Volume 13: Resistance by Perspektif Magazine

Vision To be a platform that exemplifies the diversity of Indonesian experiences by showcasing Indonesia ideas, talents, initiatives, and stories. Mission To create a visually appealing and intellectually engaging magazine.

PERSPEKTIF INDONESIAN FOR PERSPECTIVE (noun.) a point of view Perspektif is a biannual print and online magazine dedicated to showcasing talents and disseminating ideas. Perspektif is Indonesian for perspective, a name that signifies our aims: to promote the acceptance of varying perspectives, whilst representing Indonesian culture in a global context. Each volume contains a variety of written and visual pieces, from critical analyses to poems and personal anecdotes, each centralised on a theme. Supported by kind donations and passionate individuals, our magazine is entirely free and run by volunteers and contributors. We hope that Perspektif will inspire and familiarise you with new ideas, perhaps challenge your own, and possibly lead to the formation of new ones.

photographed by borna bosnjak

photographed by joanne amarisa pangkey

RESISTANCE “If you are paralyzed with fear it’s a good sign. It shows you what you have to do.” - Steven Pressfield

It is natural that any introduction of change brings about resistance as much as a resistance will eventually bring about change. The question is, how do we know which path to take? Resistance is who we are, as much as it is a tale of our history, and a reminder of why we push against the current to arrive at a future we can confidently call our own.

EDITOR’S WORDS Alfarez Wirawan

In the chaotic nature of human existence, change is, perhaps, one of the only universal certainties that will endure the test of time. It is inevitable, and comes in many forms. Some can be trivial—old habits give way to new ones, resulting in fresh ideas you’d have never thought of before, written about in Samuel Marzuki’s "What it Means to be Human: A Questioned Question". Others may be life-changing, leaving it up to you to decide how to respond to it. Many of us may fear change as the unknown usually follows closely behind. It is easy to be overwhelmed as the world seemingly moves forward without us, and at times we may think that the right thing to do is to stop fighting it.

PHOTOGRAPHED BY

bekatrinda fadila

But we often forget that sometimes, the only way to bring about change is by reaching for it ourselves, a sentiment argued by Hirzi Putra Laksana in his essay "Quo Vadis Student Activism?". To sit back is to let it corrode and fester into the status quo, as revealed by Jennifer Chance in her poem "Rumah". So we push on against the current—we resist. This volume explores the experiences and voices of people in the act of resistance and the sacrifices one must make in pursuit of a better life. Our team has been hard at work for many months putting this volume together. We hope you will enjoy reading it as much as we did creating it. Until next time, we hope to see you again in our next volume!

FOUNDERS Fauziyah Annur Rama Adityadharma Mary Anugrah Rasita

EDITOR IN CHIEF Alfarez Wirawan

EDITORIAL

CREATIVE

MARKETING

Managing Editor

Creative Director

Marketing Director

Chiara Situmorang

Angela Theodora Nubary

Olivia Sieva

Editors

Illustrator

Marketing Officers

Jennifer Chance Joanne Amarisa Pangkey Dahye Koo

Evelyn Homin Catherina Harley

Ivanka Maxwell Angela Stacia Sabrina Kosman Vanni Anastasya Arletta Witaria

Designer Nadya Evelyn Jennifer Wibisono

CONTENTS 18

TENDER IS THE NIGHT D â&#x20AC;&#x2122;A . H U TA B A R AT

OLD WHALING TOWNS J A C I N TA D O W E

LAZINESS OR A SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY? NURUL JUHRIA BINTE KAMAL

T H E A R R I VA L O F H U N G R Y J A C K JAMES ROBERTSON

O U R T I R E L E S S B AT T L E S J O A N N E A M A R I S A PA N G K E Y

G LO B A L I N T E G R AT I O N F O R B E T T E R O F W O R S E : A LO O K I N TO G LO B A L D I G I TA L C U R R E N C Y DAHYE KOO

THE BOUNDARIES OF CLASSROOM DISOBEDIENCE: FORMING HEALTHY R E S I S TA N C E I N T H E NA M E O F P R O G R E S S R E I N A W I B AWA

AMAZON S H U J A AT M I R Z A

KASHMIR S H U J A AT M I R Z A

PHOTOGRAPHED BY

angela nubary

RUMAH

W H AT I T M E A N S TO B E H U M A N : A Q U E S T I O N E D Q U E S T I O N

Q U O VA D I S S T U D E N T A C T I V I S M ? â&#x20AC;&#x201C; T H E M I S S I N G R E S I S TA N C E

JENNIFER CHANCE

SAMUEL MARZUKI

HIRZI PUTRA LAKSANA

WORDS J A C I N TA D O W E NURUL JUHRIA BINTE KAMAL J O A N N E A M A R I S A PA N G K E Y HIRZI PUTRA LAKSANA S H U J A AT M I R Z A JAMES ROBERTSON R E I N A W I B AWA DAHYE KOO JENNIFER CHANCE D â&#x20AC;&#x2122;A . H U TA B A R AT SAMUEL MARZUKI

MEDIA BORNA BOSNJAK J O A N N E A M A R I S A PA N G K E Y M AT T H I A S T I L L E N B E K AT R I N D A FA D I L A E R E L M AT I TA

CONTRIBUTORS

N A D YA E V E LY N C AT H E R I N A H A R L E Y JENNIFER WIBISONO E V E LY N H O M I N A L FA R E Z W I R A W A N ANGELA THEODORA NUBARY SABRINA KOSMAN V A N N I A N A S TA S YA

PHOTOGRAPHED BY

angela nubary

/.rumah/. WORDS SJENNIFER CHANCE ILLUSTRATION ANGELA THEODORA NUBARY PHOTOGRAPH BORNA BOSNJAK 13

rumah/ tempat teduh/ suaka/ tanah air

The shadows move without me –

these are people my age tossing Molotovs like basketballs screaming lullabies into speakerphones forming chain-linked fences lying facedown on tear-gassed streets

and the war and the fleeing and the freedom dwindle into gold watches in a red pocket.

