Reminiscing Earthquake Tragedy at 27th May 2006 One Year Ago
It’s quite amusing how a man suddenly became a celebrity because of a volcano eruption. It happened a year ago when an old man who lives at valley of Mount Merapi which against his will didn’t want to demobilized from his neighborhood. He assumed that his existence, approximately 4 kilometers from the volcano activities would not affected him and his family. His one that people believe that he is the “master” of Mount Merapi at the Central Java.His obligation of “guarding” the Mount appeared during reign of Sultan Hamengkubowono IX. That’s why after the decease of the Sultan, he won’t obeyed order from anybody including the government officers, except Hamengkubowono IX himself.
His belief against the government’s order suddenly became a national interest. And television broadcasts started to make a deep coverage about him. The man known as Mbah Maridjan abruptly became a topic attention in every national conversation.
Ironically, the disaster didn’t come from north direction of Yogyakarta city which the mountain lays. In fact, the tragedy appeared from Gunungkidul which part of south region of Yogyakarta province. The impact of 6,2 Richter scale earthquake is an unbelievable mess. It devastated almost hundreds thousands homes in south region of Yogyakarta.
