The Gold in Old: Being a Hero with Unbeatable Spirit By Ajeng Ratna Sari

The Gold in Old: Being a Hero with Unbeatable Spirit

By Ajeng Ratna Sari

Jojo Juanda, a 68 years old gado-gado seller who has high spirit to dedicate his life for society, being the member of FATWA (an organization to avoid fights in society) is his real contribution to ensure the safe environment.

Do you ever see fights in your society? What will you do when you see the fights? Will you have willingness to help separating the people involved in the fights?

            It was in the afternoon when Jojo Juanda, a 68 years old gado-gado seller saw something horrible, something that really disturbed his sight. He saw a group of senior high school students ran and passed him. Of course, those students were running not because they were doing exercise because it was in the afternoon. They were in hurry. They brought knives and wood sticks. Jojo thought that there must be something wrong. Those students might fight. Not long after that, he saw other group of students, but this time, they were from vocational school. Jojo could differentiate their uniforms which were different from the senior high school students’. Jojo was sure that those two groups of students would fight. He then directly ran and pushed his cart in high speed, getting closer to those two groups of students. He saw those groups fought. They mocked each other at first, but then they started to use their sticks to beat each other. Jojo Juanda directly called the other members of FATWA (an organization to avoid fights in society) and asked them to separate those two groups of students. He was so brave to separate the fighting groups. He did not really care his own safety. For him, the most important thing was to make the situation calm and safe again.

“When there are fights in our society, we should care, we should separate, because it becomes our responsibility when there is something wrong happens in our society” said JojoJuanda with smile.

            Jojo Juanda is not young anymore and he is also just a gado-gado seller, but for him his life would be good when he can share with others. In his young age, he liked to help his parents because there were many siblings he should care. He felt that he had responsibility to help his parents to earn money for buying foods and other needs. He did not feel that his parents used him because the will to work came from himself. Day by day he worked hard just to make his siblings smile. He could not get much money but with that little money he could sometimes brought foods and toys for his siblings. He said it was for his siblings’ amusement.

            “’I’ve been working hard since I was in young age. I did not get good education. I preferred to help my parents because I wanted to decrease their difficulties. I didn’t get much money by selling gado-gado but I could give my children proper education although only until senior high school” said Jojo Juanda.

            Now in his 68 years of age, Jojo Juanda still works as a gado-gado seller, a profession that he’s been doing for 41 years. He said that he works as a gado-gado seller now for himself. He can socialize with others. He can talk with others. It makes him happy. He can know various kinds of people. He can talk with students, employees and other street vendors who buy his gado-gado. That is something which he calls as “happiness”.

            “I’m happy I can talk with many people. Sometimes, I meet people who are not luckier than me and I feel thankful for what Allah gives me”

            Jojo Juanda is always happy when he can do good things for others,and for that reason he is still the member of FATWA although he is not young anymore. He wantsto give his contribution to create the safe society. His biggest contribution in FATWA can be seen in his struggle when he separated the two fighting groups of people in 2010. One group consists of gangsters and one another consist of the bus drivers. That time the gangsters asked money from a bus driver but the bus driver ignored to give. Then, the gangsters were angry because they got bad response from the bus driver. They forced the bus driver to give them money but the bus driver still ignored. Their fights were heard so loud. Finally, the gangsters showed a knife to the bus driver and said “give me your money now or we will kill you”. The incident was caught by the other drivers. Seeing their friend was in trouble, the other bus drivers came to help. The other bus drivers asked the gangsters to leave the place, but they ignored. As the consequence, the bus drivers and the gangsters were involved into a horrible fight. They even punched each other. Seeing that sight made Jojo think that he must do something to solve the fight. With a high spirit, Jojo Juanda directly reported the incident he saw to the nearest police office. Jojo and a police came to the place where the gangsters and the bus drivers fought and separated those two sides. The condition then became normal again after the separation.

            Jojo Juanda, one of many examples in this world who really know the real meaning of life. He realizes that he lives in this world not only for himself but also for others. The happiness he gets not only about money but it is about how he makes his life meaningful by doing good for others.

            “That is life, we live here not only for ourselves, we also live for others, and we share for others. I am not rich I cannot share my wealth, but I can do good things to others by keeping my society safe. I’m old but I still have spirit to help, when I see fights in society I feel it becomes my responsibility to separate. Always be thankful for what god gives by doing good things for ourselves and for others”