你从哪里来的?

Here. Over time he forgets that home is anywhere but here.

Stones build inside them all

and I watch through a screen as they tattoo the words this is home for us on statues of old, cobalt men.

Decades later my father

joins his neighbours as they grip cooking knives and airsoft guns, poised at gates like children guarding treehouses

// My grandfather comes from a Chinese village

The orange flames, the smell of

near the mountains. When I think of the place I think of a soft light like a baby’s pink, wet lips kissing his shoulder.

burning rubber wakes him up every time another protest sours and the messages come more clearly

/ POEM

He arrives by boat to this archipelago

That he is half this and half that –

Chinese and Indonesian, part of both but belonging to neither. That he is on the other side of the equation – the part protested against, not for.

I was given a broken watch

when my grandfather died. I remember in preschool how they teach you to submerge your hands in ink and translate a heritage onto paper. Those lines that mark your birth, your relationships, your death.

And how, if you don’t press hard enough,

your palm comes up empty.

I have never known

my grandfather’s village. The crowded streets in Jakarta point me out like a fly on a window. The watch, with its confused hands, tells me jumbled ideas of home.

there’s no Indonesian word for a place where you belong

POEM /

PHOTOGRAPHED BY

Joanne amarisa pangkey

“If one is forever cautious, can one remain a human being?” - Alexander Solzhenitsyn, The First Circle

/ POEM

‘

In the search for a safe haven I refuse to open my eyes– For it was too bright, And the stars are only visible at night Red is too passionate, too endearing Yellow too uplifting, too pretentious Orange is too joyous, too ignorant And everything else is too exhausting to keep up with I’d rather Plant flowers of grey– Safe within my indecision, Safe within the ambiguity I am waiting in this barren land, Counting the days until the Sun comes, Because they said, ‘it will, it will’ And I’m worn out, saying ‘it will, it will’

TENDER IS THE NIGHT

But I need not wait– For I am not a fool Who wishes for rainbows and butterflies In the midst of a rainstorm

WORDS D’A. HUTABARAT ILLUSTRATION CATHERINA HARLEY

I’d rather Wait for the sky to clear, Waltzing alongside the raindrops And its hymn of Sorrows Safe in the embrace of mediocrity Befriending melancholy, Replenished within the monsoon showers Admitting defeat, Surrendering to where the stream will take me: Where the dead fishes go Where the spiritless depart

POEM /

PHOTOGRAPHED BY

Vanni Anastasya

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Just because something bears the aspect of the inevitable one should not, therefore, go along willingly with it.â&#x20AC;? -Philip K. Dick, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer

Old Whaling Towns A poem by

Jacinta Dowe PHOTOGRAPH MATTIAS TILLEN

/ POEM

in class we went beach-combing along the Derwent River they taught us about the spotted hand-fish kelp forests agricultural run-off overfishing toxic shellfish they say there were so many whales it wasn’t safe to cross and people couldn’t sleep they were so loud we ran to the shore to watch them bleed

fill a bay with wine where now the pademelons eat bread from your hand and get sick it took two hundred years for whales to come back I remember being fifteen running to the beach to see two – a mother and her calf now there’s more Airbnbs than affordable homes if those whales come back they’ll have to navigate an oil rig that lights up like the trees at Salamanca place

POEM /

“We are products of our past, but we don’t have to be prisoners of it.” - Rick Warren

PHOTOGRAPHED BY

alfarez wirawan

/ POLITICS AND SOCIETY

LAZINESS OR A SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY? WORDS NURUL JUHRIA BINTE KAMAL ILLUSTRATION CAHTERINA HARLEY

Singapore prides itself on its multiculturalism. Just look at our food and our local language, Singlish. They’ve all been influenced by the various races that make up our population – Chinese, Malays, Indians and Others. (That’s right, if you’re white, you will be lumped into a group of minorities called ’Others’.) However, behind the facade of the Crazy Rich Asians setting, creative Singapore Airlines advertisements, and Nas Daily sponsored videos, there are many gaps that prove we are not multicultural. Ask any Singaporean for a Malay stereotype and they’ll give you a whole bunch of them. Some of them are funny, some of them are racist. Nay, all of them are racist. Examples include: Malays are always late, Malays are lazy, Malays aren’t good at Math, Malays like to lepak, Malays only know how to make babies, and Malays are usually poor. I used to laugh them off because they were jokes thrown at me by friends and family. As I grew older, I started wondering where these comments came from and how they had managed to cement themselves as a representative of our race. I kept wondering why some of these stereotypes were so spot on—were they actually an accurate reflection of us or simply biases that we had internalised over time? Once I learned how these jokes had become institutionalised, they stopped being funny and started to hurt. It no longer became ‘just a joke’ the moment I realised these biases took away my opportunities. Let’s take a look at the most commonly used stereotype—Melayu pemalas, or in other words, Malays are lazy. The root of the phrase ‘lepak malay’ and its eventual perception that Malays are lazy did not appear out of thin air. Research has shown that the

