Indonesia Quotes

Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions.

Indonesia adalah negeri budak. Budak di antara bangsa dan budak bagi bangsa-bangsa lain.

mencintaimu adalah bahagia & sedih; bahagia karna memilikimu dalam kalbu; sedih karena kita sering berpisah

This country, the Republic of Indonesia, does not belong to any group, nor to any religion, nor to any ethnic group, nor to any group with customs and traditions, but the property of all of us from Sabang to Merauke!

untuk negriku Indonesia yang dengan sedih aku cinta

I’d volunteer to go to prison, as long as there are books. Because with books I am free.

Kalau suatu negara seperti Amerika mau menguasai samudra dan dunia, dia mesti rebut Indonesia lebih dahulu buat sendi kekuasaan. (Pendahuluan - Melihat ke muka page 35-36)

Bebek berjalan berbondong-bondong, akan tetapi burung elang terbang sendirian.

Di sekolah, anak-anak belajar bahasa Indonesia, tetapi mereka tak pernah diajar berpidato, berdebat, menulis puisi tentang alam ataupun reportase tentang kehidupan. Mereka cuma disuruh menghafal : menghafal apa itu bunyi diftong, menghafal definisi tata bahasa, menghafal nama-nama penyair yang sajaknya tak pernah mereka baca.

Ia, Tan Malaka, orang pertama yang menulis konsep Republik Indonesia... Tapi hidupnya berakhir tragis di ujung senapan tentara republik yang didirikannya.

In sum, U.S. history is no more violent and oppressive than the history of England, Russia, Indonesia, or Burundi - but neither is it exceptionally less violent.

setiap pejuang bisa kalah dan terus-menerus kalah tanpa kemenangan, dan kekalahan itulah gurunya yang terlalu mahal dibayarnya. Tetapi biarpun kalah, selama seseorang itu bisa dinamai pejuang dia tidak akan menyerah. Bahasa Indonesia cukup kaya untuk membedakan kalah daripada menyerah (Prahara Budaya, h. 187)

Kami jelaskan apa sebenarnya tujuan kami. Kami katakan bahwa kami adalah manusia-manusia yang tidak percaya pada slogan. Patriotisme tidak mungkin tumbuh dari hipokrisi dan slogan-slogan. Seseorang hanya dapat mencintai sesuatu secara sehat kalau ia mengenal obyeknya. Dan mencintai tanah air Indonesia dapat ditumbuhkan dengan mengenal Indonesia bersama rakyatnya dari dekat. Pertumbuhan jiwa yang sehat dari pemuda harus berarti pula pertumbuhan fisik yang sehat. Karena itulah kami naik gunung.

I hate imperialism. I detest colonialism. And I fear the consequences of their last bitter struggle for life. We are determined, that our nation, and the world as a whole, shall not be the play thing of one small corner of the world

Saat memutuskan buat jatuh cinta, lo juga membuka kemungkinan cinta kelak akan berbalik nyakitin lo. - Good Fight

Kita butuh Islam ramah bukan Islam marah

Potonglah kaki tangan seseorang lalu masukkan di tempat 2 x 3 meter dan berilah kebebasan padanya. Inilah kemerdekaan pers di Indonesia.

sebab mencintai tanah air, nak, adalah merasa jadi bagian dari sebuah negeri, merasa terpaut dengan sebuah komunitas, merasa bahwa diri, identitas, nasib, terajut rapat, dengan sesuatu yang disebut Indonesia, atau Jepang, atau Amerika. Mencintai sebuah tanah air adalah merasakan, mungkin menyadari, bahwa tak ada negeri lain, tak ada bangsa lain, selain dari yang satu itu, yang bisa sebegitu rupa menggerakkan hati untuk hidup, bekerja dan terutama untuk mati..

Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, she became a butterfly.

The Jews are a peculiar people: Things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews. Other nations drive out thousands, even millions of people, and there is no refugee problem. Russia did it. Poland and Czechoslovakia did it. Turkey threw out a million Greeks and Algeria a million Frenchmen. Indonesia threw out heaven knows how many Chinese--and no one says a word about refugees. But in the case of Israel, the displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees. Everyone insists that Israel must take back every single Arab. Arnold Toynbee calls the displacement of the Arabs an atrocity greater than any committed by the Nazis. Other nations when victorious on the battlefield dictate peace terms. But when Israel is victorious it must sue for peace. Everyone expects the Jews to be the only real Christians in this world.

