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Chapter Two

Characters

Indonesia is home to all sorts: tailors and tycoons, street strummers and the king of pickpockets.

Pak Ogah (Betawi)

Mr. No Way.

A children’s puppet show on television in the 1980s featured a character called Pak Ogah, a layabout in Jakarta, home to the Betawi people. The Betawi are a mishmash of ethnic groups from around Indonesia, with bloodlines from China, the Middle East and the former colonial power, the Netherlands. In the show, Pak Ogah has a stock reply when asked for help: Ogah, ah!—No way. The syllable ah emphasizes his point.

Today, any Indonesian who says Ogah means: “No way! I won’t do it!”

The literal translation of Ogah is “don’t want.” The forceful “No way” fits better because Pak Ogah speaks with conviction.

Pak Ogah was in a puppet show called Si Unyil (That Small Cute One). Unyil is from the Sundanese language of West Java. In Bogor, Bandung and other West Javan cities, bakeries sell roti unyil : small bread, or buns made from leftovers of dough from bigger loaves.

Characters like Pak Ogah played on a stereotype of the Betawi as dumb, uneducated and out to make an easy buck. Most Betawi accept the stereotype as good-natured ribbing.

In the show, Pak Ogah sometimes agrees to do a favor, but requests a payoff:

Cepek dulu.

“First, 100 rupiah.”

Cepek is 100 in Hokkien, a dialect from southeast China that immigrants brought to Indonesia generations ago. Betawi merchants and haggling customers in the capital commonly use the term because Chinese influence on commerce and culture is deep. Other Hokkien numbers are jigo (25), gocap (50), gopek (500) and ceceng (1,000).

Economic turmoil hit Indonesia when the currency plummeted in 1997, and people lost jobs and savings. Food distribution networks broke down in some areas. So-called Mr. Ogahs popped up at intersections, T-junctions and U-turns across Jakarta. They acted as traffic lights or cops, regulating the flow and bustle of commuters. Drivers rolled down windows and dropped 100 rupiah coins into their palms.

These street entrepreneurs later became known as polisi cepek (100 rupiah police).

Indonesia’s economic crisis triggered riots and protests, and helped push authoritarian President Suharto from power. Although the economy slowly improved, Mr. Ogahs patrolled the capital. Panhandling thrived. A boss at the wheel of a pickup stopped at busy intersections, where grandmothers, mothers and young children hopped out and begged. Beggars “rented” babies from poor families for the day to woo sympathetic tourists. The begging squad’s manager pocketed a hefty slice of the take, and sometimes drove his “employees” from satellite towns ringing Jakarta. He charged them for the ride.

The number of panhandlers ballooned if pests or dry spells damaged rice harvests. Begging also picked up when people gave to the needy near the end of Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month.

Street musicians (pengamen) wandered main streets with guitars, serenading people at restaurants or street corners. Sometimes they shook a rattle and rhythm out of a glass bottle containing a stone, or from flattened bottle caps nailed onto a stick.

Tunes ranged from Indonesian pop and rock to Top 40 songs to commercial jingles. Some buskers boarded buses and sang anti-government songs, which flourished after the 1998 fall of Suharto.

Iwan Fals, a craggy-faced singer with unruly, silver hair, drew a huge following with his guitar talent and odes to the poor. One of his songs tells of Bento, a fictional businessman who lives the fast life. Many fans believed the inspiration for Bento was tycoon Bambang Trihatmodjo, Suharto’s second son.

Suharto’s kids used their connections to amass fortunes while their father was in power, triggering resentment among down-at-heel Indonesians. Bambang kept a lower profile than his younger brother, Tommy, a playboy and race car driver who sometimes tooled around the steamy streets of Jakarta in a Rolls Royce. Tommy was jailed for 15 years in 2002 for ordering the killing of a judge who had convicted him of corruption. His sentence was reduced to 10 years on appeal, and he was released in 2006, partly because of good behavior. The outcome angered Indonesians who believe the rich and well-connected still manipulate the law.

Malin Kundang

Ingrate.

In a folktale, Malin Kundang was the only son of a poor village widow in West Sumatra. When he became a young man, Malin sought permission to seek fortune far from home. His mother wept, but gave her blessing and he boarded a ship and sailed. Years passed without news. His mother stood daily by the shore, awaiting his return.

