NII

My finger stopped changing tv channel when I heard the presenter talking about NII (Negara Islam Indonesia). Why? Well, I was truly surprise knowing that such movement -I do not consider it as organization- still exist. Last time I heard about this name was about 9 years ago. Amazingly, after so many years, even when I completely forgot about it, a tv program publish their investigation on NII.

NII is not something special to me, but I almost experiencing their movement back then. At that time, I just finished my university examination in Bandung and waited for the result the next month. So I decided to spend my holiday at my aunt instead of going back home. I stayed in my aunt-s house since I arrived in the city, it was the same house I inhabited when I spent some of my elementary years. (My school was about 500m from home, so most of my classmates know where I live). Then one day, on my way back home, I met one of my classmates, she was my best friend in elementary school. Nothing change from her, she just grew taller than years before. We hugged each other and exchanged stories for a few minutes. Since she was with some friends at that time, we decided to meet another time, but before she left, she asked me to join a mentoring and I said OK.

The next day, she came to visit me at my place. She did not come alone, but introduced me to her friends. She asked me to show my room to make sure we could get our privacy. I did not notice something wrong with it, so I lead them to my room at the second floor. Right after that, they sit on the floor and made a circle and they asked me to join coz the mentoring was about to begin. Again, I did not object to them because I thought it was not useless to learn religious thing while waiting for my exam result. And there I was, spending a few mentoring sessions with them. However, after 4-5 times of mentoring, I became more and more inconvenient with them. I talked about it to my classmate in senior high (she knows more about religion than me) and we decided to make her join the mentoring, of course it was a surprise for my mentoring group. Unexpectedly, my mentoring group was not really happy with the new comer, they decided to finish mentoring earlier when they realized they cannot answered my friends questions. And it was clear to me to stay away from them before it went bad. Later on, I gave them reasons for not attending the mentoring and left for Jakarta. I lied to my Mom telling her I want to follow an examination in Jakarta for a school I never considered before, and certainly, without preparation.

Soon after the examination result was announced, I went back to Bandung preparing my study in one of public universities. I never heard about my mentoring group, they might be bored calling to my aunt's house. At the end of my first semester in university, I met her after leaving a friend’s house. She studied in different university. I chatted for a while with her and left. A few months after, she and her friend visited me at my aunts. She asked me for a help since her friend need some money immediately. Unfortunately, I cannot help her. She asked for any contacts I could pass her on but I did not give them any. At that point, I never realized what was happened.

Time flies by, I was about to finish my second semester in the university when people talked and media published about NII. About how they influenced university students and made them work to pay for the fee applied by NII. Soon after I realized it, I recognized some friends who have been involved too far in this movement. They have proceeded to a phase called 'baiát' and obliged to pay for fee. I collected some information from media and friends and then realized that I just missed their target to be NII member. I was very much released but also sad to know many friends lied to their parents and left school because of this movement. This case became national issue and parents were aware about their existence. Several students in my campus were identified as victims of this movement and were advised to leave it. It took sometime to get them back on track and continue their study. However, some of the students preferred to transfer to other universities because they can not stand people staring at them or even asking them questions.

Next semesters, I was in the same class with some of students who were involved with NII. Since they were too busy working to earn money back then, they failed many classes and have to retake it that semester. I also heard several versions on how they leave the movement, it needed a sacrifice from the whole family members, both emotion and money.

Years after, I met a new friend who –later on- made a confession that he was one of NII victims. Right after he left it, he moved to other university and kept hiding from everybody except his family and some new friends in the campus. He had a very tough time since he lost the scholarship due to his transfer. Slowly but sure, he finally graduated, but the memory during the hard times will never been erased from his mind.

I probably never knew their struggle to survive from it. All I knew that it was almost ruins so many people's bright future. I hope this movement never exists in the future. Even when it does, I pray for people to listen to their heart and God. Anyway, it's better to join mentoring at public places, so there is no reason for not joining any pengajian or mentoring.