Merayakan Kebebasan Beragama - Democracy Project

Democracy Projectspeeches excellence when he himself appears uncomfortable inspeaking. This conundrum is partly resolved when Djohan’s passionfor ideas is understood. Just as there is no substitute in filmmakingfor the power of storytelling, so that no amount of technicalexpertise or clever dialogue can produce greatness in the absence ofa strong narrative, so too in writing it is the quality of ideas thatseparate the great writer from the merely good.A further defining hallmark of Djohan’s work is that he is notmerely passionate about ideas as a consumer but he is also a producerof original insights, observations and ideas. As an intellectual who isgenuinely independently minded and has consistently and deeplytrue to his convictions Djohan is driven by ideas and is true to hisown ideas. From his earliest days as a student in Yogyakarta Djohanhas been a genuinely independent thinker. Even today onintervention campuses the number of genuine independent thinkersis small but when Djohan first began to study in the early 1960sculture of rote-learning in respect of those in authority was evenmore factor of the environment than it is today. Consequently, it isall the more remarkable that Djohan became the sort of independentand original thinker that he is from an early age. There was nothingabout his personal background, or his place of origin on the islandof Borneo, that would explain the confidence and self-reliance thatDjohan can display from early from the beginning of his studies.Some of this is captured in Ahmad Wahib’s Journal. From this andother contemporaries sources we get a picture of Djohan and Wahibtaking on the world and quietly thinking everything through forthemselves. It is no doubt a matter of great consequence thatDjohan’s qualities were recognized early on by Mukti Ali and that hechose to mentor Djohan and taking under his wing. But as importantas this mentorship was it was likely less a cause of Djohan’sindependent thinking than product of it. It was this independentmindedness that led Djohan and Wahib to question everythingaround them including the colleagues and superiors within HMI.A fourth defining element in Djohan’s character and work is hiscapacity for sharp analysis and articulate expression as a writer. Itwas this vital characteristic along with the others already describedinclined people like Mukti Ali to employ Djohan as a writer. It wasfrom this start that he came to the attention of the president himself.758 |MERAYAKAN KEBEBASAN BERAGAMA