phrase was used by British and Dutch colonisers some 200 years ago in Southeast Asia when they found that Malay people did not want to work. And when I say work, the colonisers meant being part of their trade and constructions. Malays were agricultural labourers; we spent our days out on the sea or in the paddy fields gathering food for our families. The idea that we worked for what was enough for us without looking for a surplus or profit was unfathomable to the colonisers. To them, that kind of labour wasn’t work. Our refusal to serve their demands and expectations resulted in us being branded as lazy. Here’s a quote by our lovely Sir Stamford Raffles (who we still put on a pedestal to this day, God knows why) about Malays, "he is so indolent, that when he has rice, nothing will induce him to work". What can I say? We really do love our rice. I personally start shaking if I don’t have rice for dinner. This prejudice worsened when the colonisers decided to unfavorably compare us to the Indian and Chinese immigrants, planting the seeds for racial hierarchy that eventually germinated to become what it is now. But here’s the catch: how can we possibly be lazy when there were Malay merchants before colonisation? How could we be lazy if we had a state-of-the-art naval crew and were constantly warring with colonisers to stop their infiltration? Today, the idea of a lazy Malay takes the form of someone who just wants to hang out at the void decks and spend his hours listening to jiwang Malay songs and smoking. You may think it sounds like the harmless, ‘laid back’ dude, but the concept still very much retains the negative connotation originating from colonial times. What was once a myth has now become a truth so ingrained in everyone’s perception of our race, that Malays are inherently lazy and as such are

>> POLITICS AND SOCIETY/

undeserving of employment and success. This misperception is exacerbated by other factors such as the perpetuation of the stereotype by our leaders, in academia, institutions, and portrayals in the media. Firstly, it is very difficult to refute the fact when your leaders are out here saying things that perpetuate the stereotype. Lee Kwan Yew said, "we could not have held the society together if we had not made adjustments to the system that gives the Malays, although they are not as hardworking and capable as the other races, a fair share of the cake". Thanks, Mr. PM. Other Malay Ministers had also made comments faulting Singaporean Malays for getting themselves to where they are now (read: lower tier of statistics). You really got to love a Melayu makan Melayu* scenario happening on a political level. Secondly, in academia, the stereotype has morphed into a social theory to explain the inequalities between races called ‘cultural deficit theory’. The theory attempts to blame inequalities on one’s biology and culture. Sounds a lot like a cop out, doesn’t it? Imagine being in an education system which constantly upholds the narrative that Malays are lazy by pointing out the fact that we are always at the lower end of the academic tier. Yes, that is true, but surely, we are all educated enough to understand that there are other socioeconomic factors at play here. It is not an inborn trait; it is systemic conditioning. Thirdly, the media plays a huge part in shaping the public narrative. Malay news media often talk about successful, hardworking Malays as if they are the exception. The sheer amount of coverage insinuates that it is abnormal for Malays to do well during exams or in various employment sectors. Furthermore, the angle that has been used to death is the fact that these success stories usually come from underprivileged backgrounds. Some argue that they are merely celebrating the success, I

/ ARTS, CULTURE & EDUCATION

argue that its excessiveness makes it seem like the community is overcompensating for the lack of stories outside those that have been reported. When it comes to reporting on race-focused government initiatives, English and Malay media alike love to use the phrase "low-income Malay families". Rarely does this phrase get applied when reporting on other races. The effects of this perception towards Malays is detrimental to the community. Right off the bat, we can already see that non-Malays and Malay elites believe that your average Malay is undeserving of adequate compensation for their hard work. Even more so, the perception has been so tightly ingrained in the social psyche that it is used as a means to explain societal inequalities. Not to mention, it’s become an unspoken status quo explanation for Malays behaving in a certain way. Now, I’m not saying that the Malay community has passively accepted this treatment, but it’s obvious that the narrative has dug its heels into the community. The institutional grooming and narration worked. The seeds planted by the colonisers have been flourishing since. *Melayu makan Melayu is a Malay proverb which translates to the act of Malay people tearing others from the community apart. vv

quote here

ARTS, CULTURE & EDUCATION /

W H AT I T M E A N S T O B E H U M A N : A QUESTIONED QUESTION WORDS SAMUEL MARZUKI ILLUSTRATION CATHERINA HARLEY

I found myself one day just sitting by my windowsill and daydreaming. I must’ve forgotten that I had my piano lesson at six o’clock that day. It was the day eight-year-old me discovered his very first philosophical question through a short Youtube clip. I can’t recall all the details in the video, but the main theme was somewhere along the lines of, ‘what makes a human human?’. Funny thing is, only after 15 minutes or so I realized I had been sitting still doing nothing but think. The spark of thoughts mixed with feelings of awe and frustration kept on piling with a little bit of this and a little bit of that and AAAAAA.. I’m so dead if my mom knows I skipped my piano class! Now I’m 21 years young, and I’ve picked up this mini hobby where I tackle philosophical questions every now and then, with one condition: I must talk it out with another person. It is just amazing to hear the endless stream of ideas and opinions towards these mind-bending questions. Now let me kindly put one out there for you: what is your most precious possession? I got this one from someone else dear to me, and it is one of my favorite questions to bring to the table, and you are going to find out just why in a moment. Now, where was I? Oh right. So, I will not define the word ‘possession’ for you because it lowers the value of your own interpretation of the word. Okay, now that you and I have already locked in our final answers, what happens next? Well, you are going to live to tell the tale I suppose.

