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here we go again. another debate on the implementation of religious practices.
and since i’ve got my electricity back and of course the internet, i will do some revenge blogging ( i mean i will blog everything i wanted to blog about but could not do so due to the past few days blackout).
so, i was doing my task as the committee for welcoming new students at my uni. i noticed that all of the girl freshie were hijabbed ( i mean all of them were wearing head scarf). at first, i thought there was nothing so unusual about that scene. but hei….., i knew that not all of the girl were hijabbed when they first registered to our department.
so we had this dialog:
ms delvi: you are not jilbab wearing girl, rite?
the girl: yes ms
ms delvi: so why are you wearing one today?
the girl: that’s the rule in this new students orientation program ms.
ms delvi: eh, first heard that such rule exists. who said so? who decided on it? on what background? why? how come?
that girl looked so terrified with my question bombardment. her eyes showed disbeliefs to what she just heard. i, part of the system that required her to cover her head that day questioned the same rule that made her appear covered up from hair to heel in that very hot day.
she must think i m crazy as what my cousin thought about me on my strong opposition to the various sharia by laws we have here in west sumatra.
my minor boss must also think that i am crazy since i shunned him instantly when he told me that he was eager to wait for the government to implement the same sharia law they have in malaysia regarding the caning of the part-time model for taking beer in public.
“are you nut?”, i grinned to him. “religion is a matter of faith of which synonym is choice”.
“it’s ok for us mere mortal to preach to other people but to force them to believe in what you believe in or practice what you practice is a crime. you know coercive means to the implementation of religious practices is never in fashion. this coercive means will only bastardize the sanctity of the religion. it only shows that religions have failed to make people believe in them and adhere to their rules. total failure. if things go on this way, we need no more religions and even god will die since god’s place has been taken over by religious mortal lords. god will extinct or may be god is never there! “
“religion is a matter of choice u know. that is what it is called by faith not force”
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i know he must think that i have been completely out of my mind. he looked deeply to my eyes hoping i would retract what i just spewed forth. i stared back at him and coolly announced this:
god’s dead. what we have now are mortals with godly authority.
oh my god now i realized that i have driven him crazy.
life in padang is really anal lately. i have needed to come to terms with constant tremors for the last two weeks. now, i need to live in constant darkness since the PLN, our one and only and STATE OWNED energy supplier, keeps sending us endless backlash of blackout.
total blackout ladies and gentlement!!!
for the last three days i’ve been living in the age of darkness, no electricity which translates to: no clean water; no ironed clothes; no hair dryer; nothing to do to charge my laptop and hand phone; internet is scarce; no enough time to blog!
i think the major, the president, the …. or whoever in charge should think about this and solve whatever problem they have in providing enough energy or i will really out my mind because i CAN’T BLOG.
COME ON Sir ..i m a good tax payer and i have the right to complain. electricity is my basic need.
Give me back my listrik….
well, this post is not in any way the reproduction of the year of living dangerously, but in the past few days i really can’t sit still or sleep well. thank god i do not lose my appetite. after few months lull of living without tremors, padang AGAIN is hit by earthquake. see…. i use the to be is not was because we are still rocking and swaying in every other hour. sigh, i will be sleeping in tent tonight since it’s too dangerous to sleep in my room which is located on the fifth floor.
Oh, just now was another hit! got to go… (i supposed to tweet not blog in this condition).
major updates: Noordin M Top, the terrorist, was suspected as one of the killed in the 18 hours raid conducted by our Densus 88, Indonesian Anti Terror Detachment.
well, i extend my heartfelt condolence to his family and loved ones. i understand their lost and grieve. yet good riddance, this dangerous man deserved it. colson was right the tentative rule of the day is to be intolerant to the intolerant personae. (to be honest, i prefer this man to be alive to seeing him on tv carried in a casket. i want to see him stand the trial and answers questions of so many ‘whys’ and ‘how dare yous’ coming from the families of his explosive victim.
