"An Unemployed Person"

People used to say, if you love your job, then you don’t have to work a day in your life. That is what I am now. As a writer, an author, I don’t feel like I work at all. To me, writing is just as much fun as videogaming, movie-watching, mountainclimbing, parasailing, bungeejumping, or whatever great activities you could mention.

And moreover, I don’t work in the sense that I have to go to the office every single day from Monday to Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM everyday. Eversince I left Gradasi teens magazine in October 2010, I never had any intention of going back to some office or company as someone else’s subordinate or colleague. I have had enough of all of these crazy stupid office-politics I have to deal with every single moment back then when I was still an employee.

Now my daily routines include no high profile “active” and outward things at all people could mistakenly thought that I was an unemployment. It’s no wonder, considering that I usually stay all day in my rented room (Indonesian calls it with the term “rumah kost”) at Tembalang District, Semarang, the capital of Central Java Province. An then, on weekends, I go to my mom’s house at Borobudur, at a small rural village called Gedongan (“gedong” in Javanese languange means big house) near the world-famous Borobudur Temple.

But that is the way a writer works to make a living. Not with some hard and difficult activities that could occasionally turned dangerous, but just by fingers and thoughts and imagination. Our primary tool is only a computer, a notebook, a netbook, or a typewriter back in those good old days when we used to hear those terrible little noise when someone is typing something. And our magic secret weapons are just determination and consistency.

I still remember clearly when I first fell in love with books and especially novels. It was in 1985, when I turned 14. I was in junior high school at SMP 20 Semarang and enrolled into a special service by Semarang City’s State Public Library called Perling or Perpustakaan Keliling (mobile-library). Every Wednesday afternoon, my kid brother and I will go to a yard of Taman Indrya kindergarten near our old house at Genuk Indah and wait for the blue van of Perling to arrive.

And then, we’re all going crazy with the books the van brought. It was a wonderful atmosphere back then, to see racks of good books by Agatha Christie, Enid Blyton, Arswendo Atmowiloto or Alistair MacLean which we can borrow in the span of a week with only Rp 50 ($ 10-cent with current inflation rate) each. Then I knew that my life was about to abruptly change. And I dropped every grown-up-wishes I have (Indonesian calls it “cita-cita”) to become a novel writer—an author.

Now, two and a half decades later, I am an author. Not with the level of fame JK Rowling and Dan Brown has—not yet—but this is me, with 10 novels, 3 short stories anthologies, 1 non-fiction book, and counting. To me, miracle is when what we dreamed for could turned into reality that you can actually smell, touch, hear, or taste. And I think I’m somewhat fortunate to have one of those in my tiny short lifetime.

All of my novels are published by Kompas Gramedia, the biggest publication company in Indonesia through two of its subsidiary companies, PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama and PT Elex Media Komputindo. Eight of those ten fall into a genre which is called Teenlit or teen literature. It’s basically novels for teens, from 12 to 21 years old. The other two are from a genre called Metropop, for mature women aged 25-40 years old.

My latest two books are www.gombel.com and Bukan Cupid (He’s Not Cupid). The first one is a mystery-thriller story about an internet site which contains ghost and horror stories that started to terrorize its users. Some of them experience horrifying incidents such as saw ghost apparition, heard mysterious unexplainable noise, or even brutally possessed they have to be locked at mental institutions for their own safety.

It was published by Elex Media and released at December 14, 2011. This was my first horror novel to date. The cover was so intriguingly scary so that some of its readers couldn’t bear of even see it at nighttime. They have the nerve to read the book only at daytime. And when night falls, they change the book to some ordinary sweet love stories that end happily ever after!

My newest book, which was published by Gramedia Pustaka Utama (GPU) at February 14, 2012, is Bukan Cupid. It is an anthology of Valentine-Day’s-themed short stories, my collaboration with 13 other famous Teenlit authors. Those authors, in alphabetical order, are Antonius Andrie, Christina Juzwar, Erlin Cahyadi, Esi Lahur, Irena Tjiunata, Janita Jaya, Lea Agustina Citra, Monica Petra, Nora Umres, Pricillia AW, Sophie Maya, Teresa Bertha, and Valleria Verawati.

On Saturday, February 11, we held book launching and meet and greet at Gramedia Bookstore, Jalan Matraman, Jakarta. The event was hosted by the famous Boim Lebon of the “Lupus family” from the series Lupus by Hilman. All of the 14 authors attend the event, except Erlin, Monica, and Nora. It was soon followed by other meet and greet gala at Kompas Gramedia Fair at the Istora Senayan on Sunday March 4, but at that time I couldn’t make it to the event due some shedule clash.