/ ARTS, CULTURE & EDUCATION

The answer can be anything ranging from something with sentimental value like that one old necklace from your grandma that she gave you when you turned 17, to something that is so simple, like your phone, cause just face it, it’s 2020, no one can bear a single day without their phone in their hands. Even non-physical things can be your most precious possession. You may think your most precious possession is your knowledge and wisdom because without it you are but an empty shell in this whole wide world, or your ability to taste because FOOD IS LIFE! Anyway, different people can come up with all sorts of different fascinating things. Even the very same person can have different answers ten years ago, now, and in the coming ten years. One time when you were a helpless little kid, your most precious possession can be your adorable soft toy on your bed that you hug every time you cry. One time when you are older you might change your most precious possession to your local public transportation as it lets you commute easily between your home and your workplace. Another time it could be your capability to shed tears as it comforts you during your hard times. The possibilities are crazy! But let’s not stop there. What if you ask a human-made AI, a supposed simulation of human intelligence processed by machines to be able to learn and reason based on the input of information, the exact same question? I don’t know about you, but my intuition tells me right from the get-go that they simply can’t answer it properly, can they? We humans even tend to change our answer from time to time, adapting with whatever comes our way and keep ranking our possessions based on the battle we currently fight. Or perhaps I am just hoping that they will never be able to. Because if somehow, someway, the AI gets jacked with a ton of data, and by that I mean every possible variable and piece of information known to mankind to the point where it is as if I am talking to a human whose answer I can relate to heart-to-heart, then it can only mean that humans are gods, no? I mean, we humans just created a human, right?

Now let’s slow down. Reminiscing back to my eightyear-old self and the mixed feelings that lingered in my heart after encountering such a simple question of what it means to be human. Even now, I still feel the kick after a good session of positive open debate and conversation with my friends. Oh, were you expecting me to provide you with the answer to the big question myself? But I just did. Personally speaking, what is your most precious possession is the open-ended question that answers that big question. It’s unfair, you say? To answer a question with another question? Well now, it’s just so beautiful, isn’t it? For the cherry on top, we must ask ourselves again, are we really ready to live side-by-side with highly sophisticated AI? Do we really want to run our society as though interactions with machines are more valuable than human interactions just because human errors occur more often than

computational errors? And no, by all means, I’m not saying that we should stop improving. I’m talking less about ambition and more about attention. Look around and feel the power of saying "thank you" to the waiter who picks up your order in the restaurant compared to just clicking buttons and confirming your order from a screen at your local Maccas. Miracles exist daily when we engage with others. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves and get rid of the beauty of looking someone in the eye and connecting with them immediately. Let’s not have a clunky metal and heater system from a battery to ever replace the intense body temperature when they hold you real tight whenever you have the idea of feeling someone’s warmth. Let’s not change our babies’ first words from "mommy" or "daddy" into "beep" and "boop".

ARTS, CULTURE & EDUCATION /

“At the end of the day it’s about how much you can bear, how much you can endure. Being together, we harm nobody; being apart, we extinguish ourselves.” - Tabitha Suzuma, Forbidden

PHOTOGRAPHED BY

sabrina kosman

everything had to be rearranged incense sputtered smothered out now our shrine is a cash register the day Hungry Jack came to stay homemade, fresh to buy a stall at our front door, step into your age of golden nuggets and the taste is not exactly what it says on the tin here is the new menu, local coconuts were cut cheeseburgers freshly unfrozen no, you may not eat ikan bakar that’s just a thing of the past palm trees once shaded, their habits inhabit a place from the past, now the mighty Burger King cares little for his subjects, here decree ‘first you must sever their roots!’

The Arrival of Hungry Jack WORDS JAMES ROBERTSON PHOTOGRAPH BORNA BOSNJAK

once our village is not your patronage although fake ‘meat’ may be better than muscle, ships & guns for years they’ve killed more culture than cows scented smoke will rise from ashes our gospel, the menu of old will push back Meal Deals to the sea forever since the day Hungry Jack came to stay

POEM /

/ POEM

O U R T I R E L E S S B AT T L E S WORDS JOANNE AMARISA PANGKEY ILLUSTRATION JENNIFER WIBISONO

Early morning. A typical Wednesday. The city is empty and half asleep. Vacant sidewalks. The air cold with remnants of winter. Immersed in the quiet, I smile.

are too many problems to fix. Being removed from the pain is a blessing. (Maybe an extreme fortune we always take for granted).

Across the globe, deep inside Brazil, another tree catches fire. Blazing sparks dance with clouds of ash. A forest exhales its last breath.

So we float quietly and happily in our own little worlds. A busy university life. Brunch dates on the weekends. Music concerts. Crowded shopping malls. Noise, noise, drowns everything out.

I order my usual – a cup of chai – and thank the barista as I find my seat. In that second, another flame grows, hungry for new sprigs to devour. Out the window, I see a gloomy sky. I silently pray it doesn’t rain. Meanwhile, in Brazil, a fire persists. Billows of smoke rise, and reach for heaven themselves. --I don’t remember when, exactly, our planet tumbled into this slow collapse. I’ve read of dystopian worlds – in fiction novels and adventure books. But these days, those stories seem to inch closer to reality. In the news, on social media, tragedy is inescapable. We don’t wake up angry. Not until the papers serve us breaking news and devastation for breakfast. Dread infiltrates our dining room. It looms over our heads as we read the big-lettered print. Child stops breathing. Smoke in villages. Flooded city. Protesters riot. Dread offers a side dish of secondhand emotions. Hurt, worry, and helplessness, as we watch a world cry through a television set. Sirens. Shooting in Orlando.

It is only so long until the sound pierces through. Living within bubbles of cities and neighbourhoods, I couldn’t shake off the feeling that at any given moment, someone, somewhere is in need of help. The world cries from a distance. Guilt seeps in as I subconsciously turn a deaf ear. This is a new reality. When I resume my life, a static hum follows. Knowing the earth is trembling, I can’t rest easy. When the suffering doesn’t cease, I go to bed restless. My compassion fatigued. My mind oversaturated, nearly desensitised, by tragedy. --Reading headlines, we feel anger, yet by 6 PM it simmers. Our emotions are riled up, then crash into desperation. These are not our battles, and yet we have lost. Our days are clouded with compassion fatigue. Another word for "I’m accustomed to this pain". It’s defined as "emotional residue from exposure to traumatic events". Events like grief, terror attacks, and climate change. Another term I discovered this year was environmental anxiety. The constant unease that sits at the back of our minds, reminding us about our future ticking away.

