Jakarta, Indonesia – Friday, April 21st 2017 is Kartini Day and the Lara Djonggrang restaurant staffs are celebrating it with their beautiful uniforms.
I asked, “do you wear this uniform as today is Kartini Day or is this the regular uniform?”
Spokesperson of Lara Djonggrang, Mayang Pratiwi stated, “The uniform today is different, but the uniform is still a kebaya but because this is Kartini Day. So, it’s special, the kebaya is different than usual.”
Lara Djonggrang is a restaurant established and opened in 2005. The restaurant has an experience of 13 years in business. It is located in the bustling streets of Menteng, it’s a 5 star restaurant and reservations are needed on a busy day.
Their signature dishes are Nasi Merah Gunung Kidul which contains Sayur Lodeh (vegetable soup), fried chicken, and onion chilli. There’s also Pasar Sate Tugu which is the specialty food at Lara Djonggrang. On top of it are cow tongue sate, tempe sate, squid sate, shrimp sate, goat sate, beef sate, chicken sate moroc, sate lilit bali fish, chicken sate with cane stick. There are six variety of sauces; Matah sauce, dabu-dabu sauce, soy sauce, terasi sauce, tomato sauce, and lombok hijau sauce. And of course, we ordered Nasi Bakar Ayam (Chicken Roasted Rice) and an Indonesian favorite, Bakwan Jagung with Chilli. As for the dessert, Es Dawet.
The interior design of each room has its own unique character and charm. Annette Anhar is the director of the Tugu Hotel Group, she created the idea for the interior and Imperial Indonesian food menu concept. While the company owns the Lara Djonggrang restaurant.
I asked,”What is the actual theme of the restaurant? Is it universal?”
According to Mayang Pratiwi’s statement,”The actual theme is from the owner that loves to collect pieces from everywhere. And even any places in Indonesia and at any country. She appreciates her desire and wishes in this way. So, it’s not just about Indonesia. She wants to appreciate the antiques in this world. The items and stories that’s in other countries, not just Indonesia.”
The first room that Pratiwi introduced me to is the Soekarno Room which includes his memorabilia (pictures of him with his family and colleagues), pictures of him as the first president, Soekarno’s signed document from the Indonesian invasion era, bamboo runcing photograph, a painting of Prince Samber Nyawa (Soekarno was a fan of him), and the tables with seats from Oei Tiong Ham (king of the sugar industry) for Soekarno (It was given by Megawati for the owner of the restaurant).
The second room is called China Blue as most of the owners are Chinese people. The room has an iconic statue of Beerwah, the guardian of the heaven door and the artwork portraying Yama, which is the god of death.
The third room would be the La Bihzad bar and lounge which has a replica of (Afghanistan painter) La Bihzad’s painting. There are only three La Bihzad’s original paintings in the world. Another fascinating piece would be the wooden cantilever beam which supports the building and it’s from a temple in Tuban, Central Java. They recycled it from a torn down temple.
The last room would be the Lara Djonggrang room which has a Javanese atmosphere to it. Lara Djonggrang is based on a famous Javanese folklore.
There are articles that’s recently released about the LGBT Community in Jakarta, Indonesia. People are starting to discuss the topic on whether it is in a positive or negative way. There are discriminations towards the LGBT Community according to the organization “Arus Pelangi.” The Indonesian Psychiatric Association is also divided into two regarding the topic on whether being LGBT is an illness that should be treated or not. Also, the idea of accepting and integrating of the LGBT citizens in Indonesians daily life whether it’s in college, work, family, traveling or in the media. There’s major conflict between Indonesians vs. the LGBT Community.
When asking Ponti in respect to his future plans, he stated, “Well I’m 29, so I’m in that age where I’m still deciding ‘Should I have a family? Should I have a kid?’ At the end if I decide I’m going to adopt a kid or have a kid, then yeah I’ll consider to leave somewhere overseas or at least Bali.”
Being gay and to start a family in the future seems like it’s out of reach unless if person leaves Indonesia and seek an LGBT friendly country. Indonesians still believe that same sex couples should not have children and that it’s best if children are raised by opposite gendered parents. This is not the fact as countries such as the USA and Canada have accepted the LGBT Community; they legalized adoption, artificial insemination, and same sex marriage.
