13 December 2008
Pak picked me up at 5.30am for an early start to Pandala.
Normally on our Friday trips to Pandala he is in a light-hearted mood, picking up the Pak Baha Number 2 and the Bitti trees, a time of relaxation and jokes and light hearted banter. He often sang ‘I’m going to Louisiana with my banjo on my knee’ but we never knew what the rest of the song was. But not today, we were alone and he was quiet. I sensed something was wrong.
He said wanted to say 2 things to me. He had a problem with his family, he was angry and struggling to control his temper. He said he prayed to Allah, and used the prayers in the Qu’ran to contain himself and remember to hate the ‘mistake’ and not the person. The ‘problem’ was not mentioned.
[it later transpired that a member of his family had made a financial miscalculation which had cost the family fortune dearly, but Baha had accepted that as head of the whole family, he bore ultimate responsibility. All Indonesian family decisions should be shared, and Baha accepted that as the Qu’ran taught forgiveness and family unity above all, he should not single out one person for blame. However the financial mistake had drastic implications for the workings of his company, LPTM].
The other less important point was that, in Pandala, I should not feel pressured to accept invites from people if I did not want to go, he gave me some appropriate Indonesian phrases to use.
We talked about the many things he is involved in. he said when he came back from Germany 20 years ago, his salary was only 30% of what he needed to live on with his family. He therefore prayed to Allah to be able to start up businesses and enterprises – he always liked to be busy, and he needed the extra money. From then on his enterprises and interests flourished (LPTM) and grew bigger, now he feels he cannot leave them, he is trapped in his own success. Now he has been asked, as a distinguished member of Makassar society, to stand for election in the local Parliamentary elections in April 2009, by the Islamic PKS Party, and he has to decide whether to go forward, with all the financial implications of an election campaign.
He has many meetings to attend. He is Chairman of schools committees, the German-Indonesian Development Association, Makassar Rotary Club. He is in contact with many organizations throughout the world, for volunteers, awareness and money raising. He is bursting with ideas like:
Developing tourism of Pandala area.
Developing short package trours for volunteers (Australia etc) to South Sulawesi.
Me working for him on the internet, selling volunteer work in Australia, also as a representative for LPTM, and as an Employment Agent in Western Australia (Port Hedland) for training Indonesian people in heavy equipment operation, all LPTM- related training for the mining industry. Australia needs the labour. He wants to go to Port Hedland with the Governor of South Sulawesi (Gubenor di Sulawesi Selatan) to set up co-operation with Aussies ( he hopes to get financial help in form of Credits or land) to get the Indonesian labour working there. He sees me as selling the LPTM concept to Australia.
He talked about the problem of his identity as ‘almost’ a Professor with his peers, and why people wanted to associate with him.
[ he explained to me on another occasion that although he was qualified to Professor level, he did not want to gain the professorship because it labelled him with certain obligations and expectations that did not suit him – an ‘ivory tower’ image of isolation and conformity that he did not want, he was too independent, he liked to mix with people from all walks of life and liked to travel on a motorcycle when Professors were expected to travel by limousine, and he had too many outside interests that he didn’t want to relinquish and that would have conflicted with his professorial status. Nevertheless, his peers and students at the University all called him Professor despite his denials, and he had given up trying to explain that he was NOT a professor.]
He talked about his son Ekky joining his enterprises, the problems of the global Credit Crunch, why December is a bad month for money as no trainees are coming, Ekky is managing the finances.
He wanted my money for my extra 2 months extension NOW – we talked about payment in January – he said that was OK.
We talked about (previously) Moslem religion and society and way of life, Moslem women. He affectionately calls the Aussies (Rotary Club) the ‘Australian Gang’. He talked about Kuching and Malaysia.
We talked about the culture of ‘thief’ (‘The Indonesian is a Thief’ he stated calmly) and stealing, but that it is a question of not knowing right from wrong, it is ignorance not evil, it is a cultural thing endemic in (Indonesian) society.
I cannot forget the flooding yesterday of the LPTM office in Jalan Kanal and the frogs swimming in and out of his office. He said the office floods every year, he forgot about the office (last year) while dealing with flood problems at home, and many things were destroyed/damaged. But I did not mention flood prevention because I knew there is no money. It would mean (in effect) rebuilding the office.
