Sad Song from Rokan River
THE Rokan River is one of Riau’s treasures. In the past, arwona fish were easy to catch, and the riverbanks were lined by heavy forests on which temples were built. The Naqsyabandiyah sect developed in the area, first propagated by Syekh Abdul Wahab Rokan. But now Rokan has changed. Tempo journalist Febrianti, who joined an expedition to explore hundreds of kilometers of the Rokan River from March 22-25, witnessed the local residents brandishing cellphones everywhere, and barren forests due to illegal logging along the river. Following are excerpts of her report.
April 22, 2008
IT was 3am. We were floating in the middle of a tidal forest. After three hours traveling downstream along the Rokan River, our boat suddenly stopped running because the engine’s fan belt came loose. We were floating, stranded far from the nearest human settlement. We could only hear swamp birds singing to one another and the chirping of hundreds of nocturnal insects.
It was a bit creepy. We sighted a crocodile swimming. Downstream Rokan Rive
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