Far from home, Malin worked hard. Smart, diligent and handsome, he became rich, bought a ship and married. One day, he docked in his hometown, and villagers marveled how the scrawny lad had become a wealthy merchant with a dazzling wife. His ailing mother rushed to the dock to welcome her son.

“My son, Malin! It’s me, your mother,” she exclaimed.

The haughty Malin saw only a stooped woman in shabby clothes. Ashamed that the sight might offend his wife, he ignored the old woman. He kicked her to the ground when she tried to hug him, and he commanded his crew to sail. Malin’s stunned, tearful mother watched as the ship drew further from the shore.

“Malin, my son, how could you do that to your mother? You will become a stone!” she cursed.

A storm struck Malin’s ship and it ran aground. Malin turned into a stone on the rocky beach.

Nowadays, exasperated parents complain if their children ignore their advice or commands.

“Don’t be like Malin Kundang,” they say.

Jangan seperti Malin Kundang.

West Sumatrans like Malin have a reputation for traveling long distances. The calling is merantau, which means to leave one’s home, or wander about, in the Minangkabau language of the region. It’s a rite of passage to manhood. It’s difficult to find Minangkabau men who have not left home, at least for a while. Most plan to return eventually.

The term merantau is so widespread that most Indonesians know it. It is associated with men. In the traditional view, women only leave home under duress: to find a job in a hurry, or escape some personal crisis.

Nowadays, the tendency is to settle away from home for a long time. This practice is merantau Cino, or migrating like the Chinese, whose vibrant roots stretch all over Asia and beyond. A short period is merantau pipit (sparrow-like travels) because the bird doesn’t linger long in one place.

Minangkabau restaurants serve Sumatran-style food across Indonesia, as well as in Southeast Asia, Europe and elsewhere. They are called Padang restaurants after the name of the West Sumatran provincial capital. They say you can find a Padang restaurant on the moon: just walk a little, turn left and there you have it! The most famous Padang dish is rendang, meat simmered in spices and coconut juice.

Some Minangkabau men leave home because they feel constrained by West Sumatra’s matriarchal system, which requires a husband to allow a brother of his wife (ninik mamak, in Minangkabau) to settle any family dispute.

Matrilineal customs require a man to give advice and money to his sister and her family. He helps her out, but has little influence over his own affairs. His role as husband is marginal. Sisters usually inherit their brothers’ rumah gadang (big house) and other family assets.

A century ago, West Sumatran men were only allowed to marry women from the same village. Some sought brides elsewhere so they could be free of the irksome ninik mamak.

West Sumatran men who leave home stay loyal to their families. Their success is judged by how much money they send home to build houses for relatives, or mosques or schools in hometowns.

Cewek

Girl.

Linguists say cewek came from ciwe, which means female genitals in the Hokkien dialect from China. Cewek took hold in the 1970s, and dictionaries define it as a young girl. Nowadays, it’s a colloquial term for a woman.

Then the term cowok, the male equivalent of cewek, came along. Male Javanese names usually contain the vowel o. Hartono is a male name, while Hartini is female. Joko, Padmo, Handoyo and Suranto are all male names.

Perek (acronym) PERempuan EKsperimental

“Experimental woman” = Prostitute. Bimbo.

The word perek appeared in the mid-1980s when teenage girls turned up at Jalan Melawai, a street in Blok M, a jumble of bars, malls and hotels in Jakarta. The street became known as Lintas Melawai (lintas means cross or pass quickly) because crowds streamed back and forth. Women strolled, loitered outside shops, dined on bakso (meat balls) and teh botol (cold, bottled tea), and waited for men. Some wanted money; others settled for sexual experience. They looked for a type known as Oom-oom (Oom means uncle in Dutch), a sugar daddy who drove a flashy car and spent with abandon.

Perek is a common term for prostitute among the young, though many elderly people don’t know it. It used to refer only to a promiscuous woman, not a woman who required payment for sex.

Other terms for prostitute:

 WTS. A term for Wanita Tuna Susila (woman without morals). It appears in newspapers, radio and television talk shows, government edicts and speeches. The male version is PTS (Pria Tuna Susila, or man without morals). PTS can also be the client of a male prostitute.

