The 'conversion' of Sindhunata

On 1 September 2008 I wrote a blog about the change in self-perception of Gabriel Sindhunata. He considered himself as a participant of Javanese culture and we so also seen by many others. In July 2004 my wife an I made a sentimental journey to Indonesia with our two sons, their partners and one mother-in-law. We saw the places where we had lived in the 1980s in Jakarta and Yogyakarta. Without any appointment we also went to the bungalow used by Sindhunata for writing in Kaliurang. He has a garden of meditation in that place, with a combination of statues, a lady 'perhaps Mary', a quite big Semar. But Sindhyunata also ordered a statue of Petruk, 'because all perople here are simple, poor people. They can better identify with Petruk, the servant who is not always perfect and wise, but has a good deal of dedication. People can better identify with Petruk than with Semar. For the inauguration there were all kind of Petruk: the taxi driver, the journalist, the cowboy, plaiyng a new kind of theatre. Our company arrived at this occasion: cultural values shown under guidance of a Catholic priest, a Jesuit.

At a later visit to Yogyakarta, in 2008, I received the newest novel of  2007, Puteri Cina on the century long history of Chinese in Indonesia. The first 'Puteri Cina' was married to the king-priest of Demak who introduced Islam and always felt partly a stranger in her new land. So it was often in later generations of Chinese in Indonesia. They functioend often as a scapegoat, the cause of all kind of problems that were connected without any foundation to them, just because people want to seek excuses for problems and tragedies. At that time Sundhunata  connected his emphasis on his Chinese offspring to the violence experience by the Chinese in Jakarta in 1998, preceding the fall of Soeharto, when military, especially Prabowo had tried to turn the negative feelings towards Soeharto into pogroms of Chinese shops and houses in Jakarta.

Only now I have read sections of an earlier book Kambing Hitam of 2006 by Sindhunata. Most of the book is about the writings of René Girard, reproduced in his pleasant and easy going Indonesian.  There is a chapter about sacrifice in general, a quite long about Old Testament stories like Job (215-298).

There are two Ekskursus  or digressions, one on the Batara Kala story (335-354) and the second one (355-404) with the title Kesedihan Putri Cina. The first section is general about the idea of stereotype. The second section is a very long quote from a Chinese journalist in 1947 who wrote about clashes in East Java between the returning Dutch army and nationalists. The latter took revenge on the Chinese and a mie factory was set in fire, many Chinese in Malang killed. It is a detailed story, reprinted in a book by Liem Koen Hian alias Tjamboek Berdoeri in 2004. There are also references to other pogroms against Chinese, 1740 by the Dutch in Batavia and 1916 in Pekalongan by Sarekat Islam. The third section is about the tragedy of May 1998 where problems of people versus Soeharto were also channelled towards the Chinese (by Prabowo?) The fourth section elaborates on stereotypes ( 385-9) The fifth and last section 389-404 was very interesting for me. It is a personal biography of Sindhunata as someone from a Chinese family in Batu, but more or less denying his Chinese identity until he went for study to Germany. Most Indonesians he met in Germany were Chinese and his identity became a problem for him: why was he hiding his Chinese identity?  In 1989 he was in a retreat in a Benedictine Abbey in Metten and he read several novel about the theme: Auf der Suche einer Heimat (in search for a homeland). It was an important theme in Germany for Jewish-German authors but also for migrant workers to Germany who were wrestling with their double identity. The Jesuit Peter Knauer ordered him to read the texts of Isaiah 49-55 about the suffering servant of God. In talks with the Jesuit father and colleague he concluded selama ini saya tidak bisa menerima kecinaan saya, sebab saya tidak bisa menerima ketiakadilan yang ditimpakan pada saya. Saya harus menerima ketidakadilan itu bukan dengan kekuatan saya, tapi dalam rencana dan rahmant-Nya. [Until then I could not accept my Chinese offspring, because I could not accept the injustice hat was directed against me. I must not accept this injustice with firm action from my side, but according to His justice and mercy].

This is followed by the story of a little girl, a mate during his youth in the 1950s but she left Indonesia in 1959 together with many other people, ‘returning’ to China, and this remained for long a mystery to him. And then there is switch in his thinking: This kind of Chinese identity taught me that there is no homeland in this world. Kecinaan macam itu sebenarnya adalah sebuah kerinduan terdalam hati manusia akan sebuah tanah air abadi, yang damai dan tentram serta tak akan pernah memisahkan manusia lagi. Kerinduan itu sering memaksa saya untuk menahan diri agar saya tidak basah berkaca-kaca. [This Chinese offspring is in fact a deep longing in the heart of manking for an eternal abode in peace and harmony, where people are no longer divided. This longing (mimesis?) urges me to remain inhibited in order not to be astonished, lame, wet by tears].

These last lines of the book return to the universalist atmosphere that is in fact the background of feeling and thinking of Sundhunata.