A Magic Gecko

A Magic Gecko by Horst Henry Geerken, tells us that a gecko's frequent calls are carefully counted by Indonesians. When the tokek calls, if it's an odd number it's a sign of luck, and the more times it calls, the more luck it denotes. Frequently Geerken heard nine successive calls, and it brought him luck and happiness in Indonesia.

I had the pleasure of meeting Geerken at his book launch at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival in Bali, Indonesia in 2011. Not quite an octogenarian, Geerken exudes a gentility, intellect and zest for life that comes through in A Magic Gecko.

A Magic Gecko reflects on the 18 years that Geerken spent in Indonesia from 1963 to 1981 both as a professional radio and telecommunications engineer and as an entranced visitor, observing, investigating and often absorbing many of the traditions of Indonesia.

The book has something for everyone, despite the fact that its sub-title, CIA's Role Behind the Fall or Soekarno, suggests a political focus for the book. Geerken certainly does describe his own experience of the turbulent times around 1965 when coups, chaos and communism were the undercurrents of life. And he certainly discusses the extent to which the CIA may be implicated. However, in reality, this is only a small part of the book.

Being a book for everyone is both a strength and weakness for A Magic Gecko. It's a strength because it is a multi-faceted book representing the varied life experiences of a person living an expatriate life in Indonesia. The weakness, of course, is that all of the book may not immediately interest everyone.

I gained from the background Geerken provided to the history and politics of Indonesia, both preceding his time there and as it actually happened during his stay. Geerken delves into the Dutch colonial history of Indonesia to understand the impetus it gave to Indonesia's declaration of independence in 1945 and its future trajectory. The Dutch Past is a frightening story of the profit-motivated power that the Dutch East Indies Company wielded over the economy and the people of Indonesia.

Since it is a personal memoir, Geerken is able to write and comment about history and politics without the formality and rigidity that would be part of a more structured analysis of Indonesia. It makes the book accessible, leading the reader into new aspects of Indonesian life. For example, I found that it provided a good background when I was reading Batavia, by Peter Fitzsimons, a novel based on one of the ships in the fleet of the Dutch East Indies Company.

On a cultural level, I gained from Geerken's insights into the food, culture, religion and spirituality of Indonesia in general, and Bali in particular. It was a guide to the cultural origins and changes that had taken place long before my own visits to Indonesia started. It explained to me why the paintings of artists like Antonio Blanco, The Dali of Bali, show Balinese women topless, though you never see that in the towns there any more. It explained to me the tradition that results in most men being called Wayan, Made, Ketut or Wayan, depending on the sequence of their birth in the family.

I liked Geerken's many anecdotes too. Once up on a Javanese mountain, he and a colleague met a Japanese climber who had clearly spent the night in the vicinity of the volcano, and no matter what they tried, communication with him was impossible. Finally the Japanese man put down his pack and rustled through it for quite some time, until he finally extracted, triumphantly, his business card, which he formally presented to the author and his colleague. The moral of the story of course, is that no one should ever forget their business card, even if they're off duty.

Most of all I enjoyed being able to engage with the recollections of a man of curiosity and broadmindedness, prepared to share his personal experiences, not only as a professional engineer and expatriate German, but most importantly, as a human being with lots of warmth for its citizens.

With this book to accompany you to Indonesia, you may well become as imbued with Indonesia as he has become. That is because A Magic Gecko genuinely shares much of the magic that Geerken found and embraced in Indonesia.

Published by: Kompas Book Publisher, Germany, 2011
Distributed by: Gramedia Online ISBN: 978-979-709-554-3