On the same day, Nora, Sophie, and I held a similar event, a talk show at Waroeng Taman Singosari at Jalan Sriwijaya, Semarang, about the book Bukan Cupid and another short stories compilation entitled Suburban Love by our dear friend, Catastrova Prima. Unlike Bukan Cupid which was published by a giant publication house, Suburban Love was published independently through a minor publication company, Nulisbuku.Com.

Now I’m in the middle of preparing a nonfiction book about two idol groups from South Korea, Super Junior and Girls’ Generation. It will be published by Elex Media somewhere at May. And hopefully, not very far from now, I will have my newest Metropop novel, Fade In/Fade Out, out to the market to become my 11th novel.

Cersil

One of the most popular genre of novels in Indonesia is the “cerita silat” (cersil) or martial art story. It is based on Indonesia’s traditional martial art discipline, the “pencak silat” or simply “silat”, hence the name. The cersil flourished since early 20th century, and heavily influenced by wuxia novels or kung fu novels from China.

Like the knights stories in Europe, both cersil and wuxia novels present the stories about warriors, kings, heroes, warlords, hermits, and beautiful princesses, with historic events from ancient and medieval age to colonialism era in 18th and 19th century as a background to the whole story. Some has fantasy and mythology elements such as gods, spirits, heavenly creatures, monsters, dwarfs, witches, or demons.

What makes cersil different from other form of stories about history and ancient heroes is that it always tells characters that have masterful and sometimes superhuman skills in pencak silat. Someone who mastered the highest skill of the pencak silat is called “pendekar” or the warrior.

A good pendekar must preserve justice and rightousness to help others with his or her silat knowledge. The good ones will have to deal with endless and deadly challenge from the villains, which also have similar level of skill in silat with the good pendekars. The good ones usually called “pendekar golongan putih” or white warriors, while their counterparts are called “pendekar golongan hitam” or dark warriors.

It is the fights and clashes between the goods and the bads that makes cersil so appealing to its fanatic readers. While on duel, both parties exchange their own deadly fists which is called the “jurus” to kill or disable each other. The fights sometimes end with cruel and horrifying dead since most fights are accompanied with deep hatred and years of dreadful revenge. Love could also triggers deadly clashes as well.

One of the most prominent cersil characters in Indonesia is Mahesa Jenar from the giant novel “Nagasasra Sabuk Inten” by Indonesia’s greatest cersil author, the late SH Mintardja. Jenar is a master of silat, who’s after his retirement from the Kingdom of Demak army in mid 16th century Java, begins his long juurney to search the palace’s lost treasures, the kris Nagasasra (which means One Thousand Dragons) and the kris Sabuk Inten (Diamonds Belt).

During his journey, Jenar (Mahesa Jenar is an ancient Javanese name/phrase which literally means The Yellow Bull) must face the oppositions from supervillains such as Lowo Ijo (Green Bat), Sepasang Uling (Pair of Snakes), and the legendary Pasingsingan. If the condition become critical and he involves in life-threatening situation, Jenar must release his ultimate fist, the Sasrabirawa (One Thousand Demons), to end the opponent’s challenge.

Each pendekar like Jenar has his or her own unique deadly fist as a secret and ultimate weapon against enemies. Such power comes from special element in the body called the “tenaga dalam” or inner-self strength. It’s similar to superpower strength and special feat in superhero characters from comic books such as Spider-Man, Batman, or Superman. The tenaga dalam gives each pendekar their superhuman abilities to fight enemies and defend themselves.

Besides Mintardja, Indonesia has plenty of excellent cersil authors with outstanding talent like Asmaraman S Kho Ping Hoo, Widi Widayat, and Herman Pratikto. The famous contemporary novelist Arswendo Atmowiloto once wrote cersil novel entitled Senopati Pamungkas or The Final Warlord which garnered high critical reception from critics and readers as well.

I also once wrote a cersil. It is called Menuju Matahari (Towards the Sun) which was published in Suara Merdeka Daily Newspaper in Semarang, Central Java, from August 1997 to July 1998. It tells the story of one young and handsome warrior named Wisnumurti and his two best friends, Jaladri and Bajul Kuning.

The three of them tried to unravel the mystery that surround the tragic death of Prince Samodra, an ex general of the Sultanate of Pasir who lives in a hill called the Manyar Mount with his family. The prince and all of his family members was brutally massacred by a group of unknown warriors 20 years earlier. Later investigation shows that the recent Sultan of Pasir is probably masterminded the massacre.

