Folks, this is a story which is mixed with my opinion and ideas. It will be a continual story, so if you are interested in it, please check out occasionally since I will add new lines at any time. This is not only a story of misery but also a struggle, triumph, joy and as always, just like in the real life, defeat and sadness. Please let me know if you find any grammatical errors. I would really appreciate that. Thank you. Elwin Tobing

When the sun set in the east

I

It was at the first day of the new year of 2002. Mr. Zainal was watching TVRI program. Nothing was interesting. The TV he has, 17” black and white, was bought perhaps 12 years ago. He could not remember when exactly he bought that. But he remember that he bought that few months after he got married. It was a good stuff at that time, but now it’s old. But that’s enough for him to follow the news from TV, although the government program are usually boring and not interesting. He had plans in mind to buy a new and nice one, but then he pushed that plan away from his mind. The anchor said “happy new year” to the audience and wished everybody a better luck in the new year. She also announced that in a few minutes, she would introduce the guest speakers for her dialog show. The theme of the dialog was the “future of Indonesia”.

Mr. Zainal finished up the coffee that his wife made few hours ago. It’s already 11AM. He hasn’t eaten anything yet. His two kids were still sleeping. They went late to bed last night, almost at 3AM. The older, a boy, is 9 and the younger, a girl, is 7. He decided to have only two kids. He entirely agreed with the government program at that time: family planning. Two kids for each family are enough. He discussed it with his wife before they decided to get married and she also supported the idea. He made that decision not because he was afraid of the government officials who strongly urged every new marriage couples to have only two kids. Nor because he was fond of Mr. Soeharto and Mrs. Tien Soeharto whose picture were everywhere, carrying two babies with them advocating the family planning program.  He decided that because he knew the hardships and the struggles of raising children. He himself came from a large family with 4 brothers and 5 sisters. That’s more than enough to create an unbearable burden to his father and mother. But that’s common at that time. More children meant more happiness. Every one in the family would welcome the new baby with joy and the entire house would fill with happiness as if God was really standing there and blessed them. But the era of a big family was over and he decided to limit to two kids, whether they were going to be boys or girls. He was very jubilant when he knew that the second baby was a girl.

His wife was preparing something to eat. She knew that when her children woke up, they would be hungry and ask for food as if they haven’t eaten anything for weeks. Last night, his Christian neighbors gave them new year presents. The family living one block from his house gave a considerably big parcel contained soft drinks, lots of food, and to his surprise there was an envelope enclosed with money. Not that much, but not that little. The family living across his house gave a small one but the food was quite good. Mr. Zainal family is living in a housing complex, about 20 miles from the down town of Jakarta to the east.  It’s between Bogor and Jakarta. He bought that house when the price was still relatively cheap in 1988.

The residences in the complex are very diverse not only by ethnic group, but also race, religion, educational and occupational backgrounds.

On the right side of his house lives a young couple with no kid. They are still in their early 30s. The husband returned to Jakarta two years ago from his study in Boston. He got a master degree in educational program from Boston University. Three month after he returned home, he married his wife. They have been in a relationship for about 5 years before they decided to get married. They knew each other when they both worked at Inadata Consulting Group, a considerably large consulting firm in Jakarta. The wife is younger one year. She is originally from Lampung, a province located in Sumatra. Her parents are still living there and they actually just visited this new couple two weeks ago. Both are hard working individuals. The wife is still working with the consulting firm but now the husband works with another company. It’s actually not a company but a non-profit organization called InDI or Indonesian Development Institute. 

They are rarely at home before 7PM. Most of the time they come home from work together. And just when they first moved to the house, laugh and music are usually the only sound once they got home from work. It seems they are just a happy young couple. Perhaps they haven’t experienced so much troubles or problems yet. Life seems still beautiful.

The wife, Karlina, although she is 31, still looks like 25. From outside look, she is a dream of almost all men: slim, quite tall and pretty young woman. She looks classy but simple. Her smile is so beautiful that every man will be attracted at the first sight.

Sometimes, especially during the weekend, she chats with Zainal’s wife, Ayuni. She would bring chocolate and cookies for her kids. And when the chatting was over, Ayuni would say to his husband,

“oh…she is just so lovely and nice. How comes she is so wonderful. God must have love her.”

And Zainal would say, “yeah, a lucky husband, isn’t he?”

