Reader's Letter, Hey Jakarta, Remember The Drought! 

Jamadi-ul-Awwal 10, 1432 A.H, Thursday, April 14, 2011

It has been almost two weeks since the water pump at home has to be operated longer than usual. We immediately called a handyman from the locality of Condet to come to our house to service the water pump. It turned out that there was no damage and the skilled repairman only recommended us to conserve the water usage from now on, because the drought season has arrived. Curious from hearing the bad news, we tried to interrogate our neighbours in the area of Sawo Manila Pejaten, South Jakarta. Fortunately, the water pump complaint at home was also felt by the residents in the surrounding areas.

The above phenomenon reminds us of the last year of the millennium, when this country was hit by hot drought which made the farmers desperate and some people had to buy water every day. Although the tap in our house was still pouring little whimpers of water at that time, but when calculated against the expenditure of the local people who bought water, the cost was the same, in other words we were equally being forced to increase the structural needs of the households. It was caused by the electricity that powered the water pumps for hours every day, so we were required to pay the swelling electricity bills. This fact actually feels unfair if the government makes the levy on the Taxes on Land and Building (PBB) compulsory every year, while the water contained under the earth was made difficult to get due to the monopoly by the State Electricity Company (PLN).

Since October 2010, the central office of the BMG (meteorology and geophysics agency) has been looking awkward in predicting the extreme weather that would hit Jakarta. There is heavy rain occasionally, yet the water absorption is not perfect due to the layers of asphalt and the millions of concrete that extend deep down in the capital city. It is not imaginary if the rainfall flees to the river-sea without the water having sufficient time to come near to the water pockets under the houses of the residents. Tomorrow may rain, but merely to remove the dusts. It might be raining back to back this week, but they are only making pools of mudpuddle on parts of the urban housings.

Now the residents in the area of Pejaten are starting to worry if the drought disaster that hit in 1999 will happen again. The symptoms have already been felt, starting from the jet pump that consumes excessive electricity and the decreasing water pressure that feeds the main drum on the house. What we are panicky about is that, we no longer has a football field, which at one time was used for performing the congregational or collective prayer asking for rain. And even then our request was not granted considering the factors of evildoing which are still gripping like an octopus in our neighbourhood.

But it was really different when, at the same time i.e. in 1999, I was asked by my father to accompany him on a visit to Solo, due to the passing away of uncle Slamet Siswoyo at his residence in Tipes, Surakarta. Two days after the death of almarhum (the deceased), aunt Sumaryati invited me to join the mass prayer asking for rain in the field of Pringgolayan where Kyai (title of an ulama' in Java – ed.) Abu Bakar Ba'asyir became the imam. That afternoon, the jama'ah were so khushu’ (in a state of total humility to the extent of becoming motionless, silent, fearful and subservient) in performing the solat to the point that there were some people who were crying in fear. Kyai Abu Bakar Ba'asyir was in tears himself when reciting the do'a (prayer), while he called on the jama'ah who attended to truly repent and reject all forms of munkar (whether it be minor or major sin, evil). I got goosebumps listening to the sincerity of the do'a of the imam who really fears the warnings of Allah. Subhanallah.. precisely in the evening, heavy rain flushed the town of Solo that made us slumber soundly in our beds that night.

Maybe the people out there consider this wonder as only a coincidence, but in the previous years, the residents in the locality of Cemani-Grogol, Surakarta, have liked doing this ibaadah at a time when drought comes in their midst. And of course, it was accompanied by the activities of combating immoralities, that in reality it is immoralities that hinder a do'a from being answered.

May Kyai Abu Bakar Ba'asyir remain istiqomah in prison and may he remain faithful in praying for the safety of the Islam ummah in Indonesia. We, representing the general Islamic ummah in Indonesia, actually already know the petty fraud alleged against Kyai Abu Bakar Ba'asyir who is always in the straight line. We miss him as well as we love our own grandparents. I hope the “leaders” of this country, who are pretending to be Muslim, wake up soon and stop their greedy nature, enslaving their own selves for the foreign interests, which is nothing but profiting other countries behind the fatal losses of their own people, before finally the drought comes to stifle or Allah strikes them off from their office with unexpected catastrophes. Most True is Allah Who wills the suffering of the people of Indonesia at the hands of the cruel oppressors.

Johan Pranata,
student of Trisakti/Banking Economy