The next day, Arus Pelangi was interviewed, a woman named Ajeng Kartika, a member of the organization shared her story, “I’m Ajeng, I identify as a transgender. When I was young, I feel that I’m a woman. Although I played with my guy friends, played soccer, played tag your it, and be treated as a boy by my family. But I still feel that I’m a girl. It’s from an early age that I feel like I’m a girl. Although I’m treated as a boy and played with my guy friends. Overtime, I feel that I’m a woman. After my family knows that, my family feel and thought that there’s an abnormality in me as I feel like a woman. Then they try to enroll me in a pesantren. But after I got into the pesantren, I felt like I received oppression such as sexual harassments and so forth. I feel that this is not right if I continued to be there. I tried to tell to my family what I felt, I feel that indeed, it’s true that I have a penis but I feel that I’m a woman. I cannot do this continuously. Now, since then, I never wanted to be treated as a man. I only wanted to be treated as a woman.”
Ines Cintya from Arus Pelangi shared her discrimination story based on her campus and experiences as a transgender woman in Indonesia, “Discrimination amongst the transgender community is very high. Especially, when I’m in campus. Joining a discussion, my fellow scholars and lecturers. When I enter the campus. For example, they look at us and wonder why there’s transgender people in campus. That really makes it uncomfortable. Because why? College is a place for people to study. But there, I received discrimination that’s very striking, in my opinion. Until now, I’m more likely to choose to cut my hair because it makes it easier for me to enter the campus. As a result, there’s no more discrimination because our goal is to study right. Secondly, when we want to access public service. For instance, such as to ride the train, transgender that want to fly on the plane. When they enter to check in or boarding, people still look at us as if we are strange. Well, actually when people want to see its a transgender, well alright. You don’t have to look at us for 5 minutes or more than 5 minutes. In fact, that doesn’t make people feel comfortable If you want to see someone’s expression, you can just look at a glance. But sometimes, when they see a transgender, they really view us from top to bottom. So there’s many discrimination towards the transgender community.”
Yuli Rustinawati is the leader of Arus Pelangi and an LGBT advocate, she stated, “Indonesia just view it as different sex, woman and a man. While the issue of gender identity, it cannot be included. This becomes a problem for the transgender community. Where there’s more than 60% of them. Especially for a transgender woman with high mobility. From one region to another. Beyond that, also now they receive domestic violence from their family. After they see that their gender is very different. Then, there’s also violence in school, transgender people cannot enjoy or continue their studies in school. When their gender expression is different than their sex than their sex that they were born in. Then their families don’t accept it, there’s plenty of violence. Whether or not they want to, they need to runaway. Now that is how they rarely save their identity paperworks or birth certificate, now that becomes a problem as well. After I finish college, Arus Pelangi is my job, I became an LGBT advocate. So you don’t need to apply for a job. That’s why I previously said that I’m one of the most lucky people. But not within the last two years though. Last year, from January to July, there were about 186 incidents starting from sexual violence, dismissal from work, and being expelled. They dissolved a lot of LGBT discussions. The culprit is also an intolerant group, this included the country and media. In the context of work dismissal also happened, we don’t have a specific data as a lot of LGBT people are afraid because this is regarding their life. For the last 10 years, we keep on hearing reports from our community. They said I was fired because I’m gay, but we cannot take any actions as those that reports to us only wants to tell their stories. One of the cases that happens in South Sulawesi, there’s a Limited Liability Company that has a rule in the company that doesn’t allow people to dress as an opposite gender. Man can’t dress like woman, woman can’t dress like man or different gender expression than that was assigned since birth. A person is not allowed to wear what they wanted during work or outside of work. So, these companies have started to commit all these discrimination towards the LGBT Community or maybe, they might not even be LGBT and it’s their gender expression. So, it’s starting to be more structural on the violence towards the LGBT Community. Structural from family, this is homework, that there’s still violence in family at times. Then Indonesian citizens, then the country takes action by the number of discriminatory policies in a level of village, district, province, or national level in Indonesia. According to our data in 2013, 9 out of 10 of us goes through violence.”
