Sharing Obama's Dream

I've always love to read memoirs and biographies, but Obama's memoir is not just an ordinary memoir. It was written before he won the presidential election (read this blog too). The greatest token from Pesta Blogger 2009 is a translated book of "Dreams from my Father" from the booth of the USA's Embassy. Pesta Blogger 2009 was giving me some treasures as I've got variety of books (from the USA Embassy) and a book "Makassar dari jendela pete-pete" about my hometown Makassar (given by Panyingkul's founder, Lily Yulianty Farid). I've also got more friends and more knowledge...

I am reading Obama's book during this Christmas holidays, and was enchanted by how he could put his heart's battle into a memoir. Now, I also know more about his brother which was mentioned in an article that I've pasted here as a post showing how rich is Obama's background (at that time without really knowing their real relationship and background). Reading memoirs that was written before he was elected as a president gave me an impression of honesty.

It is also showing me another aspect of the USA that I would probably not able to see through the Hollywood movies. It is enhancing my previous note on racism. So, it is a universal problem, and nobody could claim that their part is more miserable than others. That little Obama grew up with more identity problem than me. Googling through the internet made me encounter this other post (in Bahasa Indonesia) commenting about the same article from Jakarta Post's weekenders.

His biography also give me a chance to see the struggle of identity that came in generations before him. Barrack Obama (Barry)was very lucky as he gained good supports from his close relatives. I think his Indonesian father should also be credited in that process. That's how he can share the essence of his biological father's dream (also his grandfather's dream). He was blessed with the distance that his other siblings didn't really get. That's how Mark (his younger half brother) can only remembered a different version of nightmare (read more here).

Obama's struggle is reminding me of the Papuan struggle to obtain their identities. Seeing the film "Denias" is really different from "Laskar Pelangi". Both Denias and Lintang has the same problem, an access to the education. Yet, the problem faced by Denias is more than financial matter. . Denias needed to face his own Papuan brothers. That is the kind of discrimination that I can also feel in Obama's memoir.

Last week I brought some foreign friends to see the old film "Indonesia Indah 1" in the IMAX theatre, Taman Mini Indonesia Indah. I was embarrassed that some Indonesian; while seeing the Papuans dancing their dance (using only their kotekas) shouted out loud "pornography" in front of their children. It is actually an insult of others' traditional clothes. For the Papuan, the history of koteka is also the history of Adam and Eve (Emogiki Pane and Emobeku Pane), koteka and moge are their "clothes" after realizing their nudity in front of God. It is also a tribal symbol and one's pride. A dialog through citizen journalism website made me aware of this reality. Yet, I didn't have the courage to ask those shouting people to respect others' culture. It was in public, but I do hope that school can give an example of respecting others' culture. If they are kept being pushed to deny their real identity, then no wonder if they do not feel that they belong to Indonesian brotherhood. We can see how Obama's grandfather changed himself. It is something that come from inside one's heart, just like when Adam and Eve realized that they were naked, that they need clothes...men changed their way of living.

Obama's dream and hope are universal, it is not about any race...but it is about real freedom, equal right as human beings. If the Papuans want their freedom, I think it is not actually a political demand. It is more their own struggle with their emotional feelings of being the righteous owner of their own land. I am always sad when some part of Indonesian archipelago asking for their "freedom". Are they sure that they can survive by themselves? We need to be together as a country to stand the universal world. It is also a universal struggle, a struggle of humanity...to be able to sit as real brothers and sisters.

Obama has succeeded in stepping farther through his identity struggling period. Now is his time to show the world that he can help us gaining more positive approaches toward a peaceful world. It is not easier than his own identity struggle, and it is surely need lots of prayers and actions to support this universal goal.

Counting Down to Pesta Blogger 2009

It is still 24 days to the Pesta Blogger 2009 in Jakarta. The celebration was actually started earlier with communities of bloggers did their getting together in some chosen cities. Jakarta will be the last party and the closing place of this year party.

Actually I was asking my self whether to come or not to Pesta Blogger this year. I joined Pesta Blogger 2007 and 2008, so I am thinking of giving the chance to other person who might probably deserve a first encounter with Pesta Blogger.

I am sure that Pesta Blogger 2009 will provide us with new experiences, and hopefully a lot more new friends. Offline meetings were proved to enhance friendships. I mostly got the experience from the gatherings of the members from the mailing list of Forum Pembaca Kompas (FPK), and from wikimu.com's gatheringg. Pesta Blogger in Jakarta actually gave me the feeling of a big marriage party in Indonesia...we came to say hello, chit-chat a little bit, then came back home. Perhaps there will be more communication to offer through online chats or postings than the short time meeting in a very big (and noisy) party...

