1998. 9 years ago. I just reached 9. 5th grade of elementary school. That time, what should I care about? Father and mother expecting good marks on exams. Nagging little siblings (they were only 5 and 3, respectively). Organizing time to attend school, do homeworks, study for tests, and attending some additional courses (including English, Mandarin, and piano).
It all changed.. Beginning on May 12th.
No one in Jakarta can ever forget those days..
People died. People mourned. People got angry. People poured to the streets. People yelled. People shouted. People drew back in fear. People in euphoria. People in grief. People steal. People got stolen. People rape. People got raped. People fear. People flee. People cried. People laughed. People lost. People falling apart. People feeling powerless.
People with no hearts.
And people with hearts broken.
The mere 4 days in history that will change my life and point of view forever..
Even after 9 years, I still can’t understand why… Why us, why? Why? Tell us why… What’s the fault of having lighter tone of skin… And obviously different juxtaposition of face parts?
What makes you more “Indonesian” than me? Born in Indonesia? I was, too. Speaking Indonesian? I am, too. Love Indonesia? I do, too…
I hope that kind of tragedy won’t happen again. I hope, that at the end, everyone will literally live in peace next to each other. No barriers. No boundaries.
One can dream, can’t one?
Information on what happened on wikipedia.
And nobody seems to care about this anymore. At first it was a big woo-ha. Everyone is curious. Everyone wants to know who to blame. Everyone needs something to blame. But as time goes by.. Seems like everybody has forgotten about it. Why must we be stuck on a hurting memory, anyway?
I made it through. But the memory will stay.
In memoriam of those people…..
photo courtesy of savinca. Licensed under Creative Commons License Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0.
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