Zoya Amirin, a clinical Psychologist discussed about the LGBT Community in Indonesia and how people approach it. She stated that Indonesians think that transgendered people are dramatic and are seeking attention. When Zoya tried to explain to people, they still didn’t understand. She commented that being transgender is not a choice and that talking to people, trying to explain it is “one hell of a job” according to her. She tried to take them from their perspective and that people don’t really learn how to process their feelings. If someone is coming out as gay or a lesbian, then it’s hard for their family and friends to accept it. And people actually think that bisexuals are gay in disguised. She also mentioned that both the the people who are coming out and their parents, family or friends struggle to process their feelings. Zoya said, “they are still the same person that’s born and become a family member but most people that I’ve interviewed and up in my counseling couches, they just said ‘I feel like I fail as a parent when I have a kids that are actually a lesbian or gay.'” In the media, Zoya explained that in Indonesian television, being transgender is also less accepted now since the LGBT movement. The media felt that they gave too much freedom on TV. She thinks that this is against humans rights and people just behave accordingly to keep their job on TV. She said, she’s only ‘one voice’, most people don’t want to be too strong against it because you become a minority. If your not a part of something major, if your just a minority, the message seems like you better be quite.
According to the Boston Globe, an article written by Steve Wembi and Dan Bilefsky, two United Nations officials and Congolese citizens disappeared in a conflict region of Congo. Michael Sharp (American) and Zahida Katalan (Swede) travelled to Kasai on Sunday with a driver and 3 Congolese drivers. The UN stated on Monday that they are doing everything in their power to try and locate them. Officers that are a part of the peacekeeping mission in Congo had travelled to Kasai to inspect possible human rights violations after reports of officials killed about a dozen civilians and children. Recently, there were videos of government soldiers walking on the streets and shooting people.
On Tuesday night, Antonio Guterres confirmed the deaths of United Nations researchers. He is pushing the Congolese authorities to do a full investigation of the murder. He also asked the government to search for the four missing Congolese citizens that were with his two colleagues. Michael Sharp and Zahida Katalan bodies were discovered on a shallow grave in central Congo. In the UN trip on Friday, a journalist brought the question of their deaths up. Below are the links to the details about their work, collaborations with locals, their colleague speaking out, and their life in the UN.
Right now, there are an estimated of 255 million people and the area of Indonesia is 725,400m². Indonesia is located between Singapore, Malaysia, Southeast Asia, and Australia. The languages that are spoken; mainly Indonesian, English, and Chinese. Indonesia has a variety of different dialects depending on the location. I’m able to speak in both English and Indonesian, I would be able to interview most people when I visit the country during Spring Break.
The religions that exists there are a majority Islam. Then the minority religions; Christianity, Catholic, Hindu, Buddhism, and Confucianism. Indonesia was shaped by natural resources, it’s a country of many islands, Chinese and Dutch migrations, wars, trade, and political reform. It has 17,508 islands and 6000 of them are inhabited. Islam was brought by Sufi Traders from India in the 13th Century and by the 16th century, it became the major religion of the country. Chinese people migrated to Indonesia and Southeast Asian countries during the 15th Century in the rise and fall of Dynasties at China. As for the Dutch, they invaded Indonesia between the 1800s-17 August 1949 which is the Independence Day for the country. There’s also a famous song of it called “17 Agustus Tahun 45.” In terms of political reform, Soekarno Hatta became the first president of Indonesia residing between 18 August 1945 until 12 March 1967. There’s also a memorable time when there was the May 1998 Indonesian Riot, it happened in a few cities in Indonesia. In Jakarta, the riot was from the 12th to 15th of May. The riot was caused by high unemployment rate and food shortages to protest against President Suharto. The main target was Chinese-Indonesians; businesses were burnt, stores were being robbed, Chinese women were sexually assaulted, and lots of people died. The condominium of where my family used to live was protected by the army. The car dealership that my dad used to work at was destroyed; some cars melted to the ground and a few cars only had its shell left.
The most well-known Newspapers in Indonesia are Jakarta Post, Jakarta Globe, Bali Times, Bali Daily, Kompas, Koran Jakarta, Koran Sindo, Koran Tempo, Bisnis Indonesia, Sinar Harapan, Suara Karya, and Rakyat Merdeka. As for the television companies, there are RCTI, Global TV, TVRI, MNC TV, SCTV, Indosiar, Antv, TvOne, MetroTV, Trans TV, Trans 7, and Kompas TV.
