Looking Up High, Wondering . . .

When I heard the name Forum Lingkar Pena (henceforth, FLP), there surely will flash in my mind the image of nice women in veils speaking politely and marrying with nice pious men they have only heard about previously (not to say that they have never met nor been boy/girlfriends since the term boy/girlfriend itself is virtually inexistent to them). Forum Lingkar Pena is a banner under which one can find Moslem writers writing to syiar (spread out) Islamic teachings of love, peace, good conducts. It’s me to blame for not knowing deeper about their works, not reading any full books any of them has written, accusing them of practicing black-and-white literature (meaning, their characters are not round with bad guys being still being bad guys and the good ones still good ones by the end of the story), accusing them of writing tediously predictable stories (with a long-haired band singer or guitarist turning into a pious young man after knowing—and, of course, falling in love with—a nice pious girl wearing veil). I realize that it is way too evil to accuse them as such now that I have read a book published by FLP entitled Ketika Cinta tak Mau Pergi (When Love Won't Leave).

Written by Nadhira Khalid, a female writer and translator living in Mataram, Lombok Island, Ketika Cinta tak Mau Pergi ably tells a love story between Lalu Kertiaji and Sahnim. Both of them are close to each other since they were very young like 9 years of age. Living in adjoining hamlets, Presak Bat (meaning West Presak) and Presak Timuq (East Presak), they arrange their rendezvous under an old tamarind tree in the border of both hamlets. They keep meeting in a secret place around the tamarind tree even when both hamlets build up animosity against each other due to a third party’s desire to drive out the inhabitants of both hamlets, appropriate their land, and mine pumice from under their feet. Animus intensifies between both hamlets and their people, and they started to kill each other during mass fights. The two lovers insist on loving each other as if to forget the fact. After being embarrassed before teens of young men by Sahnim’s father, who disagrees to their relationship, Lalu Kertiaji even plans to “steal” Sahnim from her house, and he does. However, against traditional belief strongly held by Sasak community, Sahnim’s father, Ismuhadi, with some people from his hamlet, snatches her back from the stealer. The incident triggers a mass riot between the two hamlets, and that kills several people. After being an inch from marriage, they are now separated miles away. Sahnim falls from grace in the eyes of every young man since she has once been stolen by a man, she’s a second hand girl now. She is put in house detention until a young man proposes to marry her. As for Kertiaji, also wearing disgrace all over his face, agrees to his father’s idea to join transmigration to a nearby island Sumbawa with the hope to get away from penury and, for the part of Lalu Kertiaji, to stay away temporarily from the love of his life.

It was the initial story that triggers more related actions in Ketika Cinta tak Mau Pergi. The story develops into a deeper dip into the life of Sasak community in Lombok Island as well as Sumbawa. We will be introduced then to the state of Lombok’s people life, the poor condition of a group of Sasak community already living tens of years in a seaside hamlet in Sumbawa, the life of trans people (transmigrated people who receive life support from the government during the first years of their life in the new place. In a wider context, we can also see the incident behind the transmigration of Presak people and the appropriation of Presak’s peole’s land: the establishment of pumice mining factory.

Nadhira Khalid’s novel is a light disgracing smack on the government’s face. This novel reveals how government actually knows very little of what happens on the field. They do not know that behind their plan to establish a mining company and transmigration, there is a sly practice of riot stimulation which takes the life of several people from both hamlets, as if to show that to gain as much benefit as possible from the nature's treasure, they would not bother thinking about its social effect, not to speak of environmental effects. It is also here that we know how, in certain cases, government sent people to a new place and then they just give them rice (once, they experience 4 months rice provision late) to survive without providing any paramedics, not to mention any healthcare services, which then makes them prone to death in a certain month of the year due to malaria.

Told in Indonesian with a strong flavor of Sasak language, the novel does take us from our reading couch to Lombok and Sumbawa. We are also introduced to degrees of politeness practiced in Sasak people’s communication. An older brother and sister would normally say “I” and “you” to talk with his/her relatives, but younger brothers and sisters would say "tiyang" instead of I and "side" instead of you as they speak to their older siblings. This novel echoes, in a certain degree, of course, Ahmad Tohari’s theme and language of choice—with the only difference being Ahmad Tohari’s use of Javanese-flavored Indonesian. We can see quite explicitly that Nadhira Khalid aspires to introduce, not to say promote, her home culture through the love story of Lalu Kertiaji-Sahnim. One can see how, instead of only letting the characters’ dialogs and actions show the unique life of Sasak people, the omniscient narrator—or is it Nadhira herself?—keeps on telling us readers about any local terms and incidents with descriptive sentences. On one hand, we gain knowledge about Sasak people more easily; however, on the other hand, we lose the enjoyment of a dream-like world of fiction due to the encyclopedic explanation given by the narrator.

All in all, we will find Nadhira Khalid’s Ketika Cinta tak Mau Pergi one of rare local themed novels that introduce us to a certain ethnic group in Indonesia (in this case, Sasak) better than any guide books we can find in (airport) bookstores. On my part, last but not least, I know now that my previous conception of FLP books and writers is truly mistaken. They are just different in terms of scope of theme, but they are positively not any worse than any other literary styles in Indonesian literature.