But then Ayuni would stare at him with wide-eyed and her face would turn suddenly from smiling to fuming.  One day, not wanting to make his wife angry and unhappy, in response to his wife comment on Karlina, Zainal said,

“no..she is no better that anybody else”. He was hoping that Ayuni would respond nicely and smile at him, or at least not angry.

To his surprise, his wife just responded,

“don’t you see her smile? Don’t you see that she is nice? You are awful. Don’t try to be nice to me.”

Zainal could only smile. He has enough understanding of women. Whatever they say, they are always right. They say men can’t lie to them because women remember everything. One day, Zainal was arguing with his wife when his wife said that famous claim, “no way. I remember everything, so don’t lie to me”. Afterwards, she shouted at her oldest kid asking whether he saw her wallet, because she just put that on top of the drawer next to the TV.  Her son said that it wasn’t there but she kept insisting that it’ was there until finally found in her purse. Zainal usually just smiled. He is rarely mad at his wife. Perhaps, only three or four times he yelled loudly at his wife since they got married twelve years ago. Since he never heard any loud voice or scream from his young neighbor, he assumes that the husband also understands the general personality of women: they are always right. Even if they were in front of God, they would have say that He is wrong.

The husband, Kennedi, is originally from West Java. His name is very strange for a Javanese, but it has a heavy historical background. His father was a broadcaster at a government radio station in Semarang. He retired in 1993, just few days after Soeharto was inaugurated for his sixth term as the President of Indonesia.  Not too many people as lucky as he was. He was one of the longest men standing as a president of a country. Fidel Castro in Cuba and Kim Il Jung in North Korea were his competitors at that time in terms of the longevity as president.

Kartono, Kennedi’s father joined RRI (Indonesian government radio station) in 1960. He had a wide knowledge of domestic and international affairs. He knew that in 1961 the third world war could have been exploded. He was always fascinated with the story of how Vietnam defeated America. Juts like most Vietnam veterans, he knew so much about it that a lot of different stories could emerge from it. He knew that America could have won the war had the politicians in Washington done the right thing. And the right thing according to him was either America went to a real full-scale war or withdrew from the region. But he was more on the latter although he had witnessed how bad the Communism was. He guessed that had Kennedy was still in the office, the Vietnam War would never happen. He was fond of Kennedy and it was his visit to Indonesia in 1962 that left a long memory for him.

At that time he was called to Jakarta to help the radio crews there in covering the Kennedy’s visit. Before that he read some biographical books about him, including Profile in Courage by Kennedy itself. Just like today’s teenagers admire movie stars, at that time charismatic and elegant leaders were the center of young people adoration, especially in the newly independent and under developed countries. And Kartono seemed to admire Kennedy and Gandhi a lot. He considered the latter as a father of all peaceful movements against intolerant power. 

Kartono of course believed in supranatural God. He was a Muslim by birth. He embraced and practiced it. He was afraid of God. But in real life, especially in the fight against colonial power, he saw a light in Gandhi’s spirit, a light that does not tolerate murder with murder, a light that does not tolerate violence with violence, a light that closes to the heart of the poor and the weak people while at the same time does not frighten the riches and a light that promotes self-control rather than controlling others.

When her pregnant wife asked about a name for the future baby, he simply laughed at then whispered to her ear, “I got a great name for him and a beautiful one for her”. Her wife said that her father already suggested a name if the baby were a boy. Kartono, knowing that that was perfectly ok and it was a part of a warm extension of a greater family to involve in naming their grandchildren, asked her wife about the name and if it was ok for her and him, they would pick that name. “Herman”, replied her wife.

“Sounds like a great name. But there is a connotation of that name as a playboy”, Kartono replied.

“What do you mean?”

Not wanting to make his wife unhappy, Kartono replied, “It’s surely a manly name and I like it, but also it’s more like a playboy name. Isn’t it?”

His wife smiled. 

“I got a name for him. A truly terrific name. Kennedi”, Kartono said with a soft voice but smiling face.

“Kennedi? Doesn’t it like a western name? No one in your family and in my family has western name. I am afraid that your parents and my parents will not agree with that” His wife was a little bit worry with the name.  She did not object, but not agree either. She was familiar with that name since her husband told her stories about the young president, especially when the news spread to the country and Kartono broadcasted the news around the country that the president Kennedy was shot to death in 1963.

