When we told Daddy our plan he was OK. I thought he might have been a bit upset or angry, but he agreed it was a good idea and he said it wouldn’t be much of a change from the way things were, because we didn’t all see each other very much now anyway. He said he would miss us all, and I had to make sure I looked after William especially.
Well, that was about one and a half years ago.
Now things are different again.
Mummy and Daddy are not married to each other anymore and sometimes I feel a bit sad about that. I am not sure when and why exactly they decided to not be married anymore, but I think really that is probably the reason Mummy and William and me moved to stay in Mummy’s school.
To start with, we used to see Daddy every weekend, but after a few months it was only ‘most’ weekends and we stayed more often in Jakarta centre and did not come back to Cikarang. I never forgot about Daddy and I always spoke to him on the phone and we had lots of fun when we met, but I think I knew after a while that Daddy and Mummy wouldn’t be married anymore even before they told me.
When they did tell me, I was upset but not surprised. They said they were both tired and getting old and wanted to be happy in their lives, and although they loved and liked each other, it wasn’t enough for them to be happy anymore. I just listened. I think they expected me to cry and beg them to stay married, but I didn’t. I just kind of agreed with them. I think it is important to be happy, right?
Now, my daddy has just got married again. I didn’t go to his wedding to his new wife, but I have met her a few times and she seems OK, I guess. She is nice to me and William, and Mummy also says she is a nice lady who makes Daddy happy so we should try and like her too.
My mummy will also get married again next month. She will marry Um Richie who now has a very good job and has bought us a very big house to live in. Mummy says I cannot call him Um anymore, though, and now I have to start calling him Bapak. Bapak kind of means ‘father’ but not exactly. I think I have to call him this because he will be kind of my dad but not exactly. William will also call him Bapak.
So, that is the story of my life until now. I have had a happy life, mostly, but maybe a little bit of an unusual life too. I am still young and I want to do lots of things when I grow up, but for now I will be a good student, a good daughter and a good sister.
Thank you for reading my story.
5
The General’s Story
Neil has been, shall we say, known to me, or on my radar at least, for many a year now, and the balance of our friendship, relationship, cooperation – call it what you will – has shifted considerably more than once over that time, but, basically, and he might not agree here, he has mainly been beholden to me during the vast majority of our years together.
Yes, our conjoined tale makes for interesting reading, but before I really get into that I guess it is prudent for me to start at the beginning and fill you in with at least some perfunctory details regarding me and my background.
I was born in Surabaya, the capital of the province of East Java, in 1959, and lived there as well as other places until 1996 when I finally moved lock, stock and barrel to Jakarta, where I have remained ever since. In between, I spent some considerable time moving around (for reasons that may or may not become clearer later) but always returned to my
base in Surabaya.
I am of mixed heritage – Chinese Indonesian and indigenous Indonesian – and, as will also perhaps become clearer over the pages that follow, this has proved to be both a blessing and a drawback. My father was indigenous and my mother of Chinese descent
Some elaboration regarding citizenship and heritage matters in Indonesia is perhaps called for before we progress much further. As the results of a ‘mixed’ marriage my parents both suffered to a degree through the ‘years of living dangerously’ in the mid-sixties, when there was a reported coup attempt by the Indonesian Communist Party, who allegedly attempted to seize control of the government in 1965. Their attempt failed and the communists were promptly outlawed and anything remotely ‘red’ looking either banned or persecuted. This included people of Chinese origin.
There followed a period of murder and mayhem in Indonesia whereby anybody suspected of having communist tendencies or sympathies had very real reason to fear for their lives. Both my parents had family members who simply disappeared during this time never to be seen again. It was by all accounts the most horrible of times.
One of the by-products of this so-called coup attempt was that people of Chinese origin were deprived the same rights as indigenous Indonesians. This meant they found it very difficult, if not impossible, at one stage to secure employment or education for their children. They weren’t allowed to own property or to even have ‘Chinese-sounding’ names and this led to my mother being re-christened Elizabeth Mary Chantmo, and my own name being changed from Xien Chan to a more acceptable Henry Chantmo. This was as, my father told me, many Chinese people based in Surabaya chose deliberately ‘English’ sounding names for themselves and their offspring in an attempt to crook a nose at the authorities.
Other by-products of this discrimination included mixed-religion marriages being forbidden, the state of
