images of violence and piety in aceh 289
‘Where do you come from?’ I have mixed blood. I grew up in Yogyakarta,
Central Java, but my parents, grandparents and great grandparents are
from Padang, Aceh, Banten, Pekalongan, Madiun, and the Middle East.
I wanted to know more. When you know your roots you know exactly
who you are and where you belong. ... We Indonesians must respect
Tjoet Nja Dhien and other heroes too, who fought to make us free.⁵⁴Another example is the afterlife of theHikayat Perang Sabil. In 1999,
the poem was rediscovered by a young class of urbanites, who were
involved not in the armed struggle of gam, but in grand-scale, peaceful
demonstrations calling for a referendum on the administrative status of
Aceh.⁵⁵ The poem was recited during rallies, ‘with singers often moving
protestors to tears with the beauty of its rhythms and the power of its
lyrics’.⁵⁶ According to Aspinall, the sudden popularity of the poem may
be explained, at least in part, on the basis of the ‘clandestine contact’
between urban activists and gam. At the same time, it is important to
note that the epic acquired new meanings in the context of the call for a
referendum. Although many of them had never heard the poem before,
they were struck by its mobilising qualities, its ability to ‘stimulate a spirit
of Acehneseness and a spirit of resistance’. This, writes Aspinall, was a
‘cultural nationalism still in formation’.
Finally, let me mention the work of Taufik Al-Mubarak, a young
journalist, writer and former referendum activist, and his decision to
use the phraseAceh Pungo(‘crazy Aceh’) as the title of a collection of
his newspaper columns.⁵⁷ This title was meant as a provocation, he
explained, displaying the fundamental ambivalence this term acquired
after the Dutch began to think of the Acehnese as being ‘inclined’ to
lunacy. Pungo (‘crazy’), as I noticed myself during my fieldwork, is both
a sensitive and an ambiguous term. In Aceh, to call someone pungo
may be the quickest way to get into a fight. At the same time, the term
has come to refer to a range of heroic, unique, magical or indeed any
other kind of extraordinary behaviour. In his foreword to the volume,
the editor wrote that Cut Nyak Dhien was also pungo, as was the author,
Taufik Al Mubarak. In the piece entitled ‘Pungo’, Taufik discusses, in a
confrontational style, the ironies of his time:
Cynthia Webb, ‘Christine Hakim: Going where life leads her’, http://www.thejakartapost
.com, 8 December 2010 (accessed 4 November 2013).
Edward Aspinall, ‘Whither Aceh’,Inside Indonesia62, April–June 2000.
Aspinall,Islam and nation, 139.
Taufik Al-Mubarak,Aceh Pungo(Banda Aceh: Bandar Publishing, 2009).