It Began on May 1998
This is the start of re-posting my previous writings. Some friends suggested this for quite some time, but I felt slightly timid, if not embarrassed, to do it. However, after realizing that some of my online writings no longer exist and that I no longer can find them in my personal files/folders, I came to regret not having to do this earlier. My only hope is that these writings can be helpful and/or generate further debates on things that we care the most. Nostalgia is probably my other motive... Some of these writings reflect moments that shape who I am today. This is the first one. My first 'writing' on public media; My first "published" piece. It's no scholarly piece at all, really. Nowhere near that. It was RAGE - a raw rage and delirious demand to be heard by the people where ever they were. My house in Pos Pengumben Jakarta was attacked on that dreadful May 1998, during which two of the most staggering events changed my life (the Anti-Chinese riot...