Right now I’m in the middle of a process to convert the story into a full-length cersil novel, which hopefully can be published in 2011. During the process, i feature it as a serial in my Facebook page, Wien’s World. You can read it down there. But for the moment, it only available in Bahasa Indonesia version. So international audiences will have to wait until it has been completely translated to English before the story can be released internationally, which I hope can be done very soon.

Celebration of August

On August 17, 1945, Indonesia declared its independence and no longer held the status as a colonized nation. The declaration of independence was proclaimed by Soekarno and Hatta, two of the most important founding fathers of Indonesia. Since the day onwards, August 17 become the official independence day of Indonesia.
Each year on August, Indonesians celebrate the independence day with various kind of activities. Unlike Americans who celebrate their independence day on July 4 with parties and fireworks, Indonesians do it mostly with contemplation and prayer. Each individu must remember and commemorate national heroes that have sacrifice their lives to uphold the independence of Indonesia.
The celebrations begin at early August with competition of various kind of game, race, and contest. The most notable competition of all surely is the “lari karung” or sack race. Lari karung is basically a sprint race competition, but the participants must run with their legs wrapped inside a sack. So they don’t run, but leap and jumping around like a frog.
Another popular contest at the celebration of independence day is the “makan kerupuk” (eating the flavored chips). Here the contestants must race each other to eat the kerupuk, Indonesian traditional flavored chips. But it’s not an easy job at all, since they must do it with their hands tied up behind their back. And to make it even ridiculous, the chips is hung by a thread approximately 1,5 metres above the ground.
The competition is held by local citizens inside a close range neighborhood, especially in one RT or RW (see my article about what are RT and RW in local governmental administration in Indonesia). They do it only for fun, not for a serious competition like in sports. But the winners still receive prizes, mostly in the form of daily consumer goods such as soap, shampoo, or chili sauce.
Before or after the competition day, the citizens held a massive work of cleaning the vicinity of their house and environment. This work is called a ”kerja bakti”. Kerja means work, whereas bakti means homage or devotion. They do it voluntarily. No salary, no fee, no commission whatsoever. And they do it in a “gotong royong” way, which means work together hand in hand each other.
Starting at August 14 or usually a week before August 17, each citizen must erect and display the Merah Putih (red and white), Indonesia national flag, in the front yard or in front of their house. People also install little flags in their cars, their bicycle, their motorcycle, and in the public transportation vehicles like taxis and buses.
On the night of August 16, citizens will gather in the streets or local convention building to have a “malam tasyakuran” or contemplation night. They will pray together and commemorate the merit of the national heroes. The contemplation night usually begin at 9 PM until nearly dawn. After the female citizens go home at around 11 PM, the male ones continue to hang out until late morning while they talk, chit-chat, playing cards, playing chess, or watching movie together via VCD or DVD.
The next morning, starting at 9.30 AM, schools, universities, and official government offices and agencies held an “upacara bendera” or flag ceremony. They will rekindle and recreate the moment when Soekarno and Hatta declared the independence of the Republic of Indonesia back in August 17, 1945, at East Pegangsaan Street, Jakarta.
The ceremony participants will erect the Merah Putih, sing the national anthem Indonesia Raya (Great Indonesia) together, reread the Proclamation Manuscript written by Soekarno and Hatta, go to one minute silence to commemorate national heroes, pray together for prosperity and safe, and finally sing heroic old songs like Garuda Pancasila, Halo-halo Bandung (Hello, hello, Bandung), Maju Tak Gentar (Untrembled Forward), Sorak-sorak Bergembira (Happy Cheerings), or Indonesia Merdeka (Free Indonesia).
Similar flag ceremony is held in the presidential palace, the Istana Merdeka (Freedom Palace) in Jakarta. The ceremony is lead by the Indonesia president and attended by the chief of parliaments, ministers, former presidents and vice presidents, and foreign ambassadors. Citizens throughout the country watch the presidential flag ceremony live from television.
For Indonesians, the moment of independence day is always a remembrance of hard work, sacrifices, and struggles, not something that celebrated with lavish dishes and glamorous parties. The independence is not a grant from anyone, but a result of years and centuries of resilient fight against the colonizer nations.