The major current event that is happening is Basuki Tjahaja Purnama known as Ahok with his Chinese name. He is the current governor of Jakarta. He continues to be the target of racism as he is not Muslim by conservative muslims. In 27th September 2016, there was a speech that he did and was misunderstood as an insult to Quran that was uploaded to Youtube by the Indonesian government. The speech was in Kepulauan Seribu (Thousand Islands) of last year. It seems that recently the media have been more forgiving and share Ahok it a more positive light.
Below is some links regarding the controversy and how people from Thousand Islands accepted his presents:
I plan to cover a few of the following topics; LGBTQA rights and how conversion therapy is bad in Jakarta, the different types of cuisines and drinks: how it all started, pollution and stilt house by the canal, Night Life in Jakarta, Family Honor: Toraja Culture and Death, and Poverty and Education in Indonesia. I would like to do most of these projects in a Documentary style and post it on Youtube. Then, put the video on the class blog with a short article below it.
For the LGBTQA Right and how conversion therapy is bad in Jakarta, I would like to interview members of Arus Pelangi. They are an organization that tries to bring awareness and education regarding the LGBT Community in Indonesia. If I could, during Spring Break, I would like to meet them in person, interview them and record a glimpse of their life. If they give me the opportunity to interview their friends and family, the questions that I will be about the first response to their coming out and how they think of their child or friends being a LGBTQA. I want to interview random strangers as well in the streets from different age groups and the religious community in Jakarta about the LGBTQA Community. I will interview a licensed psychologist/therapist and psychologist from the conversion therapy in Indonesia. Then, I will also approach at least two psychologist in New York with their reaction on what the psychologists of Indonesia said about the LGBTQA Community and what they think of conversion therapy. The ending of the documentary will have LGBTQA friends, family and couples in New York to share some light and positivity. This is something that I always wanted to cover for a really long time and my parents are not thrilled about it as they are opposed to it.
The immigrant community in New York resides in Queens and I know a few immigrants. I also know that there are a few Indonesians in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. As for Indonesia, I know plenty of people that is in the media industry from my two aunts and one influential person that can connect me to many people.
Vocativ was founded Mati Kochavi and the business was established in 2013. Their headquarters are located in New York City. Vocativ recruited notable writers, editors, and producers from companies like; Reuters, CNN, Daily Beast, NBC News, and NPR. The media company covers topics from the news, science, technology, culture, life, and sports. The business is geared more towards a younger audience and New Yorkers.
Their slogan is “News From the Deep Web.” The company have a very strong structure in publishing their articles, first writers have to discuss their stories with the chief operating officer and chief content officer, and then pitch their content to the executive committee. They have a great reputation as they have won awards from the Telly Awards and Webby Awards.
Vocativ have the tendency to share very deep stories that reminds me of a documentary meshed with a great article. For example, a story of baby hatches in China. A place where Chinese parents abandons their children so that their child can have a better life. This article was written by a group of writers, Tierney Bonini, Yonatan Amrany, Bethany O’Grady, and Ed Norris in 2014. The title was “The Houses Where China’s Babies Are Abandoned.”
I’ve been brainstorming on a few stories that I would like to cover but I’m not only doing the Indonesian Community. For Indonesia, I would like to create a documentary style video about the LGBT Community in Indonesia vs. USA. Ideally, I want to find an Indonesian Immigrant that migrated to New York City and the person’s life have changed for the better. If I can visit Indonesia during Spring Break, I want to interview the locals. Starting from the LGBT Community, Muslim Community, other religions, based on age demographic, and find a local organization in Jakarta. I want to approach an Indonesian vs. New York City based psychologist to compare both Indonesian and American perspective on the LGBT Community. I’ve heard of a gay conversion therapy in Indonesia, I want to show how damaging it could really be. When people speak in Indonesian, there will be a text translation in English.
The second story that I’m interested in covering is about a Muay Thai boxer that migrated to the US. He was a world champion and he opened a gym in Manhattan, NY. I want to showcase his story in a documentary style video and a short article. Possibly, showcase other successful immigrants that brings more jobs in New York City and New Jersey.
The third would be about a suburban state, it will be a documentary style video that will be more about traveling. I have always been interested in interviewing people who lives in RVs, Mini Vans, small portable homes, and yachts. Another story that I’m interested in would be people that are a collector of vintage cast iron skillets or antiques. For example, I really want to interview someone that owns a BMW Isetta car from the 1950s. I like the idea of how something old can be passed to the next generation. I’m still branching out my ideas but I don’t want to be limited in just one community.
