By: Muhammad Jusuf* My mom and my dad ever told me one time, that I was born in premature. My mother still seven months pregnant and I were born on Friday, April 10, 1959 in Military Hospitals in Balikpapan city, East Borneo. My mom said that I should stayed in Hospital incubator around six months, and when my younger brother Rachmat Edy was born in the same Hospitals in two yeas later, I still could not walk yet. ‘’You can walk normally when you was three years old, other kids, event your Sister and Brothers do not needs more than two years to stand and walk alone. Later, My Parents have ten kids, five man and five women. I am a second kid. My Father , Agusno who was passed a way in June, 2004 at 73 years old, was told me that in the past as an Sergeant army officer, his offices do not have a family planning program. So, that was why My Father every months got around 100 kg of rice from his offices to feed their family. My Father is only single kids of my Grant Parents names Diran Wirotiyoso, a Javanese from Klaten, Central Java who was killed by Japanese marine group when the Japan and Netherland marine broke the war in Australian sea border. My Grant Parents is a Netherlands marine sergeant who joint with Netherland military corp. in 1930’s. He was joined in Netherlands Sub Marine Corps who was involved in Sea Battle in Australian sea border, close to Papua islands in 1940’s. My Grant Mother, Inah, is a ‘’Dayak Paser’’ ethnic from Tanah Grogot, Paser Regencies, East Kalimantan. My Mother, Temah, 80’s is also a “Dayak Paser’’. My Grant Mother from my mom side is also Dayak Paser, but his husband was from Selayar Island, South Sulawesi. My Grand Father names from my mom side are Baco Benu, Bugis Ethnic names. So, Ethnically, I have three mixes in ethnicity, Dayak, Bugis and Javanese. From my birth to around 1968, I stayed in Sentosa Dua, closed to the Prapatan Market areas. Sentosa II is a Military base dormitory and Military Real Estate. Around 1969, my Father build their own houses, two storey, about 300 m2, bigger than the one when we stayed in Military Dormitory, only size 60m2. My Father build a big houses in ‘’Kampung Baru Tengah’’ (New Central Village), South of Balikpapan city, around 25 km from Sentosa II areas. The newly locations is more comfortable, because we have a house which upper the neat of beach. ‘’So, when my school was in the afternoon, around 12.00, before I attended the elementary school, I fish back to my houses. I usually catch the crab and other kind of fish, so my mother can save their money to buy fish or crab. I used small boat, or small kayak to fish the crab. When my school times were in the morning, I took to fish at around 16.00 local times’’. My father decided to build their own houses, because my parents has already have 8 kids, four man and four women, because two other brothers and sisters, Yuni Suryaningsih and Wahyu Eko Buwono were born in Jakarta later. So, when we stayed in Balikpapan, I have my Older sister, Sri Marginingsih, my younger brother Rachmat Edy, Agus Santoso, Bambang Widodo, and my younger sister Sri Mulyani, who right now more than 20 years living in San Diego, California, the United States. Sri Mulyani got married with American zitizens Umar Abdul Madjid. Umar is a new name since he converted to Islam 30 years ago when he attended at Law School in San Diego. My other younger sister was Titin Fatimah, and Yuni Suryaningsih. Rachmat Edy and Agus Santoso were like me, working as a Journalist. Sri Mulyani, Erni Rahayu, and Yuni Suryaningsing are a Teacher in profession. I remembered that in Ramadhan fasting months times, in 1960’s, My grand mother always took me to her houses in the Borneo Jungle, we call it Wain river areas, 50 km from Balikpapan city, East Kalimantan. In the past, the school holidays always match with Ramadhan times, either in December, November, or October or other Gregorian months. Usually, Ramadhan holidays w

1. Unfinished Journey (2) (Episode 2, January 20, 2010) http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/5073862-unfinished-journey-episode-2 By: Muhammad Jusuf* My mom and my dad ever told me one time, that I was born in premature. My mother still seven months pregnant and I were born on Friday, April 10, 1959 in Military Hospitals in Balikpapan city, East Borneo. My mom said that I should stayed in Hospital incubator around six months, and when my younger brother Rachmat Edy was born in the same Hospitals in two yeas later, I still could not walk yet. ‘’You can walk normally when you was three years old, other kids, event your Sister and Brothers do not needs more than two years to stand and walk alone. Later, My Parents have ten kids, five man and five women. I am a second kid. My Father , Agusno who was passed a way in June, 2004 at 73 years old, was told me that in the past as an Sergeant army officer, his offices do not have a family planning program. So, that was why My Father every months got around 100 kg of rice from his offices to feed their family. My Father is only single kids of my Grant Parents names Diran Wirotiyoso, a Javanese from Klaten, Central Java who was killed by Japanese marine group when the Japan and Netherland marine broke the war in Australian sea border. My Grant Parents is a Netherlands marine sergeant who joint with Netherland military corp. in 1930’s. He was joined in Netherlands Sub Marine Corps who was involved in Sea Battle in Australian sea border, close to Papua islands in 1940’s. My Grant Mother, Inah, is a ‘’Dayak Paser’’ ethnic from Tanah Grogot, Paser Regencies, East Kalimantan. My Mother, Temah, 80’s is also a “Dayak Paser’’. My Grant Mother from my mom side is also Dayak Paser, but his husband was from Selayar Island, South Sulawesi. My Grand Father names from my mom side are Baco Benu, Bugis Ethnic names. So, Ethnically, I have three mixes in ethnicity, Dayak, Bugis and Javanese. From my birth to around 1968, I stayed in Sentosa