Monday, August 13, 2012

Poligami @Dikdoang & @Aagym: Antara Distorsi Informasi, "Devide et Impera" dan "Covert Operation"

Dik Doang

Seperti diberitakan TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Kabar pernikahan kedua Dik Doank mencuri perhatian media hiburan akhir-akhir ini. Bekas presenter itu memutuskan untuk menikah lagi dengan perempuan bernama Khaerani alias Key. Meskipun sampai saat ini Dik Doank belum mau berkomentar, pernikahan tersebut diketahui berlangsung pada hari Sabtu, 7 Juli 2012 lalu. Saat itu tak begitu banyak yang menyaksikan pernikahannya.

"Dari pihak perempuan sekitar tujuh orang," kata Naim yang bertindak sebagai saksi pernikahan saat ditemui di Desa Sawah Lama, Jurang Mangu, Ciputat, Tangerang, Selasa, 7 Agustus 2012. Adapun dari pihak Dik Doank, yang hadir hanya Ketua RT dan staf desa. Naim menambahkan, pernikahan tersebut sudah mendapat izin dari isteri pertama Dik Doank, Mirna Yuanita. 

Semua dokumen yang dibutuhkan juga sudah tertera dalam surat yang dibawa salah seorang staf desa. "Katanya sudah ada ijin dari istrinya," ujarnya. Pria dengan nama lengkap Raden Rizki Mulyawan Kertanegara Hayang Denada Kusuma ini menikah dengan Mirna pada tahun 1993. Dari pernikahan itu, mereka dikaruniai tiga anak. 

Aa Gym

Dikutip dari Kompas.com, seperti diberitakan sebelumnya, Aa Gym kembali menikahi Teh Ninih, setelah Juni 2011 PA Bandung menjatuhkan talak satu Roj'i kepada Teh Ninih menyusul permohonan cerai Aa Gym pada Maret 2011.  Dengan adanya pernikahan kembali Aa Gym dan Teh Ninih tentu saja membuat posisi istri-istri Aa Gym menjadi berubah. Alfarini Eridani atau yang dikenal dengan nama Teh Rini, perempuan yang dinikahi Aa Gym pada tahun 2006, kini memiliki madu Teh Ninih yang dulu menjadi istri tua Aa Gym.  

Dalam sebuah kesempatan, Aa Gym mengatakan bahwa keputusannya untuk menikah Teh Ninih didukung oleh Teh Rini. Sama seperti saat berpoligami di tahun 2006, Aa Gym juga mengaku didukung oleh Teh Ninih.  

Lantas apa komentar Teh Rini? Ditemui usai sidang mendampingi Aa Gym, Kamis (19/4/2012), Teh Rini mengaku siap menerima Teh Ninih dalam kehidupan rumah tangganya. Begitu pula dengan kiai kondang tersebut.

Sayangnya, Teh Ninih tak bisa menghadiri sidang. Menurut Aa Gym, wanita yang telah memberikannya tujuh anak itu tak bisa hadir karena sedang ceramah. "Sedang ceramah (dakwah) dulu," ujarnya.

Dalam sidang yang berlangsung singkat itu, dua saksi dihadirkan. Mereka adalah Dudung Abdul Ghani, adik kandung Teh Ninih dan Hari Sukoyo, asisten dari Aa Gym. Sidang berlangsung lancar dan cepat. Setelah sebelumnya sidang sempat ditunda karena ketidakhadiran Aa Gym, pada Senin (16/4/2012) kemarin.

Baik Aa Gym dan Teh Rini juga tak banyak berbicara. Mereka hanya memohon doa bahwa kembalinya Aa Gym ke pelukan Teh Ninih merupakan bagian dari dakwah dan kebaikan bagi semua.


 

Distorsi Informasi, "Devide et Impera" dan "Covert Operation"

Dikutip dari Tabloid Bintang, Dik Doank mengaku menerima ancaman dari seseorang. Kandank Jurank Doank miliknya diancam akan "dihancurkan", seperti pondok pesantren Daarut Tauhid milik KH. Abdullah Gymnasyiar atau Aa Gym.