Cat Rice

You might wonder, what is a cat rice? Is it meal for a cat, or is it a meal with rice and cat meat? No, it’s not horrible or terrifying at all. We Indonesians do not eat cat (although some of us indeed consume snake blood, chips made from fried grasshopper, or lizard meat!). Cat rice is only a name for one of the most popular meal in my city, Semarang, the capital of Central Java Province in Java, Indonesia.
Its original name is “sega kucing” or “nasi kucing”. Sega or nasi means rice, and kucing means cat. It’s basically one ordinary Javanese meal with rice and any other dishes like fried chicken, roasted fish, soup, tempe (fermented soybean cake), tahu (tofu), or fried egg. Cat rice is served with tea, coffee, or orange juice.
Cat rice is usually sold in side street food stalls or cafes. Unlike any other cafes around the world which located in open spaces near pedestrian area, many food stalls in Indonesia are literally located in the edge of a street, even sometimes right on a sidewalk. This is what called “warung kaki lima” or five feet food stalls. I’ll write later about warung kaki lima in another article since it truly unique and sometimes funny.
In those food stalls, cat rice is served in small packs wrapped with food paper and a piece of used newspaper. The wrapper is stapled along with a small piece of another paper with a word written on it which indicate what kind of dish contained inside it, such as “AYAM” (chicken), “TELUR” (egg), “UDANG” (shrimp), or “TAHU” (tofu).
A café serves approximately up to 100 to 150 packs of cat rice at one time. The packs are put on one big table and customers can take them freely as many as they want. Then they eat it along with another additional dishes such as satay, kerupuk (flavored chips), quail eggs, or steamed chicken gizzard.
After the meal is over, the customers told the waiters/waitresses how many packs they take, how many and what kind of additional dishes they eat, and what softdrink they drank. Then the waiter will sum up the total price the customers must pay. Since the waiter cannot watch the activity of each customer they had at any given time, the customer can always lie about the amount of cat rice they consumed. But cat rice cafes is not just a café which serves foods. It also educates people about honesty, dignity, friendship, loyalty, and togetherness.
What really unique about cat rice is that its pack is really small so people had to take more than four of five packs at once before their hunger disappear. And since they hang out with friends, relatives, clients, or even with their beloved one, the amount of packs they consumed can be uncontrollable.
Because of the small packagings, cat rice is extremely cheap it often costs no more than Rp 500 each packs (nearly only US$ 6 cent each!). So, you can take 16 packs of cat rice if you have 1 dollar in your pocket. This extremely cheap price makes cat rice most popular among university students who had extremely limited financial power too.
Another special fact about cat rice is that the food stalls serve it opens around midnight until nearly dawn. They won’t be ready to serve their meals until 10 or 11 PM. So, cat rice cafes are basically treat the customers who suffers from midnight time hunger or simply just want to “begadang” (hang out in the middle of the night until late morning). The most popular cat rice café in Semarang, Warung Nasi Kucing Pak Gik or Mr Gik Cat Rice Café, opens at 11 PM to 5 AM daily. Hundreds of customers flock there every night, sometimes they even have to wait outside patiently for empty chairs or just empty spaces inside the café.
So, how does the meal associated with cats? Its name apparently originated from the portion of each pack which is exactly the same as the size of the food given to a cat. Most Indonesians who keep cats as their pets don’t feed them with canned cat food just like in the US or any other advanced nation, but simply with rice mixed with fish. And the portion is so tiny because they assumed those cats can find foods on their own as predators.
(Photo courtesy of subura2005.blogspot)