Dua, closed to the Prapatan Market areas. Sentosa II is a Military base dormitory and Military Real Estate. Around 1969, my Father build their own houses, two storey, about 300 m2, bigger than the one when we stayed in Military Dormitory, only size 60m2. My Father build a big houses in ‘’Kampung Baru Tengah’’ (New Central Village), South of Balikpapan city, around 25 km from Sentosa II areas. The newly locations is more comfortable, because we have a house which upper the neat of beach. ‘’So, when my school was in the afternoon, around 12.00, before I attended the elementary school, I fish back to my houses. I usually catch the crab and other kind of fish, so my mother can save their money to buy fish or crab. I used small boat, or small kayak to fish the crab. When my school times were in the morning, I took to fish at around 16.00 local times’’. My father decided to build their own houses, because my parents has already have 8 kids, four man and four women, because two other brothers and sisters, Yuni Suryaningsih and Wahyu Eko Buwono were born in Jakarta later. So, when we stayed in Balikpapan, I have my Older sister, Sri Marginingsih, my younger brother Rachmat Edy, Agus Santoso, Bambang Widodo, and my younger sister Sri Mulyani, who right now more than 20 years living in San Diego, California, the United States. Sri Mulyani got married with American zitizens Umar Abdul Madjid. Umar is a new name since he converted to Islam 30 years ago when he attended at Law School in San Diego. My other younger sister was Titin Fatimah, and Yuni Suryaningsih. Rachmat Edy and Agus Santoso were like me, working as a Journalist. Sri Mulyani, Erni Rahayu, and Yuni Suryaningsing are a Teacher in profession. I remembered that in Ramadhan fasting months times, in 1960’s, My grand mother always took me to her houses in the Borneo Jungle, we call it Wain river areas, 50 km from Balikpapan city, East Kalimantan. In the past, the school holidays always match with Ramadhan times, either in December, November, or October or other Gregorian months. Usually, Ramadhan holidays were 30 days. From our Houses in Balikpapan we use small boat, like Kayak. We never use a machine boat, we just swing the boat with small wood stick. That was why we need more than 12 hour before we arrived in Wain villages. ‘’Some times, in the rainy seasons, we needs more time, up to 24 hours before we arrived to the locations, because our Grand Father should manage their small kayak against a water stream flow to passed the river straits’’. In the past, the Wain, and Somber villages were still a virgin forest areas, so when we passed the Wain River or Somber River, we saw a lot of Python snake circles and hanged in the tree. We also saw a lot of Orangutan apes dance in the tree. The view was so beautiful there when we saw a lot of small and big snake and Orangutan apes. I am not afraid when we passed the animals like snake and apes. ‘’They did not strike you or to bit you, if you also not bother them,’’ said my Grant Mother, reminds me, when our kayaks passed a group of Python or Orangutan. Now, we can not found the view and beautiful scene like we saw in the past. The forestation by illegal logging, wood cleansing by Plywood Company and other Crude Oil Palm company which change the land areas were one of the reason why we could not find Python and Orangutan anymore in the Wain and Somber areas. We also could not catch the fish, when we fishing in the Wain and Somber river areas. The river was polluted and hard to find a lot of natural fish. ‘’In the past, my grand mother and my grand father was fished the fish in the river, so they eat fish freely, never bought in the traditional market, like we do know’’. The water and beach pollution are also happen in the Balikpapan beach and Balikpapan straits. When I stayed in Kampung Baru Tengah, I was easily to catch the crab and fish in the back of my houses, but now, you should go to more deep in the ocean. That is the reforestations of the tree in Borneo and the water pollution in the Balikpapan straits were harm the local indigenous peoples who’s mostly are fisheries and farmer. That is why most of them were still living below the poverty line. They still can not pay their kid’s School tuition fee. Communist influences. When I was four years old, around 1964, my father enrolled me to Playgroup school name ‘’TK Persit Kartika Chandra Kirana’’. I remembered that my teacher shout to all the kids in the class: ‘’Children, do you know who can give you a pie cake right now,’’ said Young women teacher in the front of the class. ‘’God can give you a pie cake like this. No, this is I make it my self. God can not give you the cake,’’ said the Teacher, who answer her question. The women, later was a member of ‘’Gerwani’’. Gerwani was one of the sub-groups of Indonesian Communist Party members which the Government later revoked them, after the 1965 Coup de tat. In the front of my Class, there was a dormitory and luxury real estate which a lot of Russian marine was stayed. In the 1960’s, a lot of Russian (Soviet Union) Submarine were have a special Navy harbor in Balikpapan city. Of course, Indonesia has a good relation with Soviet Union also China in 1960’s. We need Russian and China to liberate the Papuan from Netherlands occupations and in order to fight with Malaysian in the border. When my father was know that the Play Group teacher was a communist members, he moved me to another schools. I was still remembering that my teacher called us to use a Boy Scouts shirt to cheers Indonesian First President Sukarno who was visit to Balikpapan in 1964. Thousands of Boy Scouts from Play Group school, Elementary School, Junior High School to Senior High School were cheers the first President happily in the side line of the street, from Balikpapan Airport to Balikpapan Semayang Harbor.’ Freelance Journalist and Journalistic Lecture at School of Economics Institute of Hidayatullah, Indonesia.