Yet, a posting about the building where we are going to have that party, is luring me with another aspect of visit: the building! I had my interest in that building since it was still under construction, but I've never visited it yet. Then, from the website of SMESCO Indonesia, I saw that it houses UKM Gallery (subtitled: Preserving the Indonesian Heritage). So, now I'm not so sure about giving up my chance to join the Indonesian biggest bloggers' meeting of the year...

Another happy story came as a result from Pesta Blogger 2008. In Pesta Blogger 2008 Anthony Bianco was our guest from Australia, and he'll be revisiting us this year! Thanks to Air Asia , he's going to experience the sparkling Sumatera and the crowded but intriguing Java. Anthony's blog will share the beauty and interesting aspects of Indonesia.

Ironically, his application for the best job in the world was rejected as not meeting the criteria. Perhaps it is not a coincidence, but it is his destiny to come back to Indonesia. I am sure that once he experiences the beauty of the coral reefs in Indonesia (places are mentioned in the Indonesian Coral Reef Foundation/TERANGI, i.e. Raja Ampat) he'll sure be coming back again and again...

Pesta Blogger 2008 is coming...

Pesta Blogger 2008 is approaching. From all the impressive logo proposals, it seems that Gage Batubara has made a simple design but powerful in its message. It shows two call out symbols, symbolizing the communication between bloggers, noting the interaction gained through the comment box. The five dots in five colors showed the diversity of opinions, the diversity of cultures, the diversity of human being involved in the blogosphere. They also have different sizes. Colors and sizes represents the community, in the idea that everybody in the community is free to voice their opinions, supporting each other opinions, or even being disagree without loosing the communication bubbles. I think that is the most important aspect of "blogging for society", to construct communication, to apply dialogue between cultures, between citizen and its government, between citizen and the mainstream media, between older generation and younger generation.

The organizer has made a nice pick! I do hope that this year there will be more international bloggers join the party. We do need more bridge bloggers, not only those with mainstream media background, but all of those bloggers who care about Indonesia. Indonesian society is colorful, but the size of the communication bubbles will be bigger if we are thinking in a more universal society. I do realize that it would be a huge work, and I believe that the organizer do know their priorities. At the moment I can only give ideas, so I'll wait and see the progress (keeping my fingers crossed for the invitation, he...he..he...) Hopefully there will be more bridge bloggers too!

With the spirit of the national awakening, hopefully blogging for society will roll on and on...for the sake of the nation and for the global world!

New Voices of Indonesia Speak Through the Internet.

Pesta Blogger Nasional Celebrating the First National Bloggers’ Day in Indonesia.

Indonesian government acknowledges the value of Indonesian grassroots’ voices that speak through the internet. Voices from the mailing lists, Readers’ Forum, to the voices of bloggers in the internet are now considered the new voices of Indonesia (Suara Baru Indonesia).

The Minister of Communication and Information, Muhammad Nuh, opened the First Indonesian Bloggers’ Party (Pesta Blogger) that served about 500 bloggers on the 27th October 2007 in Jakarta.



Indonesian bloggers came from Sumatera, Sulawesi, Java, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore joined the party. It was also a celebration of the first National Bloggers’ Day. The government gave its support and will guarantee the freedom of speech in the internet. Yet, bloggers do need to remember their responsibility in presenting their country through the cyber space, and to help building Indonesia through their views and developing critics.



As an archipelago with more than 17,000 islands the internet will surely be the best tool to make a faster and easier connection to unify the citizens. The Indonesian bloggers are now approximately 130,000 people, which is far beyond the huge population of Indonesia. While developing the ICT to serve Indonesian people, it is also important to raise people’s awareness of their position as bloggers in presenting Indonesia to the global world.

This bloggers’ day celebration took place a day before the celebration of the Youth Pledge Day. It was hoped that the spirit that unified the youth in 1928 will be renewed and unified the Indonesian through the power of these new voices.

The internet is more familiar to the young people in Indonesia. There are plenty of teenlits published by youngsters after their blogs. But as shown in this first Indonesian bloggers’ party, a blog is not exclusively maintained by youngsters. I met the oldest blogger in the party, a seventy six-year-old, Prof. Dr. Iwan Darmansjah. His blog is mostly about health and medicine, and he said that he already kept it for ten years.

As in an Indonesian wedding party, where people can meet a lot of friends and be introduced to new acquaintances, the party was served to all range of age. There were also some seventh grader students and ninth grader students who maintained their blogs for about one or two years.

