Silat Teachers' Welfare

[Ranggalana]

Salam silat everyone,

One of our Mods, Bung Parewa, asked me to start a thread on silat teachers' welfare. As we all know many traditional silat teachers in Indonesia live very simply, if not to say in poverty. Not only is traditional silat becoming less popular in Indonesia (compared to foreign MAs) but traditionally also silat teachers would rather give their students free board and lodging than ask them to pay for their knowledge.

Nowadays, with silat going international and foreigners (Westerners) learning silat and creating schools back in their home countries, it might be a time to consider the welfare of the traditional guru-guru back in the villages of Indonesia. I know, it should be the government who supports these living sources of tradition, but our government is light years away from being able to do that. So it must be us, silat lovers who look after our teachers and ensure that they don't live in poverty.

There are two things that I would like to suggest. Firstly, I would recomend that the silat schools that sell the knowledge that they gained from traditional teachers for their own schools in the West, send some of the money they make back to their source. Secondly, maybe people like us at sahabat silat could creat a fund to be used as we see fit, with the main idea, to help our guru-guru silat who are in need. For this fund maybe we could approach schools in the West, schools here, and also the millionaires we have in Indonesia who also love silat.

What do you guys and gals think... (are there any girls on this forum?)

Salam hormat,
Bram

[Bobbe]

The biggest problem with that is the Indonesian post office. Have you ever sent any money from another country to Indonesia? It's like sending cheese through a rat maze. I sent some Oleh-Oleh dari America untuk pa Bam ke Indonesia, and it never got there...TWICE!

Before we send money, there should be a responsible party in Indonesia to perhaps open a bank account to distribute funds. That way we could do wire transfers without worry.

[Gorka]

Salam everyone,

I used Western Union several times between France and Indonesia and it worked perfectly 

Wassalam
Gorka

[Ranggalana]

The biggest problem with that is the Indonesian post office. Have you ever sent any money from another country to Indonesia? It's like sending cheese through a rat maze. I sent some Oleh-Oleh dari America untuk pa Bam ke Indonesia, and it never got there...TWICE!

Before we send money, there should be a responsible party in Indonesia to perhaps open a bank account to distribute funds. That way we could do wire transfers without worry.

Salam silat everyone,

Many times I have lost stuff in the post here and can't recomend anyone posting anything to Indonesia unless you use DHL or FedEx or something like that. Western Union is good, but expensive. And also, we would be better off making something that is more than incidental or occasional, but nevertheless dependable when the need is there. Not all guru-guru silat would welcome financial help, if given with the wrong attitude these things can be seen as insults and that is the last thing we would want.

I think that with organizations like sahabatsilat and the American silat association coming of age we can imagine a permanent fund for a)emergencies and b)monthly / yearly subsidies. But before we go asking foreigners to pull out their wallets, lets see what our own wealthy sahabat silat people have to say. How about Bung Gobel putting aside a few billion rupiah in a trust fund to be distributed to those traditional teachers who actively teach and keep their art alive?

We need funds not only for the welfare of the guru-guru silat, but also for the preservation of traditional silat itself. We don't even know how many guru-guru are out there. We need funds for research as well as for the welfare of guru-guru silat. How about sahabatsilat start a kitty where members can give with their right hand without their left hand knowing, but have the balance and the spending on a web-page, transparent for all to see. After all we are one of the most corrupt nations on the planet so we can't expect us to trust ourselves with money.

Salam hormat,
Bram

 

[Rebo Paing]

Bram, good ideas ... I look forward to this getting to a working stage!

Hehe ... I think corruption happens everywhere ... it's just more overt (and visible) in some places.

Wassalam,
Krisno

[Gorka]

Salam everyone,

I really like the project but I've got a big question.
Who is going to choose the guru-guru silat that will receive this funds ?
How are they going to be slected ?
What about guru guru silat from Banten ? What about Guru besar Juhro from the little village of Rancalame from Cimande Macan Guling ? He's surely poor even if I give him money when I'm staying in his house but it's certainly not enough to live all the year for him and his family.
What about Bambang Suwanda from Mande Muda ? Why not him ?
What about Pak Sophyan from Bukkintinggi ? Why not him ?
... etc.....

All this to say that this great project will have difficulties to make happy all the westerners silat lovers.... and all the guru guru silat from the art that we love.

What do you think about this ?

wassalam
Gorka

[Ranggalana]

Salam everyone,

I really like the project but I've got a big question.
Who is going to choose the guru-guru silat that will receive this funds ?
How are they going to be slected ?
What about guru guru silat from Banten ? What about Guru besar Juhro from the little village of Rancalame from Cimande Macan Guling ? He's surely poor even if I give him money when I'm staying in his house but it's certainly not enough to live all the year for him and his family.
What about Bambang Suwanda from Mande Muda ? Why not him ?
What about Pak Sophyan from Bukkintinggi ? Why not him ?
... etc.....

