(Clearwisdom.net) Note: This manuscript was written by a 68-year old Indonesian practitioner. When I was helping him to make the revisions, I cried for all the things they had done that were not known to others, and for his great effort and determination in overcoming all difficulties to enter a 5-page article into the computer when he did not have a good command of punctuation or the computer keyboard. I do not know how many sleepless nights he spent in doing this or how difficult his current situation was, but because he was the only one who knew Chinese, he accepted this responsibility, bearing the hope of other practitioners.
Since July 20 of 1999, through diligently studying the Fa and exchanging experiences with practitioners from other countries, the Indonesian practitioners have been becoming more and more mature in Fa rectification. Every practitioner maintains righteous thoughts and does everything according to the Fa. They have broken through many difficulties and have successfully held over 20 Dafa introductory seminars in less than 2 years. More than 5000 people have participated in the seminars. Falun Dafa is a shining star that illuminates these islands that had never heard of Falun Gong, and many sentient beings who had been deceived by the Chinese government have awakened. Falun Dafa quickly spread all over Indonesia. Now there are more than 40 practice sites across Indonesia with nearly 2000 practitioners, according to partial statistics. In the following pages, we shall report to our respectful Master the state of the Fa rectification in Indonesia during the past two years and share our experiences with other practitioners.
Javan Island (PULAU JAWA)
Indonesia is a country with thousands of islands. Its population is over 200 million. The capital, Jakarta, is located to the west of Javan Island (JAWA BARAT).
Falun Dafa was introduced to Indonesia in 1995, and there were several hundred practitioners when Jiang's regime illegally banned Falun Gong in July 1999. After July 22, the majority of Indonesians of Chinese descent were deceived and fooled by Chinese satellite television. Some of them thus became fearful and stopped the practice. However, some practitioners still firmly held onto their faith in Dafa. They followed the teaching of Master and practiced diligently.
In the beginning of 2000, Zhuan Falun and Falun Gong were translated into Indonesian and became available to the public. The numbers of predestined people coming to obtain the Fa and purchase the books increased daily. The two books immediately became best-sellers.
In early March, a Fa experience sharing conference was held in Jakarta. The practitioners shared their experiences and studied the Fa together. More than 30 practitioners from Taiwan came to share their experiences. At that time, the Jakarta practitioners did not understand the need to step forward to promote and rectify the Fa. The discussions with the Taiwan practitioners helped tremendously. There were media and newspapers coming to report during the Fa conference. At that time, many people did not know the truth about the Tiananmen "Self-immolation" Incident, especially the Chinese media that had continuously reported the deceitful propaganda. Some practitioners came to realize that they should use this opportunity to clarify the truth to the media, and rectify the Fa and promote Falun Dafa. Thus they held a media discussion meeting and invited several media to attend. The media that learned about the truth extensively broadcast positive news about Falun Dafa to the public. Through this Fa experience sharing conference, all the practitioners had new understandings of the Fa and gained valuable experience.
In July, the Jakarta practitioners for the first time had a group Fa study on the tourist summit of Puncak, and it was the first time that they displayed a Falun Dafa banner in public, which enabled thousands of passing vehicles and tens of thousands of people to discover Falun Dafa. From then on, they successively held introductory seminars. Through the positive reports from TV and media, the results were excellent and more and more people became practitioners.
On May 13, 2001, the Jakarta practitioners held a populace symposium in Ancol commemorating "World Falun Dafa Day." This event attracted about 500 predestined people from all walks of life and several news media and TV stations, and exposed the fabrications of Chinese Central Television. Jawa Pos and Surabaya consecutively for several days published positive materials on Falun Gong, which stirred up residents in the Surabaya area. The telephones rang nonstop and people came to learn the exercises one after another.
On September 12, the first petition team, the "Urgent SOS Global RescueWalk to Rescue the Falun Gong Practitioners Being Persecuted in China," was initiated and organized by 30 or more practitioners, including the native residents (locals who have being living there for generations). The oldest participant, a native resident, was 72 years old. The entire 180-kilometer walk took 6 days. The organizers of this activity abided by the law and applied for permits in advance from each local public security department. The walking practitioners had strong righteous thoughts, so nothing could stop them. They treated hardships as joy, walked step by step, and distributed materials along the road. They were warmly welcomed by people from the towns and villages. Three major TV stations, METRO TV, SCTV and TPI, and several newspapers made special reports on this event, followed it closely and competed to publish the news.
(To be continued)
