She is Nobody

Cerita ini saya peroleh ketika saya membaca buku Anak Dusun Keliling Dunia karya I Made Andi Arsana. Kisah yang begitu menyentuh bagi setiap yang membacanya. Oke kurang lebih isinya sebagai berikut… (sudut pandangnya asli dari bukunya)

    Menjadi penerima Australian Leadership Award (ALA) membuat saya memiliki banyak kesempatan pengembangan diri melalui media yang disebut dengan Leadership Development Program (LDP). Selama menjalani sekolah Ph.D. setidaknya ada tiga program yang wajib diikuti, yakni sebuah konferensi besar, lokakarya, dan outbound, ada juga kursus penyegaran (refresher course). Dalam acara lokakarya, masing-masing peserta diminta menyiapkan sebuah presentasi tentang pemimpin yang diidolakan. Setiap peserta harus memaparkan tokoh yang dipilih di depan peserta lain dan bersiap-siap mendiskusikan tokoh pujaannya tersebut.

Kangaroo Valey, 8 juli 2009

      Saya beranjak menuju ruang yang tidak terlalu luas. Di tangan saya tergenggam sebuah poster berukuran A3 dengan gambar seorang perempuan berwajah sederhana. Tokoh ini sederhana dan tidak luar biasa menurut orang lain, tetapi menurut saya sempurna dalam ketidaksempurnaannya. Orang-orang di depan saya, yang konon adalah pemimpin dan calon pemimpin di Asia Pasifik, duduk dengan tenang menunggu apa yang akan saya sampaikan. Setelah meletakkan poster di atas meja dan menghadap ke hadirin, saya menatap sekumpulan pemimpin yang berada di depan dan mulai berbicara.

The leader is a woman. This is nobody. She was born and raised in a forgotten corner of the world. She is not a politician, not a public figure. She is not a famous one either. She is an ordinary woman but she is the rock of her family. She is a strong woman. She is literally a strong woman. In the 70s and early 80s, she worked in a traditional rock mining somewhere you could not even see in the pro version of Google Earth.

Early in the morning at around 04.00 am, she woke up. She took her sleeping son on her back, covered him with an old fragile towel. She travelled a long distance in the darkness breaking the foggy cold dark morning. She started the day with spirit. She went to the mining field. She passed the rice field as if she learned the footpath by hearth. She walked, she jumped, she ran in the darkness and she never fell down. Her feed had eyes that can see in the darkness. She did it everyday for the live of her family. She is persistent woman. Her only son was always with her and she did not want him to be a rock miner, someday.

One cold morning in 1986, her son was desperate to open the sachet of shampoo and he could not do it. He asked his mother to bring him a knife or scissors. The woman came to ward him and looked him in the eyes, took the shampoo and tore the corner of the sachet using her teeth. She told her son, “You don’t need a knife neither a scissors.” To her son, it was great inspiration telling him that he can do something by him self.

The woman is a brilliant even though she studied formally only for six years in her life. “She is not a orator, neither an author. She did not talk much but she did a lot. She did something and then talk. That’s how she influenced people around her. Being officially uneducated, she knew however the importance of education. That’s why she devoted her time and energy for her son’s education. She did not want her son to work in a traditional rock mining in a forgotten corner of the world.

In 1987, the worst thing happened to her. Her husband decided to marry another woman. It was not only because of the mistake her husband made but also because she was too tolerant. She was too accepting. She interpreted the doctrine of “feminism” differently. She chose not to fight for the harmony and for the future of her children. That’s what she always said. She was really the rock of her family. She inspired her son so much. She built a foundation of leadership through her silence.

Now the woman can smile. Not only because her son could tear a sachet of shampoo using his own teeth but also because her son has an opportunity to study four-times as long as she did in her time. She was happy because her son stood confidently in the building of the United Nations in New York, delivering his research in front of the internationally-renown experts in the field. She cried happily because her son was elected president of an organization covering not only the forgotten corner of the world but five continents around the Globe.

The woman is my mother. I know my way is still very long and I have not yet achieved much, but I believe I am a product of a true leadership of a woman in a forgotten corner of the world. She taught me not to give up. My mother is nobody. However, since nobody is perfect, to me, my mother is perfect.

Thank you!

Tepuk tangan mengiringi langkah saya menuju kursi, tenggelam di antara belasan calon pemimpin dan pemimpin Asia Pasifik. Seorang diplomat muda Indonesia mendekati saya, wajahnya cerah meskipun diliputi rasa haru dan menjabat tangan saya erat. Dia menyampaikan apresiasinya dengan diam.

Ya… kurang lebih ketikan cerita Pak Made Andi yang ia bukukan menjadi  Anak Dusun Keliling Dunia Catatan Bertukar Ilmu di Empat Benua yang tercetak di halaman 143 ini membuat saya pribadi juga ikut mengapresiasi beliau. Karena ceritanya mirip dengan yang saya alami.

Terimakasih Pak Made Andi yang telah menginspirasi saya. Salam hormat dan salam bangga dari saya pribadi.