From a Terrorist to a Businessman

This is my first time directly meet Yusuf, one of the former combatants of Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Prior to our meeting, I thought Yusuf is just a usual man who works in a small-scale business in Indonesia. He looked simple and physically quite thin for a former combatant. Yes, of course body size is not a measurement to measure someone bravery. When I was living in Ambon during the conflict time I saw so many types of combatants (physically), some of them were short and thin but there were also some who were fat and tall. Okey… I think this is not an important topic to be discussed :D Lets move again to Yusuf…

Our meeting was due to his coming to Jakarta to participated in one of the event held by the Ministry of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises. Yusuf is seen has succeeded to move on from a former combatant to a successful small-scale businessman who can create job field for others. As I mentioned before, I never knew that Yusuf was also considered as a terrorist by Indonesian government due to his role in storing explosive materials in 2003. Since then, Yusuf was arrested and then became a free person in October 10, 2012 just several days ago.

 Noor Huda Ismail is the one who help Yusuf to change his life, during our conversation Yusuf talked a lot about how Noor Huda has helped him since he was in prison. He trusted Huda and wants to work together in business, they then established Dapoer Bistik (a restaurant) that served many types of bistik with Indonesian flavors in Semarang and Solo. Huda said that he wants to promote peace through foods. I don’t know why he chooses food, maybe because he considers that everyone in this world love foods and I think that’s absolutely true. However, Huda also argues that food is also used as symbol of welfare and peace in some of Indonesian traditional customs, for instance in Poso, Central Sulawesi there is a celebration called Padungku in which during the harvest time the local Muslim and Christian eat together to thank God. Likewise, in Ambon, there is also similar celebration called Makan Patita.

This idea of peace through foods reminds me of my Belgian friend “Sane” who loves to cook delicious Belgian chocolate and wants to have a peace restaurant where she can promote peaceful words and terms in her restaurant menu’s J

My conversation with Yusuf wasn’t so long due to his limited time in Jakarta, however I am so grateful to have a chance to discuss with him. He confessed that he regrets for his action as a bad man that had sacrificed innocent people; he even said that he was happy when he met Eka Laksmi who loses her husband in the first Bali Bombing. Eka didn’t treat him as an enemy and it made him feel sorry and also grateful. Yusuf said at present his life is more meaningful; he can help those who are in difficulties, open new job field for unemployment and also prove to his old friends that “Jihad does not always mean war in literally”.

I hope there will be more and more people who participate in a radical movement and use violent as tool to solve their problems starting to realize that it is useless to hurt each other, it is better for us to learn from each other then make a change. Hopefully Yusuf experiences can inspire us and leave a lesson learned. J