All this to say that this great project will have difficulties to make happy all the westerners silat lovers.... and all the guru guru silat from the art that we love.

What do you think about this ?

wassalam
Gorka

Salam everyone,

I think the first thing we need to do is data the guru-guru silat who give a big contribution to the development of silat. There must be at least hundreds of them. At the same time we need to begin to raise the money. There is such a large amount needed so we need the billionaires help, no other way.

In the Indonesian part of this forum, one idea was to lobby the Department of Education here to make pencak silat part of local schools' curriculum. This would give local silat gurus a steady job. I think that sahabatsilat should begin to make moves to influence the Department of Education to do this. What Koran Tempo is doing is a step in the right direction, to make the public more aware of the treasure that is silat.

I don't think that we in sahabatsilat could raise enough money from our own wallets to support this project, so we need to raise money from donations. There are many wealthy silat lovers in Indonesia who we should aproach.

Also silat students overseas could easily put aside a few dollars each time they train to be sent back to their source. For example, if Gorka took half a Euro off each student in France every training session to send back to Banten, in three months there might be enough to send something via Western Union and make it worth while the visit in to town to get it. Even more so if the big schools like "the School we Should not Name" put aside some cash from their students and their seminars, there would be cash for the source.

Don't forget, sahabatsilat needs funds for research and developing its role as well.

Salam hangat,
Bram

[Gorka]

Salam Bram,

In my school, I ask,once a year, for a free donation to all my students. I keep all this money for Banten. I use it as donation for Keceran organisation in Serang, for free donations to our guru-guru from my students. This is beside the money that I personaly give to my guru-guru for their hospitality and for their teaching (they don't ask me for money, but at the end of my stay, I give it to them).

All my students are paying for their Pencak Silat classes. This money is use to pay our gym's rents, to help some school projects... and for our yearly trip in the mother country of our loved art. So in some way all the money (beside the rents and some little projects in France) is used in Indonesia (taksi, becak, ole-ole, hotel, guru-guru, food for our friends there...).

In my personal point of view, I like better not to earn my daily needed money by teaching Pencak Silat so I don't have any "customers" but only "students" 

Happy to read you soon

wassalam
Gorka

[Ranggalana]

Salam Bram,

In my school, I ask,once a year, for a free donation to all my students. I keep all this money for Banten. I use it as donation for Keceran organisation in Serang, for free donations to our guru-guru from my students. This is beside the money that I personaly give to my guru-guru for their hospitality and for their teaching (they don't ask me for money, but at the end of my stay, I give it to them).

All my students are paying for their Pencak Silat classes. This money is use to pay our gym's rents, to help some school projects... and for our yearly trip in the mother country of our loved art. So in some way all the money (beside the rents and some little projects in France) is used in Indonesia (taksi, becak, ole-ole, hotel, guru-guru, food for our friends there...).

In my personal point of view, I like better not to earn my daily needed money by teaching Pencak Silat so I don't have any "customers" but only "students" 

Happy to read you soon

wassalam
Gorka

Salam Silat everyone,

Guru Gorka,

What you and your students are doing is just what silat needs, and it is the a true expression of the culture of silat. Of course no silat guru would ask for money. They would rather be a motorcycle taxi driver, a fruit seller, a security guy, than sell knowledge. I think that the idea of not making a living out of teaching silat is a valuable tradition, and it is good to hear that you are continuing this tradition. We need more students like you for the guru-guru silat here

If every competent guru silat here had one or two murid's like Gorka, they would be financially better off. Maybe the organizers in sahabatsilat could find good murids for the guru-guru?

But don't forget there are the funds we need for developing the scope of sahabatsilat. Maybe sahabat silat should organise some fundraising events. In my experience it is not too difficult to raise money for a good cause in the West. When I was in London last year, through the summer silat and gamelan fans in Camden managed to raise over one thousand pounds for the Yogya earthquake just from small donations. The money is there, it just needs to be circulated.

Salam hangat dan hormat,
Bram

[SundaWarrior]

Indeed this is a noble cause and I hope I am able to help in any way possible.

Hormat,
Nicholas

[AbdUllah]

As of yet i do not have guru-guru in Indonesia, however if i can help in anyway in this endevour i would be honored if you would have me.
Just to re-affirm what has already been said, i think that there should be a majalis in charge of looking after the finances and important issues of this effort, that should be composed of a broad range of pesilat from different styles, so that it can not be said that this organisation would be attempting to impose its own ideals or expectations on any of the Guru-guru.... i believe the proverb that was used earlier is that it should "give with the right hand without the left hand knowing".

This is just the opinion of an unlearned village idiot, so if you look over this posting then please excuse me for having taken so much of your time.

Hormat

[Michael Lee]

I think this is a wonderful idea!  If the oversight complications are ever worked out, I'd be happy to contribute. 

[AbdUllah]

Has anything yet at all been done about this idea?
If not really something should be done.

Anyone care to make some input?

wa salam