donderdag 30 maart 2017

The debate about Islam Nusantara, 3: a concluding dinner and a poem

The second day, 28 March 2017 was for internal affairs within the Nahdlatul Ulama organization. 29 March there was a great dinner for some 150 people at the Indonesian Embassy in The Hague. There was nice food, many speeches and also quite many performances of Muslim 'entertainment'. It was the kind of what we called the Friday morning 'desert sound' on the radio with sons, lyrics in mixef Indonesian and arabic.


For the presentation of Islam Nusantara there was a group of some 14 former stewardesses of Garuda Airlines. They had come especially for this three-day event from Jakarta. Above, in red is their presentation at the conference of 27 March at the Free University. Below the colourful dress worn at the closing dinner of 29th. All hymns and lyrics sung by heart with modest dancing.


The ladies in black above are a group of salawat-singers of NU circles in the Netherlands. The youngsters below performed a very dynamic way of pious local dances. Great entertainment, between the numerous speeches as part of a good Indonesian festive event.
I had written a poem to celebrate Islam nusantara and could read it here as well.


Sifat duapuluh seorang Muslim Nusantara atau
Kebanggaan Ganda

Tentu saja dia bisa berenang
antara sini dan sana, datang dan pulang
dia tetap dalam air merasa senang
dari pulau ke pulau Tuhanlah dia memandang

Baginya samudra adalah Tuhannya
pulau-pulau hanya stasiun atau maqamnya
Hamzah Fansuri nakhodanya
Sunan Giri tetap gurunya

Baginya Belanda tidak lagi musuh
banyak cari negara ini sebagai tempat teduh
restorannya menyediakan nasi lezat, piring penuh
tanah Arab dianggapnya kering dan keruh

Mukhalaf lil hawadith, berbeda dari yang baru
dia juga tidak takut kemodernan, tak terharu
hal yang baru tidak jadi dia menyeru
malah penyesuaian, pembaharuan itu perlu!

Ahmad Baso adalah laksmana pikiran
dialah yang memimpin pasukan
memberikan ceramah berapi, nulis laporan
Habib dan ustaz takut dia punya ajakan.

NU tidak hanya makna Nahdat al-'ulama
tetapi juga bangkit semangat Nusantara
tidak perlu lagi fatwa jihad lawan Belanda
Tebuireng, waratsatul Majapahit, menjadi tanda kebanggaan ganda.

Karel Steenbrink, Den Haag 29 Maret 2017

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