IN trip to Gudo Temple, Jombang, yesterday I opened email from America. The sender was an old friend: drg Irawan. From LA.

From the e-mail, we can see that Irawan is scratching his fingers: he wrote a long one. About leads. As a US-trained dentist, he handles a lot of leads: he owns a magazine in the US. Its name: Indonesia Media. Indonesian. Published twice a month. My writings often appear in his magazine.

Irawan is already an American citizen. The house is large and pleasant. I slept in this house.

I had to explain to him: a track is not a title. The lead is the first sentence or the first paragraph of a text. Especially journalistic writing.

Dr. Irawan’s email is interesting. So I decided to build it, completely:

Response to “Lead Torn” by Dahlan Iskan.

By: Irawan

COMMENTING on the writings of my eldest, Dahlan Iskan, whom I often call “Toa koh Yee Zhe Kan” in one of his articles published on Disway, Sobekan Lead.

One of the paragraph snippets, “The lead is the opening sentence in writing. Finding the opening line is one of the hardest parts of writing. Coincidentally, the track he had recorded on a piece of paper had disappeared somewhere.

Indeed, “Lead” is something that needs inspiration to get it. Especially if we have to create it ourselves.

I remember that a quarter of a century ago, I had just started the Indonesian Media magazine, and I was also to be its editor. I never even did a school magazine. Also, there was once a black mark, namely number 4 on the Indonesian language report card when he was in middle school. The reason is that I failed to mention the 26 meanings of using the prefix “me”. Unfortunately, I was also accused of being a plagiarist for writing my poetry which he claimed was too perfect for junior high school students.

So no doubt I was sentenced to death, “4”.

Oh God, please forgive my Indonesian teacher’s sins on his way to the afterlife.

Maybe my genetic heritage still carries in my heart, from my grandfather, Dr. Chen Lung Kit, who always wrote verses at the front door of Pancoran Glodok, Batavia, on every birthday of Queen Wilhelmina . Plus the work of my late father, Dr. Putrasatia, as a health columnist for the daily Indonesia Raya.

Perhaps it was this gene that prompted my instinct to take the initiative to create a bi-weekly magazine, Indonesia Media, a print and online media with www.indonesiamedia.com.

There was also a problem with the name of the magazine, because an UI-graduate linguistics scholar who lives in Canada suddenly wrote to me saying it was the wrong language. It should be the Indonesian media, because remembering that we in America have to follow the procedure for such formulation. I have thought about this suggestion. However, I remembered that I had found the inspiration for this term in an ethnic magazine in Los Angeles, which was called China Post, not Chinese Post. After that, I fell asleep quietly.

If you think about it, how dare I publish a bi-weekly magazine. Where I still have to practice in my two clinics, then suddenly become a writer and editor too. It’s kind of horrifying to imagine how brave I was to die at that moment.

I also have to acknowledge the support of my mother, Sanita. “If you have the heart to do this magazine, keep going. God will surely provide the way,” he said.

Then it didn’t stop at just the name of the print media, it turned out that I didn’t want to be outdone by a top news agency that still had its own distinctive slogan. Such as Kompas, “Clear to see the World”, Tempo, with its “Talking Facts”, and many other cool slogans.

From what prompted us to create Indonesia Media. What is our future mission? Of course, the public understands the tragedy of May 1998 that we can never forget. Because of this, we have an effort of self-correction and reflection on the journey ahead. May the timeline become a historical step for the Indonesian nation to progress to a higher level of national civilization.

One way is to establish communication between ethnic groups and groups, increase social interaction, create understanding and cooperation, fill each other’s weaknesses and share our strengths. I think as ordinary people abroad, that’s all we can give to Indonesia.

This is where I have to think seriously to create a meaningful motto and include a poetic rule that redeems the number “4” in the Indonesian language bulletin at the same time. As a result, I had an inspiration, using the motto “Empowered through Cross Culture”. This term is guaranteed to be authentic, full of meaning and respects the rules of poetry and rhyme, said the Rapper singer.

Although not as long as “Gurindam Dua Belas” by Raja Ali Haji, but I guarantee the motto is genuine. Oath! No plagiarism. I hope that I will always be inspired to give birth to many “tracks” in my work as a writer. (Dahlan Iskan)

Publisher: Joseph