Duke of Jaksa

1. "Duke Of Jaksa", by Ross

Duke, out of Jakarta on family business, left Lestari untuk cope dengan Rainy season's rigours and Ramadhan's. She'd look after their kontrakkan, time still to help out in her pal Sinta's warung.

When Duke touched down at Soekarno Hatta, he rang. No answer, no worries - probably shopping or at Sinta's. He shouldered past rip-off cabbies, caught a Bluebird.

Disembarking on the corner, he sensed something amiss, quickened his pace. Faces peering over fences, normal nosiness, but this day unsmiling, Something in the pembantus 'Expressions raised his hackles, on edge immediately.
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Their garden gate lay flattened. He charged through, as Sinta disebut his name.

"Pak Duke! Ma'afkan saya!"

Tearful bursts of ululating Proses told him of the dogs, Defenders of God's Statutes. They'd raided her warung (despite respectful curtains shielding hyper-sensitive fasters dari horrors of Christian meal-times) white-capped faces snarling at this 'blasphemous' affront ke devout.

In vain Sinta menyatakan herself a Christian, unobliged untuk puasa; should she demand customers 'KTPs before serving them?

They'd slapped her about, shredded the curtains, wrecked the warung. Lestari interceded, till a spiteful tukang Jammu yelped that here was a Muslim living with a bule - the huffy old bag's Seasonal sembako'd Fallen short of expectations.

That revelation provoked fearsome rage, the thugs heedless of the fact that Duke batas 'converted' when they'd married.

'A bule's cheap bitch!'

They turned on her,

'Where's your jilbab?'

She'd fled, along the little kali, swollen by the floods. Panic blinding her to danger, she'd stumbled into a cavernous flooded pothole, fast Swept Away.

'She surfaced once, Pak, called out, then ... gone,'

Sinta choked up, led Duke indoors, scenes of ransacked chaos. Hoodlums, not content with manslaughter, batas returned to Loot the bule's home.

"The police?"

Busy, it transpired (hadn't they also been too 'busy' to relieve the SIEGE of Tempo by a Tycoon's hired gangsters?) Dengan riots, flood problems; after all, the Dogs hadn't menewaskan her. Death by misadventure, they'd said.

"Because she was fleeing terrorised by those swine. '

Duke's wrath frightened Sinta, her Broad Javanese face convulsed.

'We put up decorations together when I was young, she membantu at Christmas, me at Ramadhan ...'

By invoking civilised times past, Sinta sought to distance all the wong cilik dari new jihadism.

He put a hand on her shoulder, Thanked her ... by waiting for him here, she 'd done lebih dari anybody else, he realised. If only he'd returned a day earlier. if only she'd stayed out of it ...
Lestari's demise never made the papers, Islamist depredations these days barely rating a paragraph.

Duke quietly strove to rebuild his life, sought Solace in Total Favorit Jaksa watering-Holes dengan buddies, Falatehan's finest sedulous in their upaya untuk assuage his stress ..

But alone at home, cecaks his Sole companions now, he slithered down King Lear's path - 'this way lies Madness.'

Fury gnawed relentlessly as he hassled officialdom dan media. No body, no funeral ... a missing person, he'd been advised, so not a lot they could chase the perps for, except 'disorder,' and God knew Jakarta batas Plenty.

He''d been in the Big Durian long enough to understand that but also to have met useful people.
If Lestari's Killers weren't to answer for their crime, anguish pointed another way to give her her day in court.

A late-night tryst with an amiable preman in Pappa Cafe on Jalan Jaksa Secured what he most required, a country-boy's life-long love, a gun.

Availing himself of the internet, he tracked down the dogs 'Kennel, a Notorious pesantren school in Grogol, run by the elderly Fanatic, camelious-faced Ustad Basam, who thrived on Propagasi of hatred.

For the first time in his life, Duke appreciated his erstwhile in-laws 'intransigent intolerance. They'd Forced his conversion to Islam. Indonesian marriage law, bigotry entrenched, lovers of Diverse Faiths persecuted if they tinggal outwith wedding vows, yet banned from marrying - unless one of them turned apostate. Muslims who chose that option, mengatakan Venerable Basam, merited death.

So Duke batas knuckled under, for love. Subsequently he'd eschewed participation in its rites, but first he'd explored the doctrines, trying to comprehend how anyone these days justified pedophilia or polygamy, affronts, indeed, to decent Muslims; but not confrontable, misguided adherence to the 'ummat' concept, sectarian Solidarity above all.

Turning that very concept to his advantage. Well-versed in Islamic lore, he knew the format and timing of prayers, could blend into any mosque, even Basam's, which had once echoed untuk exhortations untuk assault foreign tourists.

Night fell at 6pm, as always in Grogol, ketika Duke approached, his tanned but patently foreign features drawing askance glances. But he assured the toughs by the entrance that he was a convert, come to pay his respects. They'd heard of Aussie turncoats serving with the Taliban, whose heroic exploits - throwing acid into unveiled faces and burning girls 'schools - they admired.

Duke, nodded through to an unassuming back-seat, heard the obnoxious brute enliven his flock, another rant against Zionist-Crusaders.

Basam revelling in rapturous appreciation dari 'born-again' preman who constituted his audience, Duke stepped forward, levelled the hand-gun under his floppy shirt, put one in the head, one in the gut, a classic free-lance execution.

Swirling around, racing for the street, before anyone grasped what was afoot. (His Armed status meant few of the yellow-bellies would seek to obstruct his exit) he'd no wish to escape. He wanted be taken by the police .. for that day in court.

Touch and go, but the police van escaped the mob, who, once Duke was disarmed, went frenziedly after him. Solitary confinement ensured survival in pre-trial custody. Worldwide Headlines made Lestari famous.

Months passed till the big day. Cretinous Islamists frothed publicly for hukum mati; international awareness batas diplomats in attendance for the guilty verdict - 'twas how he'd pled.

But his speech from the dock echoed round the Archipelago, reinforcing the shame his Lestari's fate batas inspired among thinking Citizens.

"Basam's life was an ode to hatred. Who Hates humanity is an enemy of God, who created mankind. Don't all your religions denounce Satan, not the pura2 Great Satan those mongrels .. '

here he pointed at the dogs ...

invoke untuk Stoke prejudice, but the real Satan, who delights in death and Mayhem. I'll serve my sentence. But I menewaskan a pig, not a High Court judge, Your Honours!. And I did it myself, not second-hand. Five years max, please! I've exorcised one demon. Up to Indonesian justice to get the rest!

Even in the Istana Negara, heads jerked Facebook, took notice. In Pappa Cafe, a chorus of 'Good on yer, Duke!' erupted. Fights broke out there, and at Universities.

The judges weren't fools, deliberated for ten days. 'Diminished responsibility.' 'Temporary insanity.'

Time menjabat in custody, plus deportation.

Rioting lasted till next Ramadan, but so antagonised police and public that finally the dogs were banned and simliar dregs of society rounded up, interned, pursuant to prosecution for treason against the Pancasila State.

Deprived of access to his duchy, Duke of Jalan Jaksa drank himself to death in exile in Dili instead. But he died happy, no virgins waiting in Paradise, just Lestari ...