Seperti diketahui, Daarut Tauhid mengalami kemerosotan usai Aa Gym berpoligami. Jumlah Ibu-ibu pengajian yang biasa berwisata ke sana jauh berkurang. Roda perekonomian di lingkungan pesantren pun nyaris mati, banyak usaha gulung tikar, dan ratusan orang kehilangan lapangan pekerjaan. Ketika itu, popularitas Aa Gym sebagai penceramah juga jauh menurun. Jamaah yang biasa membludak di setiap lokasi ceramahnya, berkurang hingga lebih dari separuh. 

Bagi Dik, orang yang membenci Aa Gym adalah orang-orang yang dibenci oleh Allah. "Berapa banyak orang yang membenci Aa (Aa Gym). Orang-orang yang membenci kamu dialah yang terputus (mengutip salah satu ayah dalam Alquran," kata Dik, di hadapan siswa dan guru Madrasah Pembangunan, di Kandank Jurank Doank, Ciputat, Tangerang, Kamis (9/8) malam. Bapak tiga anak itu tetap berkeyakinan, poligami adalah hal yang dimuliakan Allah ketimbang berzina.

 

Dalam beberapa literatur memang disebutkan bahwa Poligami adalah salah satu "Top of Minds" yang laku di pasaran "Distorsi Informasi". Salah satunya dibahas pada Disertasi James B Hoesterey yang dimuat di Jurnal Udini (Proquest) berjudul "Sufis and self-help gurus: Islamic psychology, religious authority, and Muslim subjectivity in contemporary Indonesia". Dapat dikutip abstraknya sebagai berikut:

In this dissertation, I explore the rise and fall of a celebrity preacher and his Islamic self-help program of Manajemen Qolbu (Heart Management). In 2005 Abdullah Gymnastiar was Indonesia's most popular television preacher, emblematic of a recent generation of preachers throughout the Muslim world who, despite their lack of formal religious education, attract widespread followings through their savvy use of media technologies and their simple lessons for applying Islamic teachings in daily life. Gymnastiar was known across the Indonesian archipelago as a shrewd entrepreneur, doting husband, and virtuous family man. Millions of Indonesians watched his television shows, read his self-help books, and joined his Manajemen Qolbu training seminars. Then, in late 2006, a celebrity scandal erupted and Gymnastiar's self-help empire crumbled. Drawing from nearly two years of ethnographic fieldwork at Gymnastiar's Islamic school, Daarut Tauhiid (2005-2007), this work contributes to the emerging anthropological literature on psychological sciences and also to interdisciplinary studies of contemporary Islam and Muslim subjectivity. I explore how the self-help industry in contemporary Indonesia--which blends globalized pop psychologies and self-actualization literatures with Sufi discourses of the self--generates new forms of religious knowledge and authority, commoditizes preacher-disciple relationships, and offers practical guides for Muslims to articulate their religion and to lead pious lives. I also describe how Gymnastiar--and an emerging generation of Muslim "trainers"--summon, articulate, and mobilize Islamic self-help within the broader moral and political debates of the national public sphere. I argue that Gymnastiar legitimates his claim to religious authority through his ability to market himself as the embodiment of Islamic virtue and to transform transnational self-help psychology into religious knowledge. However, as Gymnastiar's dramatic fall from public grace makes abundantly clear, the religious authority of pop preachers is subject to different affective and economic exchange relationships than the kind of authority enjoyed by more conventional clerics. By investigating how psychology "travels" and is reconfigured in new contexts, I bring discussions about the social life of psychology to bear on interdisciplinary conversations about religious authority and the cultural politics of public piety.

