and exaggerated possessiveness of religious symbols, which are actually profane.

The word “Allah” is an Arabic word that predates Islam. The late Nurcholish Madjid (1939-2005) translated it as “Tuhan” in Indonesian, equivalent to “God” with capital G. It is merely a linguistic phenomenon.

What matters, in this case, should be the consequences of the belief of the presence of “Allah” in a person’s mind; that his presence, for instance, would steer the believer away from negative thinking about others, or, in Indonesia, from a corrupt way of thinking.

The word should be a symbol of the presence of a guard who guarantees peace while reminding against not committing wrongdoings. What use is it, after all, if the word is uttered all the time or possessed exclusively but has no effect at all on the claimants?

If Gus Dur were still here, he would also joke about how the radicals are now haunting the mosques, not just in Surakarta (as revealed in a recent study) but also in other cities, towns and remote villages.

“Why do these people make a living through planting fear in the hearts of the people?” he might say.

Or perhaps he would get mad at the fact that some of the mosques are managed by Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the country’s biggest Islamic organization, and one that he once led. Gus Dur, who opened many alternatives to facilitate the need for modernization of his previously “very traditionalist” people, would have seen it as a setback, a move to the Wahhabism of the 18th century.

But these are the facts: After the deaths of Harun Nasution (1919-1998), the former rector of Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University and founder of the Islamic thought reform in Indonesia, and Nurcholish Madjid, the death of Gus Dur seems to have eased the way for radicals to radicalize Indonesian Muslims and therefore generate more conflict in a religiously and culturally diverse Indonesia.

Hopefully this is all just a though experiment rather than the country’s destiny. Yet, as in the Ko Ping Ho series, the Chinese kung fu stories written and published by a Chinese-Indonesian whom Gus Dur was very fond of during his youth, there are always hidden weapons or secret steps available to defeat a knight’s enemies.

And if the knights should be defeated, hopefully they can find other gurus of greater skill to overcome the offending disturbers and bring back the peace. Rest in peace, Gus Dur.

The writer is a teacher in Jakarta.