Founded by Indonesian writer Helvy Tiana Rosa in 1997, Jakarta-based Forum Ling­kar Pena (FLP) has established chapters in all but two of Indonesia’s 34 provinces, and in 12 countries on five continents. Members number about 13,000 globally. Though founded in religious belief, FLP is open to the world. It is active in the field of cultural publishing and in addition to interacting with publishers and agents, it hosts literary seminars and writing workshops to introduce to the community at large a host of topics relevant to our times.

Aspiring authors examine the writing textbooks that Mira Luxita has brought to an FLP Taiwan gathering.

Establishment of Taiwan chapter

The forerunner to FLP Taiwan, Bilik Sastra (“Literary Salon”), was founded and managed by Yu­he­Rina Gus­man. At the time, she was studying in Taiwan and researching the lives of Indonesian migrant workers here. She found that many were taking practical courses such as English, Chinese and computer technology, yet a spiritual dimension was missing. In 2010, Yu­he­Rina submitted a proposal to Radio Republik Indonesia to initiate a “Writing Space” program, and requested Indonesian literary texts for the country’s migrant community in Taiwan. The program attracted many fans of reading and writing in their mother tongue, and these meetings led many participants to join FLP as overseas members. Activities grew from reading and socializing to encompass courses where they could share and discuss their own writing.

FLP Taiwan possesses no clearly defined hierarchy or fixed meeting place. Its successful role and continued existence are rooted not only in the positive, proactive engagement of its participants, but also in the fact that both in the past as overseas students in Taiwan, and now in their settled life together, Yu­he­Rina and her husband have more time and energy to devote to its operations than do most migrant workers.

Bunda Umy’s novel Asmara Suata Ketika is an easy-to-read but compelling tale of romance that draws on her experience as a migrant worker.

Aspiring writers: Distinguished by self-discipline

Typically quite busy, migrant workers often haven’t enough time to rest, so why are they willing to devote their free time to reading, writing and discussing written works with others? Yu­he­Rina explains that FLP members’ personalities are not those of a typical person. The greatest difference lies in the high demands they place on themselves. “Their motivation to learn is very intense. They hope to make greater progress, so that one day they can take all the knowledge and skills they’ve learned in Taiwan and elsewhere, and return to their hometowns to make a meaningful contribution.”

Versatile Bunda Umy can write and sing too. In 2016, she collaborated with three Taiwanese artists on Sound Route: Songs of SPECX—“The Singing,” as the lead vocalist in the role of Saartje Specx, a daughter born in 17th-century Na­ga­saki to a regional governor in the Dutch East India Company and his Japanese concubine. Raised largely in what was then the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia), she later lived in Taiwan before her death at just 19. When Umy used Indonesian-­accented Taiwanese to sing the old Taiwan favorite, “Romance of An­ping Port,” her alien yet oddly familiar rendition of the unrequited love of a half-Dutch, half-Asian girl for a fickle Dutchman unexpectedly became the high point of the show. Her representation of the legend resonated with both performer and spectators in terms of collective and individual memory and identity—for Tai­nan’s An­ping was briefly occupied by the Dutch, while Indonesia was for centuries. The show required a lot of practice, and Umy’s standard weekly day off was far from enough time. With her employer’s permission—on condition that it did not interfere with her work—she invited the artists to her workplace for rehearsals.

When her Taiwan contract ends, Bunda Umy plans to return to her hometown near Solo in Central Java, where she will open a bookstore and co-author songs with her son, a big fan of rock ’n’ roll music. A similar positive cycle is evident among other FLP members. When these individuals return to their hometowns, they take back to their motherland the perseverance and knowhow they have acquired in a foreign land, with the intent to make a positive impact.

FLP Taiwan founder Yu­he­Rina Gusman is still involved in the group to this day, and serves as one of its online creative writing instructors.

Creative interaction

Members also interact via a private group on Facebook, in addition to gatherings and regular writing classes arranged by FLP Taiwan. Justto Lasoo, current head of the Taiwan chapter, and senior members such as ­Yu­he­Rina Gus­man and ­Bunda Umy, set homework for other members to do for practice, and they also review works and share creative writing techniques. ­Bunda Umy, who has only a high-school education, teaches how to write four-line, rhyming pan­tun verse in the classical Indonesian style. Her own passion for poetry aside, familiarity with this format is also due to the fact that in Southeast Asia students generally learn to write poetry from a young age.

As FLP Taiwan has matured over the years, it has also begun to institute the practice of external interaction that has become a tradition for FLP headquarters in Indonesia. The Taiwan chapter invited the organizers of the Taiwan Literature Award for Migrants (TLAM), a competition for migrant workers writing in their own languages, to Jakarta, where two presentations were held to highlight the Indonesian-­language works that won awards from 2014 to 2016, and to show a film about the presentation of the awards, featuring interviews with the winners. While in Jakarta, TLAM participated in the “Taiwan‡Indonesia Migrant Workers Literary Forum,” together with FLP Taiwan, FLP Jakarta and other Indonesian literary associations. In 2016, FLP Taiwan and 4-Way Voice Culture and Creativity invited Pipiet Senja—dubbed “the mother of migrant worker literature”—to hold a writing workshop in Taiwan.

Nna Achlam, a native of Central Java, diligently consulting a how-to text for writers.

Seeking unity in diversity

The lower portion of Indonesia’s national emblem consists of a scroll gripped by the claws of a legendary Ga­ruda bird, on which appears a phrase in Old Javanese: Bhinneka Tuggal Ika—“Out of the Many, One.” This is an adage from an ancient myth. It is said that long, long ago there lived a king who devoured one human each day, thereby instilling fear amongst the people unsure who would be next.

One day a warrior, saddened by the plight of the common folk, made a request of the king: “Better that I die on behalf of the people. But I beseech Your Highness to cease this practice henceforth!” Outraged, the monarch refused. “How dare a lowly warrior dream of interfering with the will of the King!” When the warrior realized his advice would not be heeded, he abandoned his peaceful appeal and initiated a fierce fight. During the battle, the Hindu deity Shiva entered the body of the king, while Buddha likewise entered the warrior’s. Each demonstrated his prowess to the fullest, but a deadlock ensued. Finally, Brahma intervened: “Bhinnekha tuggal ika!” he pronounced, signaling an end to their duel. For although the pair were dissimilar in looks, and the gulf between their mindsets was great, in reality they comprised an indivisible entity.

The various lives, desires, joys and tribulations portrayed in literary works represent a universal appeal that transcends ethnicity, language and culture. Therefore, FLP Taiwan exists not only to provide a space in which Indonesian migrant workers, students and immigrants in Taiwan can tell their own stories; everything they describe when they put pen to paper is also part of human collective cultural awareness. Of course, the creative works of Taiwanese also form part of this collective. Everything coalesces on this soil, echoing the words on the scroll gripped in the Ga­ruda’s talons: “Out of the Many, One.”        

To mark the end of Ramadan, Indonesian migrant workers far from home enjoy the customary feast—this time in the concourse of Taipei Railway Station.