We talked about Ibu Hasni (housekeeper at my Wisma) and how good she is. She is very good at her job, always so pleasant, good humoured, helpful and co-operative. I told Baha what Laura had told me, that Hasni was only recently married and that now she has moved into a bigger room with her husband.
Baha said she was a cousin of one of his neighbours and she came from a good family.
Baha also discussed difficulties of keeping to the truth with his peers and not telling a lie or misleading statement – for instance, his peers wanted to work (at home) on their applications for professorship or dissertations during the week, but say they had attended the University during the week so they got paid. Baha thought this was unethical and argued strongly against his peers. He is also mindful that he has his own and his family’s honourable reputation for honesty at stake, he is standing for parliament on an anti-corruption ticket. Also his wife is currently working on her school accounts, they had to be exact and to a high standard so as to give an exemplary standard for others to follow.
Pak Baha 3/1/2009
Rotary Club Meeting (just us two)
Stories of when he was in Germany. They often talked together in their seminars (the dons and lecturers came from all around the world). His lecturer was Turkish and often looked to belittle Pak. Baha used to keep quiet while the lecturer asked questions of the other dons. He knew the Turk would come to ask him something in an effort to show Baha up in front of the others. Sure enough, the Turk asked in German of each don how many languages were spoken in their home country. They all said one or two. The Turk asked Baha how many were spoken in Indonesia. Baha was quiet and counted on both his hands – and went on counting. Eventually he said – there were over 100 different languages spoken in Indonesia. The Turk disputed this and said they were only different dialects. But Baha pointed out to him the difference between the Munich dialect and the German language – the people could still understand the language, but in Indonesia there are many different local ethnic languages that are not understood in the different regions – Makassarese, Buginese, Mandar etc. There was one language spoken in Indonesia by over 100 million people which was NOT Bahasa Indonesian – Javanese. The total number was well over 100. The Turkish lecturer was silenced.
The proposition that women should stay at home and not go to work. All the fellow dons/lecturers argued against this, saying that in a modern society it was a woman’s right to go to work, and society was better off because of this.
Baha kept quiet until the Turk came to him. Baha then said he AGREED with the proposition. They all looked at him aghast.
Baha put forward the notion that a woman’s love was like nutrition. If she goes out to work she has to give a bit of nutrition to everyone throughout the day – her boss, her colleagues, her friends. When she comes back at night, there is no nutrition left to give her husband and family.
This novel approach and argument from supposedly ‘undeveloped’ Indonesia silenced Baha’s colleagues.
Polygamy. His colleagues tried to criticize Baha for the Moslem faith which allows polygamy. This was before the AIDS epidemic started. The Germans at that time indulged in free sex and said they all enjoyed this. They did not see why Islam maintained polygamy as a strict rule of conduct.
Baha put forward the Islamic point of view – that sometimes polygamy was a way for a woman to find honour, when she otherwise may not have married, that Islam required that the man was able to support his wives, and that polygamy was a method of regulating an orderly and peaceful society because the man was satisfied and did not need to find another woman.
When later the Aids epidemic became apparent in Europe, Baha’s colleagues realized there was truth in what he said and could not disagree with him.
Sport. The Turk asked: what sport do you have in your country? Everyone replied with their national sports. When he asked Baha, Baha replied ‘Fighting”. The Turk was aghast – this is very primitive, he said. Baha said that when he was a child, they fought using catapaults, bamboo sticks, stones etc. He said they got the idea from the fighting that was going on against the Dutch colonial rulers. They used anything they could get in this fight.
Baha said – ‘If you don’t believe me, ask HIM….’ Pointing to the Dutch doctor sitting near him. They all turned to look at the Dutchman, who was embarrassed and could not deny the fact.
Again Baha had proved his point, silenced his critics and his Turkish provocateur, and showed that Indonesia actually was a country to be reckoned with and not to be belittled.
Baha and Islam.
Baha said to me in answer to my questions and doubts (about Islam/faith) –
‘If you believe in God, one day you will believe in what He says’.
This applies to the concept of Heaven and Hell. Baha says that Energy is eternal and it has to go somewhere. The ‘Energy’ Baha was meaning was the senses, Brain, Soul, Mind etc. We must believe in our senses – what we see, hear, touch etc. He says that man always strives for eternity – when you are old, you want to go to the doctor, dentist etc. We all want to live forever – it is an innate desire. Heaven and Hell was a concept used in the time of Mohammed – the idea of reward and punishment.
