Not every tailor has needles strong enough to alter jeans. Those who do hang a Vermak Levis sign in their shops or offer services on the roadside, equipped with only sewing machines. Others attach sewing machines—the kind with the wheel and the foot pedal—to their bicycles and offer door-to-door service. These Vermak Levis are easily identified by the red Levis emblem on their signboards.
You might see signs that say Permak Lepis, especially if the tailor is a Sundanese from West Java. Sundanese have trouble pronouncing the consonants v, f and p, and sometimes mix them up.
Raja
King.
The Hindi term pops up in many contexts: raja jalanan (king of the road), or a high-speed, reckless driver; raja dan ratu sehari (king and queen for a day), or a bride and groom on a wedding day; and raja copet (king of pickpockets).
Raja singa (lion king) means top dog. It also refers to syphilis, the king of sexual diseases. The expression predates the era of AIDS.
Nearly 2,000 years ago, travelers from India reached the archipelago that later became known as Indonesia. They brought Hinduism, and great kingdoms spread the religion across Java and other parts of the archipelago. Today, Bali is the only island that is predominantly Hindu.
Sanskrit, the language of ancient India, influenced Indonesia: the word bahasa, or language, is from Sanskrit. Hindi, which shares the same alphabet as Sanskrit, also made its mark.
Golkar (acronym)
GOLongan Keturunan ARab
Group of Arab descent.
Golkar, the ruling political party under Suharto, had close links to the military and was dominant down to the village level. Its loyalists controlled Parliament, making it a rubber-stamp assembly for the president. Although Indonesia is now democratic, Golkar remains a powerful political force. The name of the party stands for Golongan Karya (Functional Groups).
Some Indonesians joke that citizens with Arab blood are Golkar, or Group of Arab Descent. The acronym is lighthearted rather than derogatory. Arabs arrived in Indonesia well over a millennium ago and established themselves as traders and purveyors of Islam, which became Indonesia’s dominant religion.
Arabic is richly represented in the Indonesian language. The Arabic word for book, kitab, refers to Islamic books in Indonesian. Many bookstores have signs that read Toko Buku & Kitab. Toko means shop in Indonesian, and buku means book.
Prominent Indonesians of Arab descent include two former foreign ministers, Ali Alatas and Alwi Shihab, as well as Munir Thalib, a rights activist who fell ill and died on board an Indonesian commercial airliner heading from Jakarta to Amsterdam in September 2004.
An off-duty pilot was sentenced to 14 years in jail for the murder after a court found him guilty of putting arsenic in noodles served to Thalib. Judges concluded that Thalib was killed because of his strong criticism of human rights abuses by the military. Thalib's widow said the murder was part of a broader conspiracy by state agents in a case reminiscent of state-backed killings in the days of dictatorship.
The Supreme Court later overturned the conviction of the pilot, citing insufficient evidence.
Indak mati oleh Belanda (Minangkabau)
Can't be killed by the Dutch = Invincible. A superman. Knock him down and he pops back up like a rubber ball.
Few Indonesians know this old phrase, which comes from a game of playing cards during Dutch colonial times. The Jack, Queen, and King cards symbolized Western nobility, or the Dutch occupiers of Indonesia. You were unbeatable if you had aces up your sleeve.
Indonesians who lose a board or card game say they have died (mati).
Si Kabayan
That happy-go-lucky guy.
Kabayan is a character from West Javanese folklore who wears a sarong across his shoulder. He is an eternally lazy villager, armed with excuses to avoid work. He adores his sweetheart, the shy Iteung. Everything else, including money, bores him.
Kabayan became the hero in a popular television series, and a movie about him—Si Kabayan Saba Kota (Kabayan goes to the city)—broke box office records for an Indonesian movie in 1989.
In the film, Kabayan heads to town, where the tough, commercial culture shocks him. A city girl attracts his attention. He tries his hand at running a company. But he balks at the pressure in the big city and returns to his village, where Iteung awaits him.
Kabayan got an image makeover in 2004 when state-run television broadcast a show called Kabayan Reformasi. This time, the villager is clad in jeans and a shirt, and Iteung is not a tongue-tied lass, but a strong woman with a mind of her own.
Today, an office worker grumbles about a colleague: “Uggh. I really like Ahmad but he often gets on my nerves. He’s so Kabayan, you know. He does nothing but smile!”
Aduh, aku suka sama si Ahmad tapi dia sering bikin kesel. Kabayan banget, sih. Kerjanya senyum doang.
Arjuna
The warrior-lover.
Arjuna is the third of five Pandawa brothers in the Mahabharata, an ancient tale from India about a monumental war between family lines. The Pandawas won the war. Arjuna was a great warrior, mastering the bow and arrow and every other weapon in the world.
Slender and soft-spoken, Arjuna symbolizes an ideal of male beauty that eschewed muscle-bound hunks. Indonesians marvel at his exploits as a lover. He is said to have had at least 41 wives and countless lovers. One affair was with Srikandi, who attended one of Arjuna’s weddings and fell in love with him. She got him to become her archery teacher. One popular puppet show features Srikandi learning to shoot an arrow; she aims for Arjuna’s heart.
Indonesia’s female archers won the country's first Olympic medal, a silver, at the 1988 Games in South Korea. They were crowned “Srikandi heroes” (Pahlawan Srikandi) back home.
Pop songs, contemporary novels and films pay tribute to Arjuna. In 2002, rock band Dewa (God) released a hit single, Arjuna mencari cinta (Arjuna looks for love). The lyrics of the rock stadium anthem describe how he would scale the highest peaks and sail vast oceans to be with his love. The ending says true love might elude Arjuna.
In an Indonesian household, a mother worries about her daughter, who listens to love songs and jumps for the phone when it rings. She fears her infatuated child will end up hurt by her “Arjuna,” slang for a crush or new boyfriend.
A girl tells her lovesick friend:
“Don’t take that Arjuna seriously. Yesterday he was out with that girl. Tomorrow, he’ll be with a different one.”
Jangan ambil pusing dengan si Arjuna itu. Kemarin dia pergi sama cewek itu. Besok pasti sama cewek lain.
Musuh dalam selimut
Enemy under the blanket = An unknown danger.
A close friend betrays you. The traitor seemed like such an intimate friend that you both slept under the same cover. In another interpretation, the blanket is a convenient hiding place for the betrayer.
“There’s a crayfish under the rock,” also warns of hidden menace. Ada udang di balik batu. The crayfish will snap off your finger if you shift that rock.
“Selling a gun to the enemy,” refers to betrayal. Menjual bedil kepada lawan.
“Bifurcate like a monitor lizard’s tongue,” has a similar meaning. Bercabang bagai lidah biawak. The lizard’s forked tongue implies two-sidedness, or allegiance to everybody and nobody.
Kyai mbeling
The naughty cleric = An off-beat, off-the-wall Muslim leader.
Kyai is a title of a senior Muslim preacher. Mbeling is a crude Javanese term for naughty.
One example of kyai mbeling was Emha Ainun Najib, who wrote tongue-in-cheek