Mimpi saya yang terbesar, yang ingin saya laksanakan adalah, agar mahasiswa Indonesia berkembang menjadi “manusia-manusia yang biasa”. Menjadi pemuda-pemuda dan pemudi-pemudi yang bertingkah laku sebagai seorang manusia yang normal, sebagai seorang manusia yang tidak mengingkari eksistensi hidupnya sebagai seorang mahasiswa, sebagai seorang pemuda dan sebagai seorang manusia.

Di negara miskin saya itu, saya lebih banyak tersenyum. Tak terbeli dengan ribuan riyal. Lagi pula, semua kebusukan negara saya, Indonesia, ada di negara lain, kok. Tapi keindahan Indonesia belum tentu dimiliki negara lain

Saya masih berpendapat bahwa Multatuli besar jasanya kepada bangsa Indonesia, karena dialah yang menyadarkan bangsa Indonesia bahwa mereka dijajah. Sebelumnya, di bawah pengaruh Jawanisme, kebanyakan orang Indonesia bahkan tidak merasa bahwa mereka dijajah.

Merah putih masih merayap gelisah mencari Hatta dalam jiwa dua ratus juta kita.

One would assume that travelers to Bali, the heaven on earth, would cry for joy. But in reality, every traveler is grieving some loss or another.

Is the sunrise of Mount Fuji more beautiful from the one you see in the countryside a bit closer to home? Are the beaches of Indonesia really that much more serene than those we have in our own countries? The point I make is not to downplay the marvels of the world, but to highlight the notion of the human tendency in our failure to see the beauty in our daily lives when we take off the travel goggles when we are home. It is the preconceived notion of a place that creates the difference in perception of environments rather than the actual geological location.

I was not rescued by a prince; I was the administrator of my own rescue.

Tetapi kenang-kenangan demonstrasi akan tetap hidup. Dia adalah batu tapal daripada perjuangan mahasiswa Indonesia, batu tapal dalam revolusi Indonesia dan batu tapal dalam sejarah Indonesia. Karena yang dibelanya adalah keadilan dan kejujuran.

Indonesia adalah negara sedang berkembang yang terjerat begitu banyak utang, tetapi sekian persen di pucuk atas piramida penduduknya berbelanja tas dan sepatu Louis Vuitton di Paris.

Indonesia ini memang negeri yang unik, penuh dengan hal-hal yang seram serius, tetapi penuh dagelan dan badutan juga. Mengerikan tapi lucu, dilarang justru dicari dan amat laku, dianjurkan, disuruh tetapi malah diboikot, kalah tetapi justru menjadi amat populer dan menjadi pahlawan khalayak ramai, berjaya tetapi keok celaka, fanatik anti PKI tetapi berbuat persis PKI, terpeleset tetapi dicemburui, aman tertib tetapi kacau balau, ngawur tetapi justru disenangi, sungguh misterius tetapi gamblang bagi semua orang. Membuat orang yang sudah banyak makan garam seperti saya ini geleng-geleng kepala tetapi sekaligus kalbu hati cekikikan. Entahlah, saya tidak tahu. Gelap memprihatinkan tetapi mengandung harapan fajar menyingsing......(menyanyi) itulah Indonesia. Menulis kolooom selesai. ["Fenomena PRD dll,"].

Pemilihan umum memang perlu dilihat sebagai upacara merayakan tekad tapi juga kerendahan hati: "sebuah Indonesia yang lebih baik" selamanya akan jadi sebuah janji--tapi yang selamanya layak jadi ikhtiar.

Where do you come up with these zingers, Clint? Do you own some kind of joke factory in Indonesia where you've got eight-year-olds working ninety hours a week to deliver you that kind of top-quality witticism? There are boy bands with more original material.

Communism was born from a beautiful dream, the likes of which there will never be again on the face of this earth: that there would no longer be lazy men who eat their fill while others work hard and starve.

Orang Jawa sekarang sudah menjadi orang Indonesia yang kering!" - Jacques Cherer

Mendidik adalah tanggung jawab setiap orang terdidik. Berarti juga, anak-anak yang tidak terdidik di Republik ini adalah "dosa" setiap orang terdidik yang dimiliki di Republik ini. Anak-anak nusantara tidak berbeda. Mereka semua berpotensi. Mereka hanya dibedakan oleh keadaan.

Saya selalu percaya bahwa bangsa Indonesia punya dua cara untuk menjadikan Indonesia sesuai dengan yang diharapkan: 1. Menuntut perubahan dan 2. Menciptakan perubahan The land of Hope and Dream.... Indonesia :) Nasional.is.me

Bangsa Indonesia bangsa yang cepat nda ingat, walau Abraham Lincoln dan Bung Karno sudah mewanti-wanti jangan gampang lupa sejarah.