Footage of a hailstorm. There’s a hurricane in Indonesia. Wounded animals. A decline in our ecosystem. Click. We switch off the news. Change the channel. And just like that, dread evaporates. An hour later, my family sits for dinner and laughs about new jokes again. We couldn’t leave our lives and save the world. There

It is this restlessness that drives us to the streets, marching with signs and choruses of protest. It is this anxiety that makes us desperately seek ecofriendly options, measuring what changes we can make.

POLITICS AND SOCIETY /

Changes we can make. Incremental, and over time. Like social media campaigns and worldwide climate protests. A collective chant, a frequent hashtag, digital activism. Change is here! We need laws and are given megaphones. Removed from the actual battle, we pick up sticks and imagine they are weapons. What can I do? I look at my current life. Two hands. Textbooks. What can I do? When I wanted to study in Australia, the hopes and dreams I had were, frankly, my own. I didn’t plan on changing the world. I wasn’t aware the world needed much changing. But it does. Now it does. In a split second, I, alongside millions of others in my generation, was exposed to the fight. Forced to join the front line. Thrown into a battlefield we never asked for. We’re way past angry. What do we do when we feel powerless? One. I list the things I can change, and can’t. The actions outside of my reach, and within it. For example: Things I Can’t Do For a Burning Rainforest. Firefight. I can’t fly to the scene of the crime. Bureaucracy. I don’t know how to lobby politicians into urgent action. Rescue. I can’t save the locals who are losing lives in the thick of smoke. It aches, when we realise we can’t be the superheroes our world needs. But what if the world doesn’t need a superhero? What if it doesn’t necessarily call for a Greta Thunberg to emerge every day? What if all it needs is people willing to fight for it? The stubborn, the relentless, those brave enough to take action, and naive enough to believe their efforts matter?

climate change, and refugee crises all at the same time. So, Two. I make peace with the fact that I can’t do everything at once. I choose my battles. Pick my weapons. Identify what’s within reach. Maybe for others, it’s environmental action. Policymaking. Humanitarian aid. Maybe for a student like me, at this given time, it’s advocacy. Education. Giving. We try our best but remember: tireless, limitless resistance is counterproductive. Fight in one way. Fight for one thing. It is no use squeezing ourselves dry if there’s no more left to give. Three. In true soldier fashion, we need to care for our wounds. Acknowledge that it’s an uphill climb. Filled with difficult, painful truths to grapple with. Confront the anger. Turn it into fuel. Confront the sadness, and finally, release. Four. News and social media are bearers of bad news. This means they’re built to transfer pain, not to help you heal it. Find what will. Disconnect if you need to. If the world needs us, we can’t afford to be anxious. You have to believe that change is taking place out there. In more subtle, non-headlining ways. And believe that you can be a part of it. A link in the chain, through which hope can ripple through. Do you hear that? Our angry battle cry. The ground is shaking. Far ahead, armies of cynicism, fear, and defeat. Chin up, soldier. There is work to do. So wrap your scars, and join the line. We haven’t lost this battle yet.

Things I Can Do For a Burning Rainforest. Donate. Technology has made this the easiest, most accessible it has ever been. Educate. Teaching new generations not to repeat the same mistakes. As much as we’d want to, we can’t fight inequality,

/ POLITICS AND SOCIETY

Photoseries by

Joanne Amarisa Pangkey

“We are products of our past, but we don’t have to be prisoners of it.” - Rick Warren

PHOTOGRAPHED BY

alfarez wirawan

G L O B A L I N T E G R AT I O N F O R BE T TER OR WORSE: A LOOK INTO G L O B A L D I G I TA L C U R R E N C Y WORDS DAHYE KHOO ILLUSTRATION EVELYN HOMIN PHOTOGRAPH BEKATRINDA FADILA

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY /

It is an inevitable fate for the world to evolve and develop. Despite providing benefits that allow the world to operate more efficiently and conveniently, there may be dire consequences that people face due to changes. Therefore, when a large-scale innovation is implemented, it is vital for people to look into potential repercussions, which in this case is the imposition of a global digital currency. The cryptocurrency, which is a digital currency, took off to fame when Bitcoin came into popularity. Interestingly, with the growing popularity and potential revolutionization of money, central banks of 19 countries are currently considering the issuance of a digital decentralized currency to replace physical currency. Cryptocurrency has its strengths. In Zuckerberg’s words, "The idea behind Libra is that sending money should be as easy and secure as sending a message". Global currency, after all, brings users together under a single currency. Benefits brought by this include near anonymity, lower costs and the elimination of financial intermediaries. These translate to more freedom to individuals and businesses through increased scalability and inclusiveness leading to the creation of global opportunity. Following the cryptocurrency trend, Facebook proposed a global digital currency, Libra. In comparison to Bitcoin that has a fixed supply of coins and volatile price due to its independence of any financial system, Libra is backed by fiat currencies (money that has value established by the government) and its supply corresponds to the amount of the currencies’ pool value. However, it faced strong opposition from the government and

