Indonesians in Focus: Nurul Qomar

By Barrie | June 29th, 2007 | No Comments

He was once known as a comedian, then a politician. Now, Nurul Qomar has embarked on a new mission — championing the country’s literacy campaign.

“Illiteracy is the dirty linen previous administrations have failed to launder. We are grateful that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono pays a great deal of attention to this issue,” Qomar said during a literacy campaign in Bogor, West Java, recently.

Yudhoyono, the country’s first directly elected president, has increased the budget allocation for the education sector. However, the allocation is still far below the 20 percent of the country’s total budget mandated in the Constitution.

A House of Representatives member from Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party (PD), Qomar was appointment in 2006 by the Education Ministry as a National Literacy Envoy, with the main task of visiting regions across the country to motivate all the stakeholders and teachers spearheading the national literacy movement.

The choice of Qomar was based on his great sense of humor and his ability to effectively communicate with people. During his visits to the regions, he often takes a cultural approach, as he did during a recent dialog with some 1,000 Bogor regency education stakeholders, teachers and participants of the Functional Literacy (KF) group in Cibinong.

During the Cibinong visit, Qomar appeared very well aware of local community practices and was willing to lend a helping hand with reading and writing instruction during his inspections, apart from always being accompanied by members of his comedy group to stimulate the interest of local residents and at the same time entertain them.

For those joining the Functional Literacy group in Cibinong, who were mostly women, Qomar appealed to them to make serious efforts to learn to read and write.

The father of four recounted how husbands in areas he has visited cheated their illiterate wives by asking them to sign a letter allowing them to take a second wife.

“Women should learn to read and write in order to gain knowledge, because ignorance makes housewives easily deceived,” he told them.

Data issued by the Central Statistics Agency suggested that in 2004 alone Indonesia’s illiterate population totaled 15 million. That figure, however, slightly decreased to 12.2 million in 2006.
Various regions across the country, including East Java, West Java, Central Java, Banten, Lampung, Papua and South Sulawesi are still on the red list, which means their literacy rate is less than 90 percent of the total population. Jakarta remains on the green list with a literacy rate of above 90 percent.

“When I was chosen as a House member from West Java as the son of an Indramayu native I noted that there were 270,000 illiterate people in the area, 188,000 of whom were women, the highest in the province. So I accepted the national literacy envoy assignment and hope that along with the ministry of education we can help our illiterate countrymen learn to read and write.”

He said President Yudhoyono was very enthusiastic about the eradication of illiteracy, as seen in Presidential Instruction No. 5/2006 on the national movement for the acceleration of illiteracy relief.

This instruction, according to him, serves as a legal umbrella for carrying out the task in a well-directed manner so that hopefully the national literacy rate can be increased to at least 95 percent.

“It is indeed ironic that at the present time part of the Indonesian population remains illiterate. But the difficulty being frequently faced in field operation is that large numbers of illiterate people, mostly males, are still reluctant to join literacy groups, while women show more zeal to learn,” said Qomar.

Born in Jakarta on March 11, 1960, Qomar was a leading comedian in the Empat Sekawan comedy group. However, the group has less frequently appeared on stage since his election to the House in 2004 as a member of the Democratic Party.

Before running in the 2004 legislative elections, the father of four was actively campaigning for the Democratic Party as a party spokesman, which led to his election as a legislator representing the West Java city and regency of Indramayu and Cirebon.

Asked what excites him most — being a House member or a comedian, the social and political science graduate of Jakarta’s Syeh Yusuf Islamic University replied lightly, “I’m trying to be professional in all fields and not to disappoint people, but I’m still an artist at heart. The House membership only lasts for five years, and I want to work as hard as I can during this time, after which I’ll go back to entertainment.”

Qomar also said he makes most of his money from the entertainment business.

“I don’t have the heart to spend my salary as a legislative member before giving religious alms and contributions because the money comes from the people. But I can enjoy every rupiah I earn from my stage performances because that comes from my own sweat.”

Theresia Sufa