And We Danced All Through The Night

Story by A. Ruwidrijarto

And we sang all the rinto’s (not the rambo’s),¹ the tetun’s songs of love and life and struggles, and two or three (maybe seven or eight) dangdut² songs.

7 August 2022 was the night. Metinaro, Timor Leste was the place.

Of course we had the fire, and the circle around the fire. And the lighting up where the fire travelled along piles of dried wood and leaves (and significant amount of kerosene) arranged in a such a way to form the letter of m e n o k e n until it touched the center of the circle. It’s indeed a big fire.

And the sharing of dreams, funny stories, the histories of peoples and places, plans and hopes. Of friendship and connectedness.

The morning after, we signed the Metinaro Declaration. It declares that the youth of Timor Leste and the youth of Indonesia have together woven and become noken.

Metinaro Declaration is signed by the youngest nokenners from Timor Leste and Indonesia, Titu and Diana, witnessed by Manuel of MGA and Yahya of RSBI, and by Bella, the Principal Advisor for the President of Timor Leste.
At this point, this has been a very important diplomatic achievement.

But,

It is probably not very important but the most important.
It is probably not diplomatic but diplothentic (a diplomacy but more authentic).
It is probably not an achievement but a grand pas de deux, where we all shared the common theme in our dances, the partnership inherent in love, an expression of feelings and thoughts and solidarity between the youth of Timor Leste and the youth of Indonesia.³

It’s weird actually. Because we’re so focused in dancing and singing, and having fun in general that nobody had a coherent answer when asked before: what is the agenda and target of this menoken?

Well…. See…. Nobody knew.

It’s also very weird actually that the Menoken from west to East Timor happened right after the President of Timor Leste concluded his tour to Indonesia, to promote closer relationship between the two countries, and to gain support for Timor Leste to become a member of ASEAN. That’s the diplomatic undertaking, right there. I in all honesty didn’t even know that Timor Leste is not a member of ASEAN, yet. I thought it’s just automatic, because it’s a country and it’s in Southeast Asia.

Here you go, the menoken put authentic touch to all these.

But yes, now that the communities are connected there are now plans to form a consortium of Timor Leste, Indonesia and Philippines NGOs to organize something related to climate change and small islands setting, aspirations from Timor Leste to take part in menoken in Papua, Lembata, Kupang, Alor, Ende (the plans emerged during the Menoken from west to East Timor itself), the 2022 Regional Youth Summit.. And a plan to exchange products and knowledge on coffee (second most important commodity after oil-gas), and a spirit that it’s time for the youth of Timor Leste and Indonesia to take our active part in the global Next Generation Climate Movement, and about how to work together in saving and improving the remaining forest that covers probably around 30% of the country’s 1,5 million hectares land mass, and the coral reefs!

But, those follow ups are just the details…details…devils…details, aren’t they?

So guys, at the very least… let’s save up for the upcoming dancing and singing menoken in Lembata, Papua, and other places in Indonesia and Timor Leste!