the central bank. With this in mind, some questions to consider are whether Facebook’s digital currency is the right step forwards and whether the resistance against global digital currency is an effort to protect the people or a selfish way to secure market share and control. Looking at it broadly, an overview of whether a global currency should be pursued may provide surfacelevel consideration. For instance, the government’s official reasons for being against Libra are quite obvious. Libra is supposedly backed by safe instruments such as short-term government bonds and fiat currencies. However, if Libra does work well, these safe instruments will pile up and the investors’ liquidity issue will be raised if they make a run for Libra. Secondly, the system is not advanced enough for Libra to perform as a global currency. To picture its current state, on average, Bitcoin processes around 7 transactions per second while the fastest major cryptocurrency can process 1,500 per second. Visa, a global payment solution, processes 24,000 transactions per second. Libra wants to become a global system, but at its current state, it is not possible. If the technology does improve, the next problem is who holds control over this system? What the public has to consider is the government’s unofficial reason. Cryptocurrency threatens to break the monopoly that governments and central banks have on their ability to print money and manipulate the economy in favour of upper-class interests. Narrowing down from the big picture, a single global currency held by a private company blurs the line between commerce and finance. So, why is this a problem? Libra, on its own, is a currency not controlled by the Treasury. Thus, Libra will not be competing with other cryptocurrencies but with banks. The fact that Libra is pegged to the US dollar indicates that the dollar will also be exposed to Libra’s risks. Furthermore, Libra places the US dollar in a basket with other currencies, potentially creating problems such as speculation, liquidity issues and the fact that decisions made will affect multiple nations and >> their economies.

\ BUSINESS AND ECONOMY

A further possible consequence is the "domination of government by financial and industrial groups" - as warned by President Franklin Roosevelt to Congress in the past - which shines a light on the real threat Libra poses: the ability to be both the owner and operator of a company. For instance, JP Morgan’s ability to charge consumers higher electricity rates was simply due to their ownership of the energy trading business. This suggests that Facebook could potentially open their own bank and offer more favourable credit terms and faster transactions to customers who use its banking services at affiliated retails. A trickle-down effect from this would be the inability of small banks and retailers to compete. Here, it is not the government that seeks to secure market power, but the big corporations and banks. This is a valid reason for the government to be concerned and to make an effort to limit the possibility of this occurrence in order to protect the people. Lastly, a single currency that integrates people in a global manner also raises concerns of control. One of cryptocurrency’s key features is the decentralization of control. Traditionally, financial decisions and transactions require a single financial intermediary, such as banks. With cryptocurrency, decentralization is enabled in which the supply and value of the currency are not dependent on financial intermediaries but are controlled by code protocols. Libra contradicts this purpose as it centralizes sensitive users’ information which would pose a threat to greater control and monitoring ability over their transactions and behaviours. Facebook’s past scandals regarding Cambridge Analytica and tampering elections have broken their credibility on the handling of private data. This defeats one of the main purposes and benefits of cryptocurrency and presents a false impression of freedom from control.

In fact, it might present a greater threat as a private company now has monetary power over billions of users. Facebook is indicating that financial inclusion problem is due to faulty technology, thus initiating Libra as a solution. However, it is worth considering that the cause of the problem might be mistaken. When we have this perspective, we can then see that having a new technology implemented might not be the right solution to the current issue with financial inclusion and cost inefficiency. In fact, the solution might actually be to improve what currently exists. The central bank should still have control over the nation’s currency, but the system within itself should be adjusted. For instance, the central bank could make the payment system available to individuals rather than only to banks, which would lead to the provision of realtime payments. Additionally, using retails’ points of contact operations as an answer for the financially marginalized population would allow them to have easy access to money. They can then use payment applications on their phone for transactions. These suggestions show that policy changes in the current monetary system might be a better solution at this stage. It is also better for central banks themselves to consider creating a digital currency in order to ensure control is held by the right entity while also providing the benefits digital currency possesses and taking a careful step towards a cashless future.

Certainly, global digital currency provides financial inclusiveness and opportunities to the people, but control is still concentrated within a number of private entities. Concerns regarding private entities having too much power, having access to spending habits of billions of people and exposing risks to other economies make it questionable as to who benefits the most in the end. It is not a zero-sum game between the people and the government as there are other parties involved. 44

BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS//

THE BOUNDARIES OF CLASSROOM DISOBEDIENCE:

F O R M I N G H E A LT H Y R E S I S TA N C E I N T H E N A M E O F P R O G R E S S WORDS REINA WIBAWA ILLUSTRATION NADYA EVELYN

Incited by the controversial bill known as the Revision to the Criminal Code (RKUHP), Indonesian students protested from the DPR/MPR building to the Ciamis DPRD building— marching for more than 6 hours—to demand the bill’s revocation while many others took to social media to voice their concerns. Students have every right to protest against the bill to avoid it being passed—however, there need to be boundaries to classroom disobedience for progress to occur. The protests against the RKUHP have a healthy root cause, but the movement has become unhealthy through widespread activism done without proper knowledge. The KUHP (Kitab Undang-Undang Hukum Pidana) or the Indonesian Criminal Code has been around since 1946 and was loosely adapted from the 1918 Dutch Colonial Law—the Wetboek van Strafrecht (WvS). The current bill is supposedly drafted as an attempt to remove its colonial roots, however, this intention is not evident in the drafting and passing of the most recent bill, which the parliament planned to enforce before the end of their term back in September 2019. The contents the students oppose include Articles no. 218-220, which criminalise those who ‘defame the President’s dignity’. This article not only threatens freedom of expression, but is taken straight from the WvS which was written to permit the silencing of the anti-colonial critics by the Dutch. To make matters worse, these articles bring Indonesia a step backwards as it had been annulled by the Constitutional Court in 2016. Article s414 and 416 prohibits "unauthorized persons"—including parents and NGO workers— from educating the public about contraceptives and reproductive health, for doing so entails fines and imprisonment. In Indonesia, discussions on sexuality and sexual health are deemed taboo, causing a lack of access to contraceptives and a reported rise of HIV victims, with 73,000 Indonesians infected each year. The passing of the bill may worsen the sexual health issue in Indonesia. 46