She realized the character of her husband family, especially his father. He absolutely would mind of the name. There is no ‘o’ letter in it. Her husband has 3 brothers. The oldest, Martono, the second oldest was Praptono, his husband and the youngest Sutoyo. No, the objection was not about letter ‘o’, but more on the name itself as a whole. “We need a traditional Javanese name”, she thought. “But what does a name mean? Does name reflect character? It’s just a name, but do we need to be careful in choosing it?” she thought in her mind. Suddenly, she hoped that the baby would be a girl. Although she had no preference whether a boy or girl, her husband wanted the first kid to be a boy. “Just in case anything happen to me, so there would be a strong man living in the house, protecting the family”, that’s always the argument her husband said every time she asked why he had such a preference.

“What about if a girl”, she asked. “I am thinking of Melati. But you decide and I agree with that”, replied her husband.

Not more than two weeks later, the baby was born. A boy. Kennedi Sutomo. 

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II

Kennedi was shaving his mustache. Not like his brothers, he does not like to have mustache and neither does his wife. Once he didn’t shave for a week. Although it wasn’t really hairy, but his wife was not pleasant with it and said that he did not look better than a thug. Of course not all men with mustache look bad, but there are some women who don’t like it, including his wife.

His wife was still in bed. It’s not usual that she slept until 11AM. In working days, they both wake up at 5.30AM. Kennedi usually will prepare for breakfast, tea or coffee and French toast or fried rice. Sometimes he also boiled green beans. His wife likes to eat it with a cake called bika ambon. If she felt like wanting to eat it, they would go to Jalan Sabang to buy it after work. There are small stores in that area that sell bika ambon. Her office is located at the heart of Jakarta, Jalan Thamrin and Sabang is just two blocks from her office building. Kennedi’s office is located in Jalan Kuningan, not far from her office, but it could take him more than 45 minutes during rush hour to meet his wife.  In normal hours, it takes him not more than 10 minutes to get her.  But they get used to it and no more complain or yelling.  Sometimes her wife would drive to his office to pick him up.

Kennedi used to cook while he studied in Boston, so preparing breakfast for 2 people is a burden at all to him. When he was in Boston, he used to do grocery during the weekends to China town, buying rice and some oriental stuff. He lived in the city for two and a half years. Karlina came to visit him once, but only for 1 month since she had to work.  Her boss only approved one-month vacation for her. If they do not dine out, his wife will prepare for dinner. This is like a gentleman agreement between them. In the morning, Kennedi relatively has more time than his wife. It does not take him more than 30 minutes to get ready, while his wife has to spend more than an hour, from putting all her make up to choosing her clothes. When she finished she would ask her husband, “how do I look like?” “Good?”

Kennedi, smiled and said, “honey, you absolutely look wonderful”.

“No, you are just trying to be courteous. I think I am going to wear that one”.

“You are wrong. I am serious. But whatever you wear, you always look gorgeous. Believe me.”

“Ok, then, we better go now”. Then she would not change her clothes.

This is rather unusual. Although her husband is very supportive and admire her beauty, and although people always say that she look very nice, Karlina never feels that she is a beautiful woman. This is perhaps the reason why she is always nice to everybody. It is not a secret that once a woman knows that she is beautiful and most men like her, she would easily loose her self-control and would behave differently to different people.  People say that the strength and weakness of women are in their beauty. That maybe true.  

But there is also argument that says the strength of women is in their vulnerability. To take care vulnerable or fragile possessions require tender and caring attitude. The argument then goes by saying that if a woman wants to be viewed as a strong and macho individual, she is actually asking not for tenderness and affection from man. Many women fail to see their very nature and in the end they usually end up having a boring and colorless relationships.  It seems the secret of humility is the ability not to know our great strength or at least to deny it. It is also a principal teaching in religions. Whether Karlina learns that from the teaching of her religion or her parent’s education, she is indeed a humble yet wonderful woman. 

Many people do not believe that Kennedi is her husband because physically they are somewhat less matched. Although not a short guy, Kennedi is rather skinny. He has tried to exercise, joining fitness center and pump his muscles up, but his muscles seem no longer want to develop. Maybe it’s a gene problem. His father was also skinny. He then stopped doing that and now he likes jogging and biking. He is not a bad looking but compared to his wife, Kennedy is absolutely a pretty lucky guy.

He cleaned his face and looked to the bed. His wife already got up and asked, “What time is it?” “It’s 10 minutes past 11”.

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III

Last updated: 01/31/02