Grass root political conflict in South Banten.

Grass root Political conflict in south banten Once in south Banten Author : Pramoedya Ananta Toer. This story is a description of political conflict in grass root level. The setting is a village in South Banten, Indonesia when there was Darul Islam rebellion in the 1950's and 1960's. The main character is Ranta, a poor worker. He lived a bamboo hut without electricity with his wife Ireng who often complained about poverty and security condition. One day Musa, a wealthy merchant, came. He gave Ranta money and asked him to steal seeds of tea and hevea plants from nearby plantation. Ranta stole it at night but Musa did not pay him. He threatened him instead. Musa's wife was surprised when suddenly Musa came home with anger. Soon they quarrelled. Then Djameng, Musa's subordinate, came to report that the commander was away and that he saw Ranta brought Musa's baton and bag. After that Kasan came with his troop and arms. Musa told him to solve the problem with Ranta. In the quarrel Musa admitted that he was one of DI leaders. His wife got more furious because her parent were victims of DI. Musa was surprised when suddenly the commander got in the house. He had been suspicious of Musa for a long time because Musa was never attacked by DI. Furthermore he just heard Musa's confession to his wife. In addition, he got Musa's bag which contain important documents of DI. Musa denied the accusations. Amidst the quarrel a voice of bird was heard. It was a code from DI. Commander and his troop immediately hid out. Before long a group of people came under chief of village. He addressed Musa as Residen (a district official under Dutch colonial government in Indonesia). He reported that commander went to city with three persons and that there were only ten soldiers left. He thought that it was time to attack the military post with only twenty persons. Realizing he was under threat Musa pretended he did not know anything. After chief of village left the commander came out and continued his interrogation. Musa kept on denying although he was cornered. Suddenly another voice of bird was heard. Once again the commander and his troops found cover. Kasan and his men came. He reported that Ranta was not at home and that he did not find Musa's bag and baton and that he had burned Ranta's house. Again and again Musa denied but Kasan said that Musa ordered him to burn houses and to wage psywar. The commander came out to capture all of them. Later the commander appointed Ranta as interim chief of village. The next day commander met Ranta to discuss security problems that was threatened by Oneng group of rebel. Ranta who was a Heiho (Japanese soldier) would help to organize civilian defence. He recruited local youth to support the military. Then Musa's wife came to inform that she would go home to Sukabumi. Ranta revealed Musa's dirty tricks. Once Musa was also poor. During Japanese occupation he asked those who went to work as romusha (Japanese slaves) to sign a letter. Later it was revealed that the letter gave Musa a right to take over their land. He also told her about his experience when he was forced to steal seeds of hevea and tea. Pramoedya nicely described political conflict and how the village people and the military overcome their problems by unifying all of their forces. Perhaps Pramoedya wanted to express his ideas that political conflict will only make poor people suffer. Whoever the winner poor people will suffer.