Cause and effect – Life is the Cause. The effect of a good life lived – the Reward of eternal life.
Baha gave several examples of when he prayed to God/Allah, and said – I am in Your hands – I have tried everything, now it is up to You.
- Leprosy when he was student. There was then no cure – 45 years ago. But he persisted in seeing the doctors and he found one who cured him. Baha says he still has remnants of leprosy in his face and hands and says he cannot feel things as normal.
- Housing when in Germany (Berlin). He needed a big house for his family of 6 children. The state said he had to have a certain size of house with allocated space, but this size was too expensive for Baha to rent. He was at his wits end having searched all the papers every day [he almost broke down at this point in relating, with tears in his eyes, as he remembered the intensity of that time]. He went on to relate how he prayed to Allah and said – ‘All these houses in Germany do not belong to Germans. They belong to You Lord. Please give me one’.
The very next day he talked to a German lecturer colleague, he explained his problem – and the colleague, with no difficulty, found him a suitably sized and affordable house to rent.
- Attack from robbers. He said 8 or 9 robbers physically attacked his family one dark and stormy night. He thought they were going to be raped and killed. He prayed to Allah to give him strength to fight. He said it was a MIRACLE but he got the strength to fight off the robbers and beat them (‘there was blood everywhere’). He had pictures to prove what had taken place. This obviously was a very traumatic and vivid experience but a most powerful evidence for Baha of Allah’s power.
- Dengue fever – last year Baha got dengue fever and thought he was going to die. He prayed to Allah. His nephew was a doctor and knew the symptoms and what to do. He knew that Baha had to get a pump into his lungs to suck away the blood because he had no muscular strength in his throat to clear the blood. The nephew got the right equipment – Baha survived, despite his family at one point all gathering round his bed believing he was going to die. Baha’s belief in Allah was made even stronger.
He said that up to a certain point, he had only prayed for his family and his own success/prosperity. Now, he prayed for the well-being of others, his concern for the world and the Environment. He is charitable and wants to make the world a better place.
Baha said:
‘We haven’t messed with the Galaxy yet, but it will happen. In 200 years’ time we will have the ability to move about the Galaxy.’
He gave the example of Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell and John Logie Beard and TV and Telephone development – ‘Who would have thought –‘ and comic book science fiction stories (Flash Gordon) which are now happening. Cyberspace – energy – computers – transportation through space and air.
Baha said – ‘ALLAH says that even if the world was to end tomorrow – GO OUT AND PLANT A TREE TODAY’. That is the most beautiful expression of all.
My own thoughts.
What I have been doing is exactly that – planting a tree – not just a concept but REALITY.
After pondering these thoughts, I made some notes of my own.
There is no Hell except what we create in our minds and in this world.
There is no Heaven except what we create in our minds and in this world.
I don’t want to live for ALL ETERNITY. Living forever, never changing – that is a Hell in itself.
If I believe in God/Allah, does it follow I also have to believe in Heaven and Hell?
If I believe in God/Allah, does it follow my spirit will live for ETERNITY?
What is ETERNITY – some concept of man-
I don’t believe in Eternity – But how can we be sure?
we came from nothing – we go back to nothing.
We were not existent before we were born.
‘Many times man lives and dies
Between his two eternities’
(W.B. Yeats from ‘Under Ben Bulben’)
But now we ARE born
And DO exist
What purpose is there in life?
Is there a purpose?
There may be absolutely no purpose whatsoever.
Except we have common humanity – and reasoning – and while existing we learn from existence. Perhaps we learn to do/be good and live peacefully with our fellow men, try to do our best. Perhaps we don’t learn that, but only to get what we can, fight for it if necessary, only concerned for ourselves.
But ultimately we don’t know and certainly can’t be sure of what happens after death. Should this worry us? No.
The Meaning of Life = The Meaning of MY Life
Because we see life from our point of view.
I think it is to do good, to try to do our best in the time we have, to search out and teach what is GOOD, RIGHT, TRUE. To help other people, particularly those less fortunate than ourselves.
To respect our friends, family and colleagues. To respect Nature and try to live in harmony with our Environment.
To be peaceable. To have a clear conscience. To work hard. To strive always for the best.
C. Tim Taylor 2012