Selain itu ada Jurnal Brown University berjudul "Polygamy Talk and the Politics of Feminism: Contestations over Masculinity in a New Muslim Indonesia" yang disusun Sonja van Wichelen dengan ulasan sbb:

 

The  political downfall of the Suharto administration in 1998 marked the end of the “New Order”, which was characterized by a 32-year period of authoritarian rule. Opening the way for democracy, it included the unlocking of Indonesian politics for the influence and participation of political Islam, which the New Order discouraged or banned. This shift led to a proliferation of Islamic issues in the public and political sphere. Many of them concerned issues of gender and have triggered profound debates about women’s rights and gender equality. This article examines one of these public concerns over “Islam and gender”, namely polygamy. It assesses how the issue of polygamy is debated in post-authoritarian Indonesia and scrutinizes the ways in which women’s groups,  organizations, and different forms of feminism have played an active role in these debates. As my analysis will demonstrate, the contestations between the different women’s groups show a far more multifaceted picture of “polygamy talk” which cannot solely be reduced to issues of Islam and gender. Rather, the case study showed that their perspectives intersected with identity politics informed by postcoloniality, modernity, religion, nationality, and globalization. It is through these specters that this article aims to understand the complexity of a transiting Indonesia greatly affected by processes of Islamization and democratization.

 

Masih banyak lagi "perdebatan menarik" dan akan menaikkan rating media perihal poligami ini dengan menambahkan Peran Utama, Peran Pembantu, "Stunt Man/Woman" bahkan "Cheer Leader" dalam drama sinetron "Devide et Impera" ini. Diantaranya dimuat di Jurnal Universitas Colorado yang berjudul "FIGURES OF INDONESIAN MODERNITY". Dari jurnal tersebut, ada pernyataan yang menohok sbb:

 

“This is not real Islam. It’s about the economy, stupid,” one Indonesian intellectual remarked when I asked his opinion about Aa Gym and Manajemen Qolbu. I admired the witty turn of phrase and understand when academics chuckle at the smoke and mirrors of Islamic television and the self-help slogans of Aa Gym; yet our amusement alone does nothing to explain why Indonesians are watching tele-dai programs, buying their books, and paying for their text messages.

.............

 

Those awestruck “spiritual tourists” at Daarut Tauhiid did not have a relationship with Gymnastiar; they had a relationship with the idea—the brand narrative—of Aa Gym as the perfect and financially successful husband of a happy family. When Gymnastiar took a second wife in 2006, the brand narrative collapsed, former admirers were furious, and his business empire crumbled.  As the story of the rise and fall of Aa Gym suggests, brand narratives mediate the affective and economic relationships between preacher–producers and consumer–disciples. Within the marketized preacher–disciple relationship, devotees play an important role in shaping the public meanings and economic value of religious brands. The economic viability and religious authority of  tele-dai depend, in part, on the consumption of (or refusal to consume) these meta-narratives about popular preachers who market themselves as the embodiment of “modern” Islam. The phenomenon of  tele-dai certainly is about the economy, but it is also about a very real, lived Islam.

 

 

Terakhir mungkin menarik ulasan yang dimuat oleh Majalah Time 4 November 2002 perihal Aa Gym yang mungkin menjadi alasan perlunya "Covert Operation" karena pengaruhnyang besar di Indonesia sbb:

Achieving that goal will tax even Aa Gym's powers of persuasion. The nation faces a crippling list of woes: bloody ethnic and religious violence, economic sclerosis, inept politicians, corrupt police and military, a looming environmental apocalypse. Add to that the devastating impact of the detonations in Bali on Oct. 12 that killed nearly 200. Whoever turns out to be responsible, it is easier now than ever to view Indonesia as a place where Islamic militants and terrorist groups like Jemaah Islamiah have a free hand.

But despite the grim death toll in Bali and the government's inability to contain violence, the reality remains that militant views are held by a tiny minority of Indonesians. The tolerant, middle-of-the-road religion espoused by groups such as Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama, which between them have a membership of some 70 million, is the true face of Islam. That may be another reason so many turn for reassurance to the charismatic Aa Gym, proudly positioned at the forefront of the moderate majority. He is a thoroughly modern Muslim. He advocates a 21st century religion that complements and enhances the benefits of technology. "Aa Gym has become big because he teaches a very human side of Islam and practices what he preaches," says Juniwati Masjchun Sofwan, a member of the influential Council of Indonesian Ulemas. "He is concerned about advancing Muslims economically through modern-day practices of business and religion." Indeed, Aa Gym preaches prosperity to his followers. "You must remember, the Prophet Muhammad, blessed be his name, was a businessman himself," he says, "and a very good one, too."

