Project 365

… continuation from the previous post.

During our coffee time, I asked mbak Linda few things about the conflict in Maluku which occurred in 1999 between the Christian and Muslim groups. She told me that Christians and Muslims in Maluku were very peaceful and never had any problems. There were some provocateurs, which were allegedly done by our former dictator Soeharto, who forced these two groups to fight against each other. When the conflict ended, it was discovered that these people were forced to fight — if not, then these provocateurs would do something nasty, for example raping female relatives. So the Maluku people had no other choice than to cause terror against each other. Mbak Linda also told me that Maluku people were originally Muslims, until the Dutch made some of them to convert to Christian. She even told me that her great-grand mother was a Muslim and some of her far relatives were Muslims. During the conflict, her hometown in Ambon was totally burned, apparently by the Indonesian army. Yet another strange thing about this conflict!

Gosh, I loved to know about these things straight from the locals. They were the ones who knew the situation really well. They were first-hand witnesses or at least had relatives who experienced it. It fascinated me how these kind of details made a difference to how we view and judge others. It made us understand the whole situation better than just by relying on media which was apparently good in exaggerating stuff (and not to mention the censorship done by the government!). If we could build this kind of understanding and tolerance towards others, the world will be in a much better state.

… continuation from the previous post.

Mbak Linda told me about the Republic of the South Moluccas (RMS) which was a self-proclaimed republic in the South Moluccas. After the Indonesian independence day, the Maluku people who were part of KNIL demanded their island to be an independent country which turned to be unsuccessful. So most of them went to the Netherlands (which supposed to be temporarily) and were promised by the Dutch government that they would solve this matter. They set up a government-in-exile. Yet, years went by and the Dutch government hadn’t fulfilled their promise yet. So these Maluku people went rebellious, attacking two Indonesian embassies and hijacking train (this hijacking story didn’t get into Indonesia by the way!) to get the attention of the Dutch government. They were quite fanatic — even to these days, according to mbak Linda, they still celebrated the 25th of April (the day when the RMS was formed), put up their own RMS flag, and regarded themselves as Moluccans rather than Indonesians.

Honestly I had no idea about this until she told me!!! Wow! 😀 It was very interesting indeed!!!

*There was a movie about this hijacking thing. You can see its trailer here.

I went to a small city called Weert today. It’s about 20 minutes from Eindhoven by train. Sam, mbak Linda, and I were invited to Ian’s house. These were the people I met during the Boekenfestijn and we became close ever since. Sam and mbak Linda were a married couple originally from Maluku (Moluccas). Sam was half Dutch Indonesian (we call it Indo or Indische), while mbak Linda was pure Indonesian. Ian also had an Indonesian background. His father was a Dutch and his mother was an Indo born in Surabaya.

Anyway… in the afternoon, Ian and Sam were busy making some music while mbak Linda and I were busy shopping in the centrum (city) 😀 After shopping, we sat for a coffee and had a very interesting conversation. This was the first time I talked to her and had a deep conversation. We talked about many things, including our life, future, and Maluku! (I’m going to put this into two different posts: here and here). I had a great time! After our coffee time, Ian and Sam joined us and we had few more drinks. I got to try on a Dutch food (fish) which I forgot its name now!! It wasn’t bad at all.

Then we went to Ian’s house to meet with his parents and had dinner together. They were very nice and their house was very cozy! Ian’s dad cooked so many Indonesian foods and they were very very delicious! They were rendang, tempe goreng, and chicken among other things. You know, it’s amazing how it’s not unusual for the guys here to cook. All the guys on the table (Ian, his dad, and Sam) loved to cook and it’s quite rare for the guys in Indonesia to be able to do that. Once they get married, the wives were expected to do everything in the house, including cooking and doing house chores. But for the Dutch and many other Western people (and MY OWN DAD!), they took turns to cook. They split the house chores with their wife. Isn’t it great?!?

We stayed in Ian’s house until 9pm! It was a looooong day and we were all very tired. But it was a great day and I had such a wonderful time! 🙂