 Pekerja seks komersial (commercial sex worker). A neutral term commonly used by feminists and social workers.

 Kupu-kupu malam (night butterfly). An insect with beautiful wings lures its prey.

 Perempuan jalang (wild, untamed woman). A rude expression.

 Ayam (chicken). This rude term is similar to chick, the old English slang for a young woman. Some sociologists say the term became popular in Indonesia in the early 1990s because of the alleged tendency of prostitutes to chatter, or cluck like hens. Indonesians often use the term for the benefit of foreign men who are on the prowl.

 Cabo. This term for prostitute comes from Ca-bau-kan, which means woman in Hokkien.

Players in the sex industry address each other with familiar nicknames. The regular term for pimp is mucikari or muncikari, but he’s also papi (daddy) to his charges. A madam is germo, but also mami or tante (aunt, in Dutch). They oversee anak asuh (children in their care), young prostitutes who often come from poor villages and have no other source of income.

Young prostitutes who become financially indebted to their pimps and cut off from their families are anak potong (cut child). Hefty cuts of their wages end up in the pockets of managers.

Kelas kambing (goat class) and kelas embun (dew class) refer to prostitutes who don’t charge much.

That’s because kelas kambing once referred to the cheapest seats in a movie theater. The meat of kambing (goat) is cheaper than that of a cow or buffalo.

Kelas embun also offers the cheapest seats at an outdoor cinema: spectators have to sit on grass covered in dewdrops.

Prostitution is illegal in Indonesia, but many Indonesians have a sweep-it-under-the-mat approach to the profession. The sex industry flourishes. Giant prostitution complexes operate in major cities. In some places, clients look through one-way windows at rows of seated prostitutes before making their selection.

In the 1970s, Jakarta governor Ali Sadikin advocated regulation of the sex industry, rather than an outright ban. He pushed for lokalisasi, a policy that let brothel complexes pay taxes and operate under state supervision. He made some headway, but the project died. One regulated brothel in North Jakarta has become a plush Muslim center with carpeted, brightly lit prayer rooms. Muslim groups voice their opinions more forcefully than they did under authoritarian rule, and lokalisasi is unlikely to make a comeback soon.

In 2004, hundreds of prostitutes in the East Javan city of Surabaya held a mass prayer for the success of the presidential election. They wore Muslim headscarves called jilbab, and some shed tears as they read verses from the Quran.

Waria (acronym) WAnita-pRIA

“Woman-man” = A transvestite/transsexual.

Bencong is another popular term.

Many cross-dressers work as hairdressers and specialize in bridal makeup. Some sing on stage or patrol streets and bars as prostitutes. They await clients at Taman Lawang, a traffic roundabout in Jakarta where trees and bushes offer discretion. Waria operate on the fringes of society, but enjoy a degree of acceptance, occasionally appearing on television soap operas and advertisements. In the final days of 2005, a group of Muslim women rallied at a local parliament building in Sumatra to protest plans for a New Year’s Eve transvestite concert sponsored by the government.

An older term for transvestite is wadam, a combination of Wanita and Adam. It hasn’t been used much in the last couple of decades.

Tante girang

Happy auntie.

A middle-aged woman who seeks a gigolo. Armed with cash and gifts, she lures young men into romantic liaisons.

Some well-off Indonesian wives indulge in pleasures of the flesh because their husbands ignore them. Their spouses are busy, the wives figure, so why not keep busy themselves?

Om senang (happy uncle) is a man who seeks stimulation from younger women for a price.

Both characters became prominent during the 1970s heyday of the economic boom in oil-rich Indonesia. Buoyed by the rise in global oil prices, the elite had lots of money to splurge on good times. Some people frowned on amorous adventures, warning of the deterioration of family values and neglect of children.

Anak bawang

“Onion kid” = The runt of the litter. A nobody.

A shallot usually has a bulb that is smaller than the rest. It just seems to fill the gap.