One Name

Indonesia’s first president is Soekarno. He was succeeded by Soeharto. Both Soekarno and Soeharto are the examples of Indonesian who only had one name. Most Indonesians, especially Javanese, only have one single word into their names. They don’t have first name and surename like people in other countries and cultures do. Their one single word is their name. Indonesians are not accustomed to used surename, except for some ethnic groups who live outside Java.
So, like our first two presidents did, many Indonesians lived and be recognized by others as only Suprapto, Handoko, Mulyono, Sunarti, or Santoso. This will result in much confusion when they go abroad as foreign people always ask for surename in all kind of business especially immigration.
One more unusual thing about person’s naming in Indonesia is that in some cultures, one’s name change constantly following his/her progress into maturity, adulthood, age, and even his/her position either in society or in career. In ancient times until the first half of the 20th century, Javanese used three levels of name: childhood name, adulthood name, and senior/veteran name. People from high social rank, such as kings, sultans, ministers, dukes, generals, religious leaders, or government officials, even had posthumous name, which used later when they have long passed away.
Such example is the great King Sri Rajasanagara of the Majapahit Kingdom who ruled from 1350 to 1389. Upon his birth into adolescence age, his name was Raden Tetep. He also known as Tirtarayu, Pager Antimun, and Janeswara. When he became crown prince in the age of 15, his name changed to Dyah Hayam Wuruk. Later on, when he crowned as the fourth leader of the Majapahit realm in 1350, he held the official king title as Prabu Sri Rajasanagara.
Other leaders in Indonesia’s history is known simply by their posthumous name. The second king of the Mataram dynasty, Panembahan Anyakrawati (1601-1613), is widely known as Panembahan Seda Krapyak. “Seda” is Javanese word which means dead, and Krapyak is the name of the village where he passed away.
His grandson, Sunan Amangkurat I (1645-1677), often mentioned as Sunan Tegalwangi. Both Amangkurat and Tegalwangi are his posthumous name. The title Sunan Amangkurat I was used after his death, and his original title is remain unknown to this day. Whereas Tegalwangi is the place where he passed away after he flew away from his palace due to Prince Trunajaya’s massive rebellion.
My grandfather (my mother’s father) also has more than one level of name during his lifetime from 1901 to 1974. In his childhood until his adulthood, his name was Tubingan. And then, right after he had grandchildren, he altered his name into Djojodihardjo, making him widely known as Mr Tubingan Djojodihardjo since then.
But the tradition is no longer used nowadays, except in the circle of the old royal family like in Yogyakarta, Surakarta, or Cirebon. By 1960s and 1970s, people started to name their babies with more than one word name. Recently, under the influence of European and American culture, most Indonesians even started to use their latter name as surename. For example, is one’s name is Bambang Purnomo, he will name all his children with Purnomo as their latter name with the hope that all of his descendants will use “Purnomo” as the name of his “dynasty”.
Since I haven’t got any children yet, I also had the idea of making my latter name (Wintarto) as the name of my glorious dynasty in the future, or perhaps naming my first son as Wintarto, Jr. or Wintarto II. Sounds wonderful, isn’t it?

The Pocong

Now let me introduce you to pocongan. Pocongan or simply called pocong probably is the most frightening and scariest ghost in Indonesian culture. Its form, its shape, and its appearance produce a haunting experience for those who has seen them or had an encounter with them.
Pocong usually appear at night time in the graveyard, near a place considered to be “angker” (eerie or haunted place), or in an abandoned house that is believed to be inhabited by ghost or “arwah” (the departed spirit of human). People who has seen a pocong usually will react in different ways, such as run away, scream loudly, or simply fall down unconsciously. But they share one common feeling: scared to death!
Pocong can be seen in their all white “uniform”. From head to toe, a pocong wears white cloth with some kind of veil wrap his/her head. On top of the veil, there’s a tassel tied with a string. Both hands are tied too in the position of “bersedekap” (palms of the hand on top of stomach and heaped each other). There are also two more strings that ties the hip and the leg of a pocong.
In every apparition, a pocong moves by jumping around just like a frog. They don’t make any noise, but the scariest part is their white cloth combined with the disfigured face beneath the front part of their veil. Some witnesses even claim that the eyes of a pocong sometimes can be seen in a frightening red flame like a burning coal.
Pocong actually originated from the traditional manner of the ceremony of dead people according to Islamic rite and ritual. Before a dead body is being buried in the grave, he/she will first be cleaned with pure water and flowers. Then, he/she will be wrapped with white plain cloth called “mori” or “kain kafan”. After this process complete, the dead one can be called a pocong. He/she will be buried with their white cloth intact. So, a moslem won’t need a coffin when they are buried like Christians do.
Pocong is very popular in Indonesia. Most Indonesian regard pocong as the most frightening ghost among all form of ghost and evil spirit known in the Indonesian folklore. Because of the popularity, pocong is often featured in horror movie and “sinetron” (TV movie/series), such as in Setan Kredit (1980), Pocong (2006), Gotcha! (2006), Malam Jumat Kliwon (2007), and the series Hidayah.
For you who will visit Indonesia soon, especially in Java, be prepared to meet the pocongs. It is frightening, but in the other hand, a pocong is somewhat cute too. And since all Islamic country and culture adopt the same tradition to bury the dead ones, it is interesting to note that other Islamic country such as Saudi Arabia, Libya, Egypt, Qatar, Bahrain, or Turkey doesn’t recognize pocong as a form of ghost or evil spirit.
As far is I can recall, pocong as a ghost only exists in Indonesia. So, if you brave enough to infiltrate the ghost world in “the other side”, please notify me if you see a pocong outside Indonesia. It surely will be astonishing if a pocong is seen in Egypt or Turkey.
I also wonder how the pocong is called in those countries…

