On October 29, 2011, a book entitled Belajar Bela Rasa (Learning Compassion) was launched to celebrate the 70th birthday of Bakdi Soemanto in Kedaulatan Rakyat daily headquartered in Yogyakarta. Attending the event, my eyes were stuck on a very enticing snippet, “No gedibal, no general. It means that there are no leaders without followers. In other word, it is people who make someone a leader” (p.23). It is quite short but full of meanings and purposes. A moral message on the snippet remains relevant to Indonesia’s current social and political landscape. Through this snippet, Bakdi managed to catapult satirical tones and scold many issues in a soft and deep manner. We have now political leaders or business tycoon, but not great people. He attributed their failure of being great people to their reluctance to learn from those great people. To Bakdi, politics for politics ‘par se’ without cultural and moral literacy contributed to the emergence of dark side of human beings. Ruling figures with double personality confused their followers since there is a yawning gap between saying and doing. Bakdi Soemanto, a famous litterateur and an emeritus professor of literature at Gadjah Mada University passed away this morning. Rest in Peace, my guru. Your works will always illuminate the darkness of disoriented people and enlighten those to keep moving in one direction, instead of in all directions.
Posted on: Sat, 11 Oct 2014 00:39:18 +0000