To many Indonesians, Aa Gym's rising prominence makes it almost inevitable that he will take on a greater role in the public life of the country. That in turn would mean stepping down from his pulpit and dirtying his hands in politics, something the preacher has so far shown a deep reluctance to do. An advocate of tolerance and forgiveness, Aa Gym is one of the only Muslim leaders in Indonesia to have publicly spoken at a Christian church. In late September, he attended a reconciliation ceremony held near Poso in Central Sulawesi, where thousands have died in recent years in clashes between Christians and Muslims. He has broad appeal, too. Considering his military background his father was an army lieutenant colonel, and he himself served as a student military leader political analysts say Aa Gym could lock up two of the most critical voting blocs in Indonesia, the Muslim majority and the army.

Then there's the X factor, the personal magnetism that has drawn hordes of acolytes, from secretaries to corporate bigwigs. "I don't just listen to him," says Lieut. Colonel Ahmad Saefudin, who leads an army cavalry division in Bandung. "I follow him." Chairul Tanjung, chairman of Bank Mega, one of the country's 10 largest banks, puts it differently, but the enthusiasm is the same: "Our generation has few people like him. The country needs someone who can help reduce the gap between business and morality."

Sitting on the floor of the veranda attached to his family's modest living quarters, Aa Gym waves a hand to dismiss the notion he is bound for office. "To play politics never entered my mind," he says. "There are plenty of people in politics already. I want to imitate the Prophet. He said that the best a man can be is to be of benefit to others." Yet for all his disdain of "playing politics," Aa Gym allows that circumstances could change. On other occasions, he's talked vaguely about his "target" of 2009, a presidential election year. "Anything could happen tomorrow," he says.

Nor does Aa Gym pretend that he doesn't already wield serious clout. "I could push 100,000 people from the Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta (where he preaches once a month) to the U.S. embassy. It would take 10 minutes to walk, and it would be very difficult for the police to stop them. With God's will I could use that power. But I won't. My program is for Indonesians to control themselves, to not be emotional. If we are emotional we have problems."

But surely it must be tempting to exercise that power, particularly at a moment of such national peril? No, says Aa Gym, at least not now. To prove his point, he tells of a recent visit from a powerful government figure from Jakarta. "They know that I have many people behind me, and he asked if I wanted to take power, do a revolution. But I said, 'Look at my eyes. Do I look like someone who would do such a thing? I will never do anything bad to anyone.'"

In fact, a glance into Aa Gym's mahogany eyes shining behind steel-framed glasses reveals his lively intelligence, but less of what might motivate the man. Already he displays a politician's wariness about exactly what to reveal to his public. If he's not yet a pol, he's already a consummate showman. The talent was developed early. Born the first of four children, he took a variety of jobs from selling newspapers to driving a minibus to support himself before and after his years as an electrical-engineering student and a fledgling entrepreneur. But according to Ahmad Soliekhin, one of Aa Gym's closest aides and a former conductor on his minibus, it was their experience together as itinerant buskers that brought them the most success. "We used to get called back to the rich people's houses the next day for a repeat performance," says Ahmad, smiling broadly at the memory. "Aa Gym sang and they liked it very much."

The lessons learned from those early performances were reinforced by his success as a university debater. To this day, Aa Gym displays a professionalism in his public appearances that must be the envy of many of Indonesia's current crop of less-than-media-savvy rulers. Watch Aa Gym as he tapes his minisermons in the small television studio run by one of his 15 companies. Hopping onto a motor scooter his preferred ride is a hulking black Kawasaki Eliminator, which remains under its dust cover on this day Aa Gym putters slowly through his little empire, a patch of about one square kilometer in Bandung that houses his myriad enterprises: the radio station; the website offices; the publisher that puts out his 32 books and dozens of cassettes and VCDs; the cooperative supermarket; the mosque, with its attendant school for 500; a rest house for the numerous visitors and for management-training seminars; two orphanages, one of which is located in a house he was originally going to move into himself but decided was "too fancy," according to aide Budi Hartono. Budi adds similar tales of expensive cars that his mentor bought, drove for a while, then rejected as overly opulent. "He prefers a van," Budi insists. "It is more practical."