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But among all the laws written in the bill, what strikes me the most is its sexist nature and the subsequent disadvantages to women’s rights. For instance, Article 470 threatens to imprison women for 4 years for having an abortion. This article conflicts with the 2009 Health Law, which states that women can seek abortion in medical emergencies, which includes cases of sexual assault and life-threatening medical conditions. This makes the law inefficient and confusing. Indonesia’s democracy is built through student movements. I was born in 2000, but I am aware of the 1998 Reformation, which was made possible by mass protests led by students. The members of the Indonesian parliament, who were the student protestors then, are receiving a huge wave of protests from present-day Indonesian students. The strikes in 1998 worked, and so do the protests now, as the bill will not be passed during this parliament’s term but the next. As student protests continue, Indonesians should understand that knowledge is not gained just within the walls of an institution, but it is also acquired in the streets. Many believe a more "civilized" method of voicing concerns should be adopted, but we do not live in an ideal world where students can safely learn in classrooms. Classroom obedience is not an option anymore, for their voices should be heard on the streets to reach the ears of the government. In fact, to ensure demands are met, these same activists took to social media as they attempted to recruit more allies. I have seen many young Indonesians post their concerns against the Criminal Code on a collection of Instagram stories. As the issue turns into a trending topic, the government is further pressured to change the bill’s draft. Despite this, social media activism remains problematic due to the spreading of fake news. In an age where adolescents receive news via social media, many students base their opinions on posts, without reading the actual bill.

For example, many students claim that one of the Criminal Code’s controversial laws threatens to fine women who roam the streets alone at night, when—though still controversial—the law threatens to fine homeless people who are being "disruptive". Furthermore, Articles 417 and 418, which criminalizes pre-marital sex, violates civil liberties, but many students protest against it for its violation of privacy. This privacy violation is untrue, as the bill details that individuals are only criminalized if reports are submitted by spouses who catch their partners cheating, or by parents of unmarried persons over 16; children who catch their parents performing sexual acts outside of marriage are also allowed to report their parents. This means that unlike a lot of online activists claim, officials could not criminalize individuals without the consent of family members, and therefore they do not breach the privacy of Indonesian citizens. These articles are controversial, but protesting against them based on pretenses halts progress as the parliament would be able to quickly point out the incorrect claims made by online activists, dismissing the need for change.

strength in numbers and perseverance. Students who were willing to sacrifice their time studying to fight against unjust laws for hours showed that activism works as the government promised to enact a redrafted bill next year. On the other hand, in order for activism to create lasting change, credibility is needed, for a crowd’s power diminishes when its cause lacks integrity. This means students must never fight for a cause because it is popular; instead, students must constantly research and fact-check to ensure that they agree with the cause, and that the evidence they use for their fight is credible. This is the right way to resist. As those who wish to participate in resistance educate themselves on their cause, then will the fight against the status quo succeed.

Evidence has also emerged proving that students’ misinterpretation of the Criminal Code harms activism. Organizations, as well as alleged political elite members, have piggybacked off of the student protests to discredit the movement. Certain tweets spread by bots demanded Jokowi be removed from his presidential position, as evidenced through an analysis reported by CNN Indonesia. Many activists would dispute the movement against Jokowi as they explained the student movement is based on fighting against the Criminal Code, and not against the Indonesian government. Despite this, naive students will still be quick to assume the two movements are synonymous. Indonesian students are right to accuse the Criminal Code as discriminatory and backwards, as they would reverse the progress many past activists have achieved. Young people wish to see their country move forward, and to achieve this a healthy cause of action is not enough to ignite change as it must be accompanied by healthy resistance. In resisting, students should not be confined to the walls of their classrooms, as this will allow older generations to run amok making decisions other members of society don’t agree with. There is

POLITICS AND SOCIETY\

PHOTOGRAPHED BY

vanni anastasya

â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have it in our power to begin the world over again.â&#x20AC;? - Thomas Paine

Q U O VA D I S S T U D E N T A C T I V I S M ? – T H E M I S S I N G R E S I S TA N C E WORDS HIRZI PUTRA LAKSANA ILLUSTRATION EVELYN HOMIN PHOTOGRAPH ALFAREZ WIRAWAN

A famous biblical story goes that the apostle Peter, fleeing crucifixion in Rome, meets the risen Jesus, to whom he asks, "Domine, quo vadis?" – "Lord, whither goest thou?" To this, it is said that Jesus replies, "Romam eo iterum crucifigi" – that he is going to Rome to be crucified again, inspiring Peter to return to Rome to preach, despite the impending repression he knew he would face at the hands of Nero. I myself am not a Christian. Nevertheless, the phrase "Quo vadis" to me is still useful as an exemplification of resistance. It incites a reflection on one’s courage, one’s bravery, in the midst of an escape from repression. A show of resistance against attempts to control and suppress what one’s morals convict him to do. When Peter asks, "whither goest thou", Jesus may just as well have replied, "to resist". In the modern era, one cannot possibly talk about resistance without talking about students. Particularly in Asia, the student movement has been lauded for its success in bringing about democracy and liberty to areas where norms of authority and control strike deep into the cultural hearts and minds of those who inhabit it. From the 1980 Gwangju uprising in South Korea to the fall of Suharto in 1998, not to mention Tiananmen Square and the Philippines’ 1986 People Power Revolution, students have played an immense role in bringing the sweeping tides of democratisation to their homelands. Yet if the spirit of a student activist from the early days of Asia’s democratisation had risen and taken a peek towards the state of the student movement today, their question may not be "Quo vadis", but rather "Quo vasisti" – "where hast thee gone?" There is no doubt that student activism still occupies a prominent position in Asia’s political landscape today. Hong Kong’s student protests