In a school playground, kids slot into two teams for a game of tag. The youngest jumps up and down, eager to join. Her older sister smiles and tells the others: “C’mon let her into my team. But she can’t be ‘it.’ She’s only an onion kid.” Ayolah, dia ikut timku. Tapi dia gak bisa jadi. Dia cuma anak bawang.

Bawang merah (red onion) is the fragrant Asian red shallot. Bawang putih (white onion) is garlic. Bawang bombay is a big white or yellow onion that takes its name from the Indian city known today as Mumbai. Onions were noted as a digestive and treatment for the heart in India more than 2,500 years ago, though the vegetable is believed to have come from central Asia.

Arema (acronym) AREk MAlang

Malang guys.

Men from the town of Malang in the East Javan highlands get raucous when the atmosphere heats up at soccer games. They are some of the rowdiest soccer fans in Indonesia, and are notorious for getting into fights before and after matches. Arek means child in Javanese.

Soccer crowds from Malang are also called bonek, an acronym from the Javanese terms BOndo (collateral, or investment capital) and NEKad (recklessness). They are rich in recklessness, but don’t have much capital to fund their trips to other cities.

The bonek rally their soccer team, also called Arema, at outof-town games.

BTL (pronounced beh-teh-ell) Batak Tembak Langsung

Batak shoots directly/immediately.

The Batak people of North Sumatra province have a reputation for straight talk. They don’t mince words. This upfront attitude seems abrasive to some Javanese, who are known for skirting a sensitive subject in conversation.

According to folklore, the Batak speak loudly because they once lived in houses near lakes, on mountain slopes, and in other sparsely populated areas. Their houses were set far apart and they had to shout to get their message across. Some Batak live around Lake Toba, the largest lake in Southeast Asia. It was formed by a huge volcanic explosion.

The ethnic spectrum in the stereotype from refined to rough runs from the Central Javanese, to the Sundanese in West Java, to the East Javanese, to the Batak. The Sundanese break down into the Bogor people, who are considered pasar (“market,” or rough), and people from Bandung, who are thought to be refined, a legacy of the Hindu kingdom of Pajajaran that reigned over West Java centuries ago. Bandung is also home to many universities.

Bulai/Bule

Albino/white foreigner.

Javanese believe albino animals are sacred, and parade white buffalo (kebo bulai) in a show of thanksgiving every Javanese New Year. Like the Muslim calendar, the Javanese calendar is based on the cycles of the moon.

Bule is a colloquial term for white foreigner. It can be neutral, affectionate or derogatory. Some foreigners bristle at the expression because it dumps them into a racial category. Indonesians often shout “Halo bule! ” and “Hello, mister!” at foreigners on the street. Many Indonesians have had little contact with foreigners, and yell because they don’t know how else to attract attention.

Another old term for Caucasian is belanda (Dutch) or londo (Dutch, in Javanese). It doesn’t matter whether the white person is Dutch or not. The terms emerged during Dutch rule in Indonesia, which began on Java in the 17th century and ended after Indonesian nationalists declared independence in 1945. In 1949, the Dutch acknowledged Indonesian sovereignty after several years of war.

A foreigner is orang asing (alien person). The term also applies to Indonesians who travel to distant parts of the archipelago, home to hundreds of ethnic groups. These out-of-towners look different and speak their own language. Those with very dark skin might be from remote Papua, at the eastern tip of Indonesia. People with pale skin could be from North Sulawesi province, where Chinese influence is heavy.

A long time ago, most Indonesians rarely strayed from their kampung (village) and had little contact with outsiders. Trade, modern communications and the population shift to the cities changed that over the last few decades. Under President Suharto, millions of Javanese left their crowded island and fanned out across Indonesia under a policy called transmigrasi. The policy reinforced government control over outlying areas, but created tension between local populations and Javanese migrants who took land and power.

Kumpeni

Company.

A derogatory term for Dutch people and other Westerners. It comes from Perserikatan Kumpeni Hindia Timur, which means Dutch East India Company in Malay. Established in 1602, the trading company planted its headquarters on Java and served as an instrument of Dutch power in the region, trading in spices such as nutmeg and cloves, as well as tea, silk and other products. Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, as the company was called in Dutch, dissolved in 1798 and Indonesia fell under the direct administration of the Dutch government.

