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A review by hikaoru
Laut Bercerita by Leila S. Chudori
5.0
I gave myself a few hours to collect my thoughts. It's always a bit harder to review books that I like rather than the ones I don't.
It's Saturday so we're back with the #Cabaran100MukaSurat by Bookends.my and since I'm already on page 205 so I figured I could soldier on til the end. It's not like it makes a difference. I'm free all day, every day until I get my placement.
I have always been interested in history but reading this made me realise I am very much behind. I know a lot about ancient history of the world and probably some of the Malay archipelago but lacking in terms of political climate of the surrounding countries.
Growing up, I heard about the violation of human rights, banned books and restriction of speech as something from dystopian worlds, in books and seldom in real life. If it somehow existed, I thought it would be long ago and definitely not during my lifetime and definitely not in our country or neighbouring ones. Oh how sheltered I was. I read more and learned about how words have value and people go at great lengths to silent them but it is still not something that affects me. You see, consuming materials from the West means focusing on their issues and sometimes comparing it to what we have in our country but it's not the same. There is still that other-ness.
I am......definitely off topic here.
Well, this is basically me, educating myself through fiction (because it's more palatable), trying to consume more materials in my native tongue because I see the ratio of English fiction and Malay is so disproportionate. Unintentionally stumble through a historical fiction which I knew nothing about. To me Soeharto is just a name I heard in passing and when I asked mum about it and he explained in brief about his reign and I'm like this was common knowledge?
I do realise Indonesians are known for their demonstrations but I never knew that they could get killed for it or even tortured. I was also super interested in how they got around the banned books issue. They photocopied books and smuggle them like contraband items, they distribute zines, they translate books so that the masses can get a hold of them. I remember a saying somewhere that says the saddest thing isn't when a book is burn but when it isn't read. All this word vomit made me realize we do have Sedition Act in our country. I gotta read up on those but people on twitter has been spewing a lot of things without repercussions so I guess it isn't that strict.
TLDR: read this book if you wanna know more about student activism in Indonesia. Trigger warning: mentions of torture.
It's Saturday so we're back with the #Cabaran100MukaSurat by Bookends.my and since I'm already on page 205 so I figured I could soldier on til the end. It's not like it makes a difference. I'm free all day, every day until I get my placement.
I have always been interested in history but reading this made me realise I am very much behind. I know a lot about ancient history of the world and probably some of the Malay archipelago but lacking in terms of political climate of the surrounding countries.
Growing up, I heard about the violation of human rights, banned books and restriction of speech as something from dystopian worlds, in books and seldom in real life. If it somehow existed, I thought it would be long ago and definitely not during my lifetime and definitely not in our country or neighbouring ones. Oh how sheltered I was. I read more and learned about how words have value and people go at great lengths to silent them but it is still not something that affects me. You see, consuming materials from the West means focusing on their issues and sometimes comparing it to what we have in our country but it's not the same. There is still that other-ness.
I am......definitely off topic here.
Well, this is basically me, educating myself through fiction (because it's more palatable), trying to consume more materials in my native tongue because I see the ratio of English fiction and Malay is so disproportionate. Unintentionally stumble through a historical fiction which I knew nothing about. To me Soeharto is just a name I heard in passing and when I asked mum about it and he explained in brief about his reign and I'm like this was common knowledge?
I do realise Indonesians are known for their demonstrations but I never knew that they could get killed for it or even tortured. I was also super interested in how they got around the banned books issue. They photocopied books and smuggle them like contraband items, they distribute zines, they translate books so that the masses can get a hold of them. I remember a saying somewhere that says the saddest thing isn't when a book is burn but when it isn't read. All this word vomit made me realize we do have Sedition Act in our country. I gotta read up on those but people on twitter has been spewing a lot of things without repercussions so I guess it isn't that strict.
TLDR: read this book if you wanna know more about student activism in Indonesia. Trigger warning: mentions of torture.