Jakarta!! Jakarta!!! & Soe Hok Gie

I am just back from my duty travel of 2 days' to Jakarta. Apart from attending meetings, I have resolved to 'merewang" at the "toko buku" - who knows I might find some interesting books to buy. True enough I managed to buy 3 books - one is a book on the thinking and ideology of Tan Malaka, a Partai Komunis Indonesia activist, another book is on the "no holds barred" interview with Pramoedya Ananta Toer,a prominent Indonesian writer who was banished by the "Pemerintah Orde Baru" (Soeharto regime)for almost three qurter of his life for being suspected as a communist and lastly a book entitled "Soe Hok Gie - Catatan Seorang Demostran". To be frank, I have never heard of Soe Hok Gie's name before. The only reason why I bought the book because of the word "demonstran"!!! I was telling myself this would be an interesting book and indeed it is very interesting and intriguing. I browsed through the internet and found below about the firebrand Soe Hok Gie: Soe Hok Gie was born on 17 December 1942 in Jakarta. He studied history at the Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Indonesia from 1962 to 1969. He was a prolific writer and started writing at the age of 15. "Catatan Seorang Demonstran" is a collection of his writing in his diary. During his varsity days, he was an activist and he was believed to play a role as university students in toppling the "Orde Lama" (Soekarnoe) in 1966 by forming "Angkatan Mahasiswa 66". He was an idealist and remained strong and steadfast in his fight against injustice to the extent of " ... (Soek Hok) Gie sangat kecewa dengan sikap teman-teman seangkatannya yang di era demonstrasi tahun 66 mengkritik dan mengutuk pihak pemerintah kemudian selepas mereka lulus berpihak ke sana dan lupa visi dan misi perjuangan angkatan Mahasiswa 66 ..." Soe Hock Gie also loved nature and hiked up the mountains in Indonesia with his close friends. This hobby "robbed" Indonesia of one of his "great son" as he died at the age of 26 at Gunung Semeru (Mahameru) due to "tercekik gas beracun kawah Mahameru". His life as illustrated in the book was translated into a film called "GIE" with Nicholas Saputra as Soe Hok Gie. I depart from this post with a quote from Soe Hock Gie: "Bagiku sendiri politik adalah balang yang paling kotor. Lumpur-lumpur yang kotor. Tetapi satu saat di mana kita tidak dapat menghindari diri lagi, maka terjunlah." He also on 22 January 1962 as if knowing that he would die at a young age quoted: " ... Seorang filsuf Yunani pernah berkata bahwa nasib terbaik adalah tidak dilahirkan, yang kedua dilahirkan tapi mati muda, dan tersial adalah umur tua." In agreeing to this, he wrote further "... Rasa-rasanya memang begitu. Bahagialah mereka yang mati muda" Plus his poem entitled "Hidup": "Terasa pendeknya hidup memandang sejarah Tapi terasa panjangnya karena derita Maut; tempat terakhir. Nikmat datangnya dan selalu dibeti salam." Till we meet again ....