OPINION: 18 Years Ago Today: May 1998 and to Never Forget
My piece in Jakarta Post today on what happened to me & family in May 98. Every year each May for the past 18 years I have always wanted to write something meaningful. But I always failed. Never could finish the damn thing. I'm still not sure why. This year I finally did it... Original writing is provided below. JP didn't make much changes - some grammars & few selected words. Printed version can be read here . This is one of two articles I sent to JP. My family and I are amongst many Chinese Indonesian families, who got attacked and made a very conscious decision to not report it. We had zero faith in Indonesia's system at that time. My family saw no point in reporting other than being harassed again or wringed for cash. They're used to anti Chinese assaults & genuinely were unsurprised that it had happened (or will happen) again. My aunt's stoic answer that night when I asked if she's afraid perplexed me, "Udah biasa, Suk. Mami malah y