Family and school seemed to have a good influence in introducing blogging to youngsters. I’ve met a family whose members are all keeping their own blogs. First, it was to cater a long distance relation between parents as the father had to work far from the family. Then it became a habit that was followed by the children. The eldest son, who did not really keen on writing, started his first blog about Play Station Games. Now he is also posting to another blog as a part of his school assignment. The younger son started his blog last year when he was a sixth grader student. While his father’s blog is called ndobos (Javanese word for nonsense), he named his blog anakndobos (the child of ndobos). He wrote about his daily routine. He was frankly said in his post about the bloggers’ party that he kept playing Game Boy as he did not understand what the minister was talking about. Yet, as he revealed to me, he never wrote any complaint about his parents in his blog.

I think this is the different between blog and diary. When I was his age I wrote a lot of things in my diary, including my complaints for my parents or teachers. It was wonderful to look back at the diary and learnt how I grew up and to keep reminding myself on things that I might now act as a parent. While diary can be keep personal, blog is meant to be a public share.

Blog is a way to communicate to each other, relate to new acquaintance, or even fight for defending arguments. It will do good deeds as long as we keep it in the cyber world noted Ong Hock Chuan. He is a Malaysian blogger, a former journalist who is now a technical advisor for Maverick (the Public Relation Company that also helped worked out this event). In his blog he posted an article about the dispute between Malaysia and Indonesia on a traditional song known to Indonesian as a song from Maluku, East of Indonesia. He received 249 comments from Indonesia and Malaysia. While the discussion was heated in the cyber space, hopefully a better understanding of the different views could ease down the anger in the real world.

This big event was organized by some senior bloggers with Enda Nasution as the chairperson of the steering committee. The committee was consisted of some popular names like
Budi Putra, Nukman Luthfie, Wimar Witoelar, Shinta Danuwardoyo, Wicaksono, etc. Bloggers’ communities came using their own T-shirts’ design. Some were advertising their community, and there was also an activity from the Bundaran Hotel Indonesia community (Jakarta) to raise education fund for children from Bangsari, a village near Yogyakarta.


In the first session which was moderated by Wimar Witoelar, stories of bloggers came out. From those who can have their books published, to those who found the spouse through blogging activities. Another blogger lost her job in a TV station after a story she posted in her blog provoked anger from the Malaysian Minister of Tourism. She revealed her gratitude to other bloggers who kept supported and encouraged her during her ordeal. In this session Adrianto as the CEO of wikimu.com was also giving his words. He said that wikimu.com as a citizen journalism website is the participatory form of citizen in revealing their opinions. I have noted that more people are now attracted to write for citizen- journalism websites, and only some of these writers have their own blogs.

The second session divided the participants into several topics. The topics were personal blog, celebrity blog, current issues, bridge blogging, women’s issues, on-line marketing and sales, and technology blog.

I registered myself in current issues as I’d like to know more about how to handle current issues in my limited time for writing. I think it is important to know how to make an objective view if I want to cover current issues for my blog. My blog Buah Pena was constructed after I knew citizen journalism website. I consider it as my diary as a citizen reporter. I like the term citizen journalism because it reminded me of my duty as a citizen of my country and also as a citizen of the world. The moderator for this group were Wicaksono (a senior journalist), and Rudiyanto (an NGO worker).

This second session was very informal so I did placed myself between two groups, Current Issues and Bridge Blogging, to be able to hear both discussions. While the participants for Current Issues were plenty, the participants for Bridge Blogging were only about ten persons. Moderated by Ong Hock Chuan, the topics Bridge Blogging was mainly concern about the function of a blog as a bridge to give information about Indonesia to the world.

Actually the conversation in the group of Bridge Blogging was more interesting for me, but my interest in grassroots’ objectives on current issues kept me longer in the bigger crowd. As an excerpt from Bridge Blogging, I got that language is still the main obstacle for bridge blogging but there are plenty of friends who will be happy to help out. Then, community of mailing list, forum, or citizen journalism website can become an additional resource of knowledge and help. The voices from bridge blogs are important to give more opinions on Indonesia outside the voice of the mainstream media to the world.



There are two important things that I dig out in this session. First, as a blogger I do not have to worry about current issues. Just be ourselves. That way we can produce a better view on any current issues that took our interests. Then, for being a bridge between Indonesia to the world it is important to be very objective. Networking communities can be a big help to gain more knowledge and to build a better blog performance.

Between the two session people made their vote for their chosen blogs. This vote brought some prizes such as Nokia Hand Phone. A lap top was a spontaneous gift from the minister for the most voted blog. It was such a party, but it was also a start for a bigger job. To be the real new voices!