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against the extradition bill and student resistance towards revisions to Indonesia’s criminal code are a testament to this fact. But while it’s nice to think that the actions of students today have brought about wide and positive change, progress requires that we be more critical of our success and face the harsh reality that student activism today has yielded very limited results – that it is nowhere near as visible, effective, nor as widespread as it was in the days of our predecessors. This begs the question: what has happened to Asia’s once powerful and politically salient student movement? What explains the dismal state of student activism in Asia today? One possible answer to this is a change in the nature and structure of Asian society. Asia in the late twentieth century – at the height of the student movement – was marked by dictators abound. From Suharto and Marcos to Chun Doo Hwan, authoritarianism was clear and visible, manifest in the strongmen who ruled over their territories with an iron fist. The obviousness of this authoritarianism presented a clear target for resistance. The objective was clear: oust the dictators, enact free and fair elections. Yet authoritarianism today is far more complex, far less obvious and much more dubious as a target of resistance. The single strongman, symbolic of the entire authoritarian regime, has now been replaced with the illusion of democracy: yes, a democratically elected leader, but behind him a web of patronage, money-politics and behind-the-scenes transactions that occur in lieu of citizen participation. Asia no longer has authoritarian rulers, instead authoritarian elements in its laws and institutions which seek to control the minds, bodies and movements of its citizens. Student activism against authoritarianism is no longer as simple as resisting a single man, but

rather has become a fight to undo a web of corrupt institutions and embedded cultural practices. This, no doubt, presents a much more difficult challenge than what our predecessors had to face. Albeit ironically, democracy has also brought challenges to the efficacy of the student movement. Resistance in a democracy is an inherently comfortable process. Backdropped by severe restrictions to political participation, the authoritarian era saw street demonstrations and quasi-anarchism as the only ways in which one was able to show dissent. Although disruptive, one cannot deny that the discomforting and uncomfortable nature of this process evoked an atmosphere of gravitas surrounding the student movement. In contrast, the downfall of outward authoritarianism has meant that resistance now manifests through the comfort and stability of participatory democracy: elections, the free market, and both mainstream and social media. This expansion of participatory

rights is certainly a good thing. However, what has resulted is a subduction of students to more passive and mundane forms of resistance, thus presenting limits on the student movement’s ability to sway the hearts and minds of observers. It is not only the democratisation of political systems that has ironically depowered the student movement. The democratisation of higher education in Asia has also led to changes to the once politically salient image of the student activist. Around the world, university used to be a privilege, reserved only for the sons (and occasionally daughters) of the social and political elite. As such, there existed an ‘étudiant oblige’ – an unspoken understanding that students, being privileged in their access to higher education, have an obligation to become the voice of the powerless and spearhead their country towards development. This noble task of students was no doubt recognised by the public, whom often

\POLITICS AND SOCIETY

voice of the powerless and spearhead their country towards development. This noble task of students was no doubt recognised by the public, whom often encouraged the political activities of students as leaders of a young nation. Since this time, however, higher education has expanded to include not only the rich and elite but also the everyday person, with university enrolments growing by 21% since the 1970s. Mass participation has shed the student movement of its symbolic image as the noble intelligentsia. It has been depoliticised – stripped of its meaning, influence and status; reduced of its political role and bargaining power. The respect older citizens afforded towards students as a demographic no longer exists – at least not to the extent it did. An intelligent and salient image is absolutely crucial in attracting the empathy of observers towards student activists’ causes. Yet in this respect, the egalitarian effects of democratisation in Asia have again been ironically detrimental in continuing the noble image left behind by the student activists of yesteryear. Despite these challenges, students still constitute the most fertile of grounds for pro-democratic resistance to bloom, in an Asia where authoritarian ghosts have come to return. For example, students are naturally free of the family or business ties that suppress one’s ability to be truly critical of a government. Meanwhile, universities remain bastions of knowledge, constituting a concentrated body of young and motivated intellectuals, exposed to modern ideas and easy to mobilise towards an anti-authoritarian cause. Hence, the question to be asked is not "quo vadis", nor "quo vasisti", but rather "quo vades student activism?" – "whither art thee going?" It is upon us as Asian youth to learn from the lessons of our activist history and reflect on the future of how we, as students, can affect positive change in our societies through our resistance, and how to do so most effectively. For there is no doubt that an Asia with a strong student movement will be an Asia with a strong democracy.

/ ARTS, CULTURE & EDUCATION

WORDS SHUJAAT MIRZA ILLUSTRATION EREL MATITA

AMAZON The forest burns; The sound of its Crackling spleen As it breaks into The arboreal heart Like an arsonistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Well laid out trap, Is a piercing howl, Like a last gasp for breath As the flames spread Across the grid. Amazon opens itself to us, With trepidation perhaps; Its uncertain fate Waiting to be mapped. A geo-spatial sprawl Mercilessly cleared out By the indifferent state That doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t feel the need To equitably separate The bare necessities From unbridled greed.

KASHMIR What are we to you But crushed dirt Powdered earth That will soon Slip off your hands From the crevices Of your unwieldy grasp That you expand each day As our heavy hearts, Snuffed out by long Isolated nights Turn rebel, And all our lost days Come back to us To break the frozen Surface Like a seismal garden That grows in the gaps As defiance.

Just out of view of the photograph is what is known as "Garbage City". Situated in the Manshiyat Naser ward of Cairo, this slum quarter revolves around the collection and sorting of garbage, houses often lacking water and electricity. Despite these frankly inhuman living conditions, it is a thriving centre, with men, women and children sitting in piles of trash stacked as tall as several metres.

WORDS SHUJAAT MIRZA PHOTOGRAPH BORNA BOSNJAK

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