Javanese referred to the company simply as Kumpeni. Today, an Indonesian who wants to shirk a chore says:

“Relax. The Company is still far away.”

Tenang. Kumpeni masih jauh.

The implication is that the Dutch aren’t about to invade, so what’s the rush?

Raja

King.

The Hindi term pops up in many contexts: raja jalanan (king of the road), or a high-speed, reckless driver; raja dan ratu sehari (king and queen for a day), or a bride and groom on a wedding day; and raja copet (king of pickpockets).

Raja singa (lion king) means top dog. It also refers to syphilis, the king of sexual diseases. The expression predates the AIDS era.

Nearly 2,000 years ago, travelers from India reached the archipelago that later became known as Indonesia. They brought Hinduism, and great kingdoms spread the religion across Java and other parts of the archipelago. Today, Bali is the only island that is predominantly Hindu.

Sanskrit, the language of ancient India, influenced Indonesia: the word bahasa, or language, is from Sanskrit. Hindi, which shares the same alphabet as Sanskrit, also made its mark.

Vermak Levis

“Jeans changer” = A tailor who specializes in altering Levis and other jeans.

Vermak comes from vermaken (change, or turn), one of many Dutch words that were picked up by Indonesians during the colonial occupation.

Not every tailor has needles strong enough to alter jeans. Those who do hang a Vermak Levis sign in their shops or offer services on the roadside, equipped with only sewing machines. Others attach sewing machines—the kind with the wheel and the foot pedal—to their bicycles and offer door-to-door service. These Vermak Levis are easily identified by the red Levis emblem on their signboards.

You might see signs that say Permak Lepis, especially if the tailor is a Sundanese from West Java. Sundanese have trouble pronouncing the consonants v, f and p, and sometimes mix them up.

Golkar (acronym) GOLongan Keturunan ARab

Group of Arab descent.

Golkar, the ruling political party under Suharto, had close links to the military and was dominant down to the village level. Its loyalists controlled Parliament, making it a rubber-stamp assembly for the president. Although Indonesia is now democratic, Golkar remains a powerful political force. The name of the party stands for Golongan Karya (Functional Groups).

Some Indonesians joke that citizens with Arab blood are Golkar, or Group of Arab Descent. The acronym is lighthearted rather than derogatory. Arabs arrived in Indonesia well over a millennium ago and established themselves as traders and purveyors of Islam, which became Indonesia’s dominant religion.

Arabic is richly represented in the Indonesian language. The Arabic word for book, kitab, refers to Islamic books in Indonesian. Many bookstores have signs that read Toko Buku & Kitab. Toko means shop in Indonesian, and buku means book.

Prominent Indonesians of Arab descent include two former foreign ministers, Alwi Shihab and the late Ali Alatas, as well as Munir Thalib, a rights activist who fell ill and died on board an Indonesian commercial airliner heading from Jakarta to Amsterdam in September 2004.

An off-duty pilot was sentenced to 20 years in jail for the murder after a court found him guilty of putting arsenic in noodles served to Thalib. Judges concluded that Thalib was killed because of his strong criticism of human rights abuses by the military. Thalib’s widow said the murder was part of a broader conspiracy by state agents in a case reminiscent of state-backed killings in the days of dictatorship.

Indak mati oleh Belanda (Minangkabau)

“Can’t be killed by the Dutch” = Invincible. A superman. Knock him down and he pops back up like a rubber ball.

Few Indonesians know this old phrase, which comes from a game of playing cards during Dutch colonial times. The Jack, Queen, and King cards symbolized Western nobility, or the Dutch occupiers of Indonesia. You were unbeatable if you had aces up your sleeve.

Indonesians who lose a board or card game say they have died (mati).

Si Kabayan

That happy-go-lucky guy.

Kabayan is a character from West Javanese folklore who wears a sarong across his shoulder. He is an eternally lazy villager, armed with excuses to avoid work. He adores his sweetheart, the shy Iteung. Everything else, including money, bores him.

Kabayan became the hero in a popular television series, and a movie about him—Si Kabayan Saba Kota (Kabayan goes to the city)—broke box office records for an Indonesian movie in 1989.