During a ride to the studio, Aa Gym is all smiles and jokes, waving and greeting almost everyone. The mood persists after he enters the building and sits down at a desk where he is to tape several of his minisermons. Aa Gym makes faces at himself in the monitor and clowns with the makeup brush. "You see how I do everything I can myself," he says, "even putting on makeup so that I don't need to bother other people." But when taping starts, Aa Gym snaps into performance mode. His voice drops an octave, his face changing in a second from a broad smile to the serious, concerned demeanor of a wise uncle giving guidance to his favorite nephews and nieces. The topics could be taken from a Reader's Digest article: "The Greatest Failure is Never Trying," "Forgive and Forget," "The Importance of Politeness," "Don't Be Envious of Success."

With a notebook computer open on the desk in front of him, Aa Gym hardly pauses for breath as he tapes 13 sleek homilies in a row, all exactly timed to 11/2 minutes with the help of an aide crouching in front of his desk with a stopwatch. "I could make 40 or 60 in a row if I had to," he says, squatting to pose with the children of two families of admirers who have traveled from distant Sulawesi to catch a glimpse of him. "It's easy for me to give those speeches because I do those things every day. You have to do what you say."

The bravura performance is at the core of the man's mystery. Is he just "the Britney Spears of Islam," as he is characterized by Ulil Abshar-Abdalla, head of Indonesia's Liberal Islam Network? Is he merely a feel-good merchant who uses religion for his commercial ends? Or is Solahuddin Wahid, vice chairman of the 40 million-member Nahdlatul Ulama, right when he says that Aa Gym's "sincerity is his strength. He's creating a society based on his words and deeds."?

It is a sharp divide, and one that Aa Gym and his aides are uncomfortably aware of. Although the preacher clearly enjoys the toys he can now afford the publishing business alone brings in $130,000 a month, aides say Aa Gym insists that his flying lessons, the $2,000 DVD player installed in one of his cars and, yes, even the glistening Kawasaki Eliminator are simply utilitarian. "I have enough money to buy anything I want, that Lexus for example," he says, pointing to a black model with smoked-glass windows. "But I don't. The van is more practical. All my technology is state of the art because I need to be efficient. I don't indulge in buying it for fun but for necessity."

A few days earlier, Aa Gym declared that "Indonesian leaders fall because they wear masks to hide weaknesses in their characters." His goal, he says, is "to build their characters and prepare a generation of professional Muslims." It's a noble goal. At a watershed moment in the history of a troubled nation, Indonesia can ill-afford another leader who hides behind a mask.

Wallahu Alam Bissawab.......

"Boleh jadi kamu membenci sesuatu, padahal ia amat baik bagimu, dan boleh jadi (pula) kamu menyukai sesuatu, padahal ia amat buruk bagimu; Allah mengetahui, sedangkan kamu tidak mengetahui."

(Al-Baqarah : 216)

Ditutup doa:

اَللَّهُمَّ إِنِّى أُعُوذُبِكَ مِنْ عِلْمٍِ لاَيَنْفَعُ وَمِنْ قَلْبٍِ لاَيَخْشَعُ وَمِنْ نَفْسٍِ لاَ تَشْبَعُ وَمِنْ دَعْوَةٍِ لاَ يُسْتَچَابُ لَهَا

Allahumma inni a’udzubika min ‘ilman laa yanfa’ wa min qolbi laa yakhsya’ wa min nafsi laa tasyba’ wa min da’wati laa yustajaabulaha

 
”Ya Allah, aku berlindung kepada-Mu dari Ilmu yang tidak bermanfaat, dari hati yang tidak khusyuk, dari jiwa yang tidak pernah puas, dan dari doa yang tidak dikabulkan”

(HR. Muslim: 2722)

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