minor updates: i cannot post anything worth reading lately since i am busy getting sick. i am not done with my dentist yet. you know i need to undergo one more treatment before the permanent filling is applied by my dentist next week. then, on monday i fell off an angkot and got my lef leg injured. thank to my batik frock and 7 inchies hi heels.
okeh….i’ ll talk more on my accidents on my next posts. i can’t do it now since i need to work till i die to finish this researh proposal which has to be submitted on this coming monday or “else” (that was how the minor boss shouted at us young lecturers).
m not dead ok! neither m i kidnapped by slimy green aliens from mars. nor am i jailed for (i don’t know why a good girl like me should be jailed?). nor m i trapped in a nuptial ceremony secretly arranged by my mother.
i m just busy running around padang-bukittingi for the past few weeks to check on my ailing tooth. i was down with sakit gigi. it was pretty bad so i needed to spend a week back home in bukittinggi so my mother could attend to my constant whimpering and administer her favorite aphrodisiac obat kampung (the yolk of the duck egg, honey, salt, hot rice milk, and a sprinkle of lemon juice: “have a glass of it then you will be able to satisfy your four wives”, that’s what a traveling medicine man told the crowd in my market) to me. i didn’t know whether my ibu agreed with the tukang obat but when someone got sick in my family, my ibu would prepare a glass of that potion. and there are two weeks to go before my UI (Universitas Indonesia) grad dentist tell me to stop visiting her clinic in a serene cluster of housings near the road heading to Payakumbuh.
meanwhile, for the past few weeks i was also busy “being on the other side”.
i went to a church . supposed my kampung ustad knew this he would have his disciple hang me to death and screamed to my death body: “impostor! apostate! murtad” (its hyperbole ok) but i felt good. i m no stupid to just take it whatever people i just knew told me.
first impression, in terms of public speaking, any ustad in my kampung is no match for this pastor. their rhetoric ability is no where near him. moreover, this pastor was able to present himself as one of the masses. i mean he did not pose as a holy man preaching words sanctioned by god. he was there just to share what he had read from the bible and invited the rest to think about the truth contained in those biblical lines. i remember he was reading the section on caleb who demanded joshua to hand him a mountain. in short, it was about spirit and courage. “if the 85 old year calib wanted to fulfill his responsibility why can’t you my young friends (most of his listeners were my student age and i went there with my student),” he roared to his youthful crowd.
interestingly, he also talked about the young suicide bomber who exploded himself in JW Marriott last month. i was eagerly waiting for words like these: ” look at that muslim. they are extremist, they kill people. they are apostate. it is our heavenly duty to exterminate them all. it is written in the Bible!”. however, what i heard really surprised me. the pastor said,” look at that young soul who was so brave to do that duty. he did it because he was brave. if he was not brave he would not be able to pull the trigger. he was right because he was brave. we should laud him for his bravado. I encourage you, my young friend, to be brave as well like that young suicide bomber. but my young friends be brave to save lives not to destroy live. that young bomber was right but he was wrong because he communicate with wrong persons. so, my young friends, you must communicate with the right thing, the right person, be brave to save lives not to destroy lives”.
i believe he didn’t aware about the presence of a muslim in his church. i was not in my ms delvi regalia that evening. i appeared just like my students. at the age of 27 i still can pass a senior high school student u know. to be honest, it surprised me that he did not blame the religion, in this case, my faith for the bombing. yet, he pointed to the nose of crooked personalities who had misused the faith to suit their equally devilish interest.
frankly speaking, he gained my respect immediately. his words sent me to deep thinking: it would be wonderful if my kampung ustad stop preaching about killing orang orang kafir, the apostates. i believe this world will be a better place without those bloody speeches.
(well, m not saying my faith is a religion of violence. it’s far from it. but i know some people who only posses a skewed understanding of the religion confidently preach to the masses to promote violence to people “on the other side” using adultered interpretation of the holy scripture).
