Solo, a city with a million stories, from bliss to sorrow. The historical periodization seems to be centered in the city of Solo. From various historical stories, the ‘65 tragedy left a scathing wound to this day. This wound still needs a process to heal – and who knows how long. Our reflection was greeted by the heat of the city of Solo. The heat touched our skin as we were hauling our suitcases toward the pick-up vehicle. Some of us, just for the first time set foot in Bengawan Solo.
Everyone has different views on the tragedy of ’65. Different views make people have different attitudes towards former political prisoners. Stigma also shackles former political prisoners and even their descendants. In fact, according to our understanding, many former political prisoners are victims of the Old Order regime. They did not get justice even today. The state is negligent in its responsibility to protect its people. It is as if the state turns a blind eye to the fact that many former political prisoners are victims of the regime’s barbarity.
We are still recalling the moment of our visit to Mbah Cokro (not his real name). Mbah Cokro is a Simbah/Mbah (a nickname for grandfather in Javanese) who fights for the rights of the elderly victims of human rights violations. Mbah Cokro is highly respected because of his humanity spirit. Mbah told us how the political victims of the Old Order regime struggled in their lives. A long process was carried out even to make access to limited public services. Of course, opening a sealed door is not as easy as opening an unlocked door. This would describe how the quality of life lived by victims of human rights violations.
Mbah Cokro recounted the efforts that had been made. There are many twists and turns of conflict from the surrounding environment to the state apparatus they face, ranging from the difficulty of accessing green books (books for accessing free medical treatment services to hospitals) to the issuance of a Certificate of Victims of Human Rights Violations from the National Human Rights Commission which states that the state recognizes that human rights violations have occurred against the victim. But from all of these stories, here we will tell about how young people are involved with the elderly and become part of them. Our question to Mbah Cokro was, “What is the strategy that makes young people enthusiastic and willing to be part of the accompaniment work?”
While sipping a cup of coffee, Mbah Cokro began to tell the story of the process of inviting young people to work assisting the elderly victims of human rights violations. The most important thing in the strategy is to understand the character of today’s youth. According to Mbah Cokro, the character of young people today tends to be individualistic and pragmatic. This is due to the advancement of technology so that the culture of meeting each other and discussing is starting to fade. For this reason, the strategy taken is to provide meeting and discussion rooms according to the current situation, namely online.
However, meeting virtually is not easy to make a bonding relationship. For that, it is necessary to conduct offline meetings as well. This was then scheduled for a direct meeting at the Sekber’65 office in Solo. The initial meeting discussed a simple theme about the culture around them. This activity is effective in building curiosity among young people. This process also makes the youth’s background visible. Do these young people have any concern for the elderly victims of ’65 or are they new to this issue? Over time, these regular discussions took place, and several young people committed to attending. As a result, the discussion issues moved to heavier themes such as those related to human rights, democracy, protection for the elderly victims of human rights violations, and so on.
The curiosity of young people turned into empathy which was then formed in the Young Generation Forum (FGM). Mbah Cokro and his friends in Solo brought together young and elderly victims directly. From this, direct conversations and interactions occurred, at first young people only sympathized with the stories and films they encountered on online channels, now it has turned into a sense of empathy.
It did not stop there, the meeting of young people with the elderly became a moment that was never imagined before because these young people were invited to visit the homes of the elderly directly. Starting from the elderly who live alone, are rejected by their families, with economic limitations, suffering from certain illnesses, to the elderly who directly receive disabilities due to past tragedies. Not infrequently they (young people) are invited to visit the graves of the elderly who have preceded us.
The empathy that continues to grow makes young people in Solo want to join and become part of FGM. These young people do voluntary work to help the elderly victims, namely by providing assistance for control or check-ups at the hospital, home visits accompanied by a facilitator, to picking up elderly victims if they are not present or cannot be contacted. The humanitarian work of these young people illustrates that young people are not a generation that is indifferent to others, but young people are a generation that cares about others, especially the marginalized.
The activation of young people who are members of FGM changes the view that young people are an individualist and apathetic group. Young people have empathy which if managed properly can be a burning ember for the human rights struggle. Moreover, physically young people have strong stamina. On the other hand, along with the digitization of public services that the government is currently expanding to the regions, the performance of young people who are adaptive to technology is urgently needed. Collaboration between young people and supporting organizations is very good in the work of the human rights struggle.