RT & RW

Indonesian government is managed the same way as another democratic countries do. We have president, vice president, cabinet, parliament, supreme court, and local governing bodies. But the unique part about our country’s government is that its “tentacles” reach down to the deepest level of society hierarchy. We have a special kind of official government organization which is called the RT and the RW. RT is Rukun Tetangga (neighborhood harmonious) and RW means Rukun Warga (citizen harmonious). They’re the lowest strata of our government tree who run daily social life of the citizen.
The local governmental system in Indonesia divide the vast territory which is also known as The Nusantara (archipelago) into 33 provinces. Each province is governed by a governor. I live in Semarang, the capital of Central Java Province.
A province, like Central Java, consists of smaller local government units which is called “kota” and “kabupaten”. Kota means city or municipality, whereas kabupaten means regency. Areas considered to be a kota is a big city which have a massive economic activity especially in industry and telecommunications. On other hand, kabupaten or regency is a wider area than the city that is consists of rural and countryside region whose inhabitant live mostly by become farmers. Head of a city is “walikota” (mayor), whereas head of a regency is a “bupati” (duke or regent)
Either city or regency is divided into “kecamatan” (district) and governed by a head of district called “camat”. Then, each kecamatan is divided again into “kelurahan” (sub-district). A sub-district is equal to a country or a village. We have two kinds of head of sub-district.
In a big city, each sub-district is governed by an official named “lurah” (the chief). In a small and rural town, each sub-district is governed by “kepala desa” or the chief of the village. Kelurahan is officially the smallest govermental institution in Indonesia. But in order to get the better approach to the citizen inside a specific region or a village, each kelurahan is divided into RWs.
A sub-district usually have between 10 to 15 RW. Each one of it is guided by an official named “Pak RW” (Mr RW). Then, each RW is divided into RTs. There are usually between 7-15 RTs each RW. An RT is guided by a “Pak RT” (Mr RT). Each RT consists of 18-20 household. So, RT is the lowest strata of governmental hierarchy in Indonesia. Its duty mostly is to maintain the harmonious and togetherness between the close neighborhood. Thus, “rukun” (harmonious) is the name.
An RW is mentioned with Roman number, such as RW I, RW II, RW III, and so on. Whereas an RT is mentioned with alphanumeric number, such as RT 4, RT 5, RT 6, and so on.
Unlike any other officials from president and ministers to mayors and the lurahs, Mr RW and Mr RT does not receive monthly official salary from the government. They even got no fees whatsoever. So, their function is basically similar to volunteer workers. They run their job not to obtain money or to construct a steady career path, but solely just to express their dedication to the society.
I live in RT 9, RW XIII, Kelurahan Pudakpayung, Kecamatan Banyumanik, Kota Semarang, in the province of Central Java. My Mr RT is Mr Prio Aries Pambudi. I myself also involved in the “governmental” structure of the RT as an “official” in event organizing. My duty is basically like an event organizer, which is to held any event in my RT. Like the other official of the RT and the RW, I receive no payment too from the government.
In spite of the fact that they work voluntarily, they did it seriously and wholeheartedly as if it’s their only career. They organize the citizens to watch the surroundings area in a nighttime private patrol called a “siskamling”, short form of “sistem keamanan lingkungan” or environmental safety system. Each month, Mr RT must also held a meeting between the citizens to discuss their daily life, resources, and the environment. Then, once in two or three months, similar meeting is held by Mr RW and attended by his subordinates i.e. Mr RTs.
The citizens choose the person who will hold the position of Mr RW and Mr RT regularly once in two or three years among themselves. He had to be a public/society figure who own high charisma and leadership and respected by all. The head of the RW and the RT is usually and mostly a man, and their wife will automatically hold the position as The Head of the PKK on the RW or the RT respectively. PKK is the abbreviation of “pendidikan kesejahteraan keluarga” or family welfare education. The basic duty of the PKK is to organize all the activity between citizens in healthcare, informal education, women’s emancipation, and practical skill such as cooking, sewing, or gardening.
Thanks to RWs and RTs, we Indonesian live in peaceful atmosphere and blend together as a big family (but sometimes we also gossipping about each other cruelly behind their back, a casual conversation that is called by the term of “ngrasani” or “bergunjing”…!)