In the film, Kabayan heads to town, where the tough, commercial culture shocks him. A city girl attracts his attention. He tries his hand at running a company. But he balks at the pressure in the big city and returns to his village, where Iteung awaits him.

Kabayan got an image makeover in 2004 when state-run television broadcast a show called Kabayan Reformasi. This time, the villager is clad in jeans and a shirt, and Iteung is not a tongue-tied lass, but a strong woman with a mind of her own.

Today, an office worker grumbles about a colleague: “Uggh. I really like Ahmad but he often gets on my nerves. He’s so Kabayan, you know. He does nothing but smile!”

Aduh, aku suka sama si Ahmad tapi dia sering bikin kesel. Kabayan banget, sih. Kerjanya senyum doang.

Arjuna

The warrior-lover.

Arjuna is the third of five Pandawa brothers in the Mahabharata, an ancient tale from India about a monumental war between family lines. The Pandawas won the war. Arjuna was a great warrior, mastering the bow and arrow and every other weapon in the world.

Slender and soft-spoken, Arjuna symbolizes an ideal of male beauty that eschewed muscle-bound hunks. Indonesians marvel at his exploits as a lover. He is said to have had at least 41 wives and countless lovers. One affair was with Srikandi, who attended one of Arjuna’s weddings and fell in love with him. She got him to become her archery teacher. One popular puppet show features Srikandi learning to shoot an arrow; she aims for Arjuna’s heart.

Indonesia’s female archers won the country’s first Olympic medal, a silver, at the 1988 Games in South Korea. They were crowned “Srikandi heroes” (Pahlawan Srikandi) back home.

Pop songs, contemporary novels and films pay tribute to Arjuna. In 2002, rock band Dewa (God) released a hit single, Arjuna mencari cinta (Arjuna looks for love). The lyrics of the rock stadium anthem describe how he would scale the highest peaks and sail vast oceans to be with his love. The ending says true love might elude Arjuna.

In an Indonesian household, a mother worries about her daughter, who listens to love songs and jumps for the phone when it rings. She fears her infatuated child will end up hurt by her “Arjuna,” slang for a crush or new boyfriend.

A girl tells her lovesick friend:

“Don’t take that Arjuna seriously. Yesterday he was out with that girl. Tomorrow, he’ll be with a different one.”

Jangan ambil pusing dengan si Arjuna itu. Kemarin dia pergi sama cewek itu. Besok pasti sama cewek lain.

Musuh dalam selimut

“Enemy under the blanket” = An unknown danger.

A close friend betrays you. The traitor seemed like such an intimate friend that you both slept under the same cover. In another interpretation, the blanket is a convenient hiding place for the betrayer.

“There’s a crayfish under the rock,” also warns of hidden menace. Ada udang di balik batu. The crayfish will snap off your finger if you shift that rock.

“Selling a gun to the enemy,” refers to betrayal. Menjual bedil kepada lawan.

“Bifurcate like a monitor lizard’s tongue,” has a similar meaning. Bercabang bagai lidah biawak. The lizard’s forked tongue implies two-sidedness, or allegiance to everybody and nobody.

Kyai mbeling

“The naughty cleric” = An off-beat, off-the-wall Muslim leader.

Kyai is a title of a senior Muslim preacher. Mbeling is a crude Javanese term for naughty.

One example of kyai mbeling was Emha Ainun Najib, who wrote tongue-in-cheek essays about corruption during the rule of President Suharto. Emha had long hair and wore Western clothes instead of traditional, flowing tunics favored by preachers. Emha invited actors and musicians to perform at his gatherings. They penned puisi mbeling (naughty poetry), which needled the government. Known as Teater Mbeling, the group was careful to avoid direct criticism of the state. They spoke in allusions because the government often shut theaters or publications that it deemed subversive, and jailed their owners.

Tong kosong nyaring bunyinya

“An empty barrel makes a loud noise” = A blowhard, full of hot air. All talk and no action.

A similar expression: air beriak tanda tak dalam (rippled water is shallow).

On the other hand: Air tenang menghanyutkan (calm water carries away). Quiet people are profound.

Bagai api dalam sekam

“Fire in the hay” = A spoiler.

A walking timebomb.

A rebellious teenager, perhaps. Or a disgruntled employee.