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Tremble, Burn, Die
Jun. 25th, 2012 07:55 pmYears ago, while interning in Surabaya, I read an op-ed titled "Tremble, Burn, Die." It was about terrorism - Indonesian newspapers like to take dramatic license with their titles - but the title stuck with me, and I planned to use it as the title of a hypothetical final book in a hypothetical "Nusantara" series about Americans in Indonesia that I would hypothetically someday write. It was going to be the big, crashing finale to what would have been a slow burn in the previous two books - when the forces of democratization, terrorism, and natural disasters are finally unleashed (and a former human-rights-violating-general sings a love song at an independence day party -> based on something I witnessed, btw). Not that I've written any of this, of course. It lives on the back burner.
I'm in Indonesia again, Jakarta this time, and last night talking to my uncle I was struck by how many times he mentioned people burning things down. "People are out of control," he said, "and they just want to burn everything. Even the governor's house, in Papua." The Lady Gaga concert that got cancelled? An Islamic fundamentalist group threatened to gather dozens of people from around the region and burn down the stadium if it went on - and the cops backed down. Companies leaving Indonesia? "When the workers want to raise the minimum wage, they just get people together to burn down the factory."
It's creepy. Everyone here has decided that Indonesia lacks strong leadership, all but wishing for the days of Suharto - my other uncle (who I hadn't seen since literally the mid-90s, and it turns out he's awesome, so that's cool) - was like, "Yeah, that is the sadness of Indonesia, that the people need a leader that is pretty much a dictator." It's what made my dad so depressed about the country. Speaking of my dad, apparently someone at the Jakarta Post knows who he is and thinks it's sad that he died and his ideas were ahead of his time. His thesis posited that Indonesia needed to build a middle class to challenge authoritarian rule. I wonder now if he lost faith in that solution.
Looking at the article again, this is where the title comes from, by the way: an Afghan poet named Khalilullah Khalili: "Out of pain and sorrow destiny has molded me. What, alas, has been my joy from the cup of life? Like a candle burning in the blowing wind, I tremble, I burn, I die."
I'm in Indonesia again, Jakarta this time, and last night talking to my uncle I was struck by how many times he mentioned people burning things down. "People are out of control," he said, "and they just want to burn everything. Even the governor's house, in Papua." The Lady Gaga concert that got cancelled? An Islamic fundamentalist group threatened to gather dozens of people from around the region and burn down the stadium if it went on - and the cops backed down. Companies leaving Indonesia? "When the workers want to raise the minimum wage, they just get people together to burn down the factory."
It's creepy. Everyone here has decided that Indonesia lacks strong leadership, all but wishing for the days of Suharto - my other uncle (who I hadn't seen since literally the mid-90s, and it turns out he's awesome, so that's cool) - was like, "Yeah, that is the sadness of Indonesia, that the people need a leader that is pretty much a dictator." It's what made my dad so depressed about the country. Speaking of my dad, apparently someone at the Jakarta Post knows who he is and thinks it's sad that he died and his ideas were ahead of his time. His thesis posited that Indonesia needed to build a middle class to challenge authoritarian rule. I wonder now if he lost faith in that solution.
Looking at the article again, this is where the title comes from, by the way: an Afghan poet named Khalilullah Khalili: "Out of pain and sorrow destiny has molded me. What, alas, has been my joy from the cup of life? Like a candle burning in the blowing wind, I tremble, I burn, I die."