Bukan karena Republik sedang diancam keretakan teritorial. Lebih serius ketimbang pecahnya wilayah adalah Indonesia yang sedang kehilangan “komunitas

Orang gila tak perlu berpikir, sebab dia tahu tak ada gunanya.

Kamu bener-bener selalu ngedapetin apa yang kamu mau ya?" | "Nggak semuanya. Karena aku belum memiliki kamu lagi." - Good Fight

Manusia Indonesia tidak jera ditangkap sebagai koruptor, tetapi berpikir besok harus lebih matang strategi korupsinya. Mereka melakukan hal-hal melebihi saran setan dan ajaran iblis, pada saat yang sama bersikap melebihi Tuhan dan Nabi

Kamu harus cari banyak pengalaman, supaya sukses dan pintar. Bukan cari uang. Hanya kuli yang mencari uang. Tidak ada alasan untuk tidak bisa sukses dan pintar, kamu kan tidak tinggal di Eropa atau Amerika, yang orang pintar dan suksesnya banyak sekali, persaingan pun sangat ketat. Kamu tinggal di Indonesia yang jumlah orang bodohnya lebih banyak, jadi..sangat keterlaluan kalau kamu tidak bisa sukses.

Sebagai perempuan Indonesia yang lama tinggal di Jerman, mendiang Ibu Ainun merupakan inspirasi bagi saya, juga bagi banyak perempuan Indonesia di Eropa. Penampilannya sederhana namun sempurna. Mengurus rumah tangga sendiri, masak sendiri, mendorong suami berkarier, bahkan kadang menyopiri ke kantor, mengantar anak-anak sekolah, merawat ketika sakit, membesarkan mereka hingga mengantarkan mereka menjadi orang-orang sukses.

Dancing is surely the most basic and relevant of all forms of expression. Nothing else can so effectively give outward form to an inner experience. Poetry and music exist in time. Painting and architecture are a part of space. But only the dance lives at once in both space and time. In it the creator and the thing created, the artist and the expression, are one. Each participates completely in the other. There could be no better metaphor for an understanding of the mechanics of the cosmos.

Hanya ada satu negara yang pantas menjadi negaraku. Ia tumbuh dengan perbuatan dan perbuatan itu adalah perbuatanku.

Good times make bad policy. —Mohammad Sadli, economic adviser to Indonesia’s General Suharto2

Di Indonesia, kekuasaan diperlihatkan secara terang-terangan, tidak pandang bulu, terbuka, selalu segar dalam ingatan.

Sudah pernah seorang pengarang buku di Amerika meramalkan, bahwa kalau satu negara seperti Amerika mau menguasai samudra dan dunia, dia mesti rebut Indonesia lebih dahulu buat sendi kekuasaan.

Gue mengucapkan ‘I love you’ bukan supaya lo merasa terbebani untuk membalasnya. Gue mengucapkannya supaya lo selalu tahu isi hati gue sebenarnya.

Malam adalah ladang pembantaian abadi Jiwa-jiwa tandus yang digerus sepi Yang tak menyisakan apa-apa selain puisi

Agaknya orang Indonesia paling gampang sekali melibatkan Tuhan untuk hal-hal yang mestinya bisa diselesaikan oleh Pak RT.

Di Indonesia, lambang dengan mudah bisa jadi jimat, semangat bisa dengan gampang jadi takhayul.

Anak-anak muda jaman sekarang itu lucu dan agak susah dimengerti. Mereka cukup bersemangat membuat berbagai macam proposal untuk kegiatan organisasi yang mereka ikuti. Tapi proposal hidup yang berisi visi dan strateginya meraih mimpi, justru lupa mereka buat sendiri.

We try to abolish intervals by our manic insistence on keeping busy, on doing something. And as a result, all we succeed in doing is destroying all hope of tranquility. ... . You have to learn to immerse yourself in the silences between.

Aku menulis puisi: karena kesedihan tidak bisa menuliskan dirinya sendiri; karena petaka tidak bisa mengabarkan gaduhnya sendiri.

Virtually everything we were told in Indonesia turned out not to be true, sometimes almost immediately. The only exception to this was when we were told that something would happen immediately, in which case it turned out not to be true over an extended period of time.

It is interesting to note that an overwhelming majority of citizens in the world's three largest democracies have different religions: India (81 percent Hindu), the United States (76 percent Christian), and Indonesia (87 percent Muslim). Two of them have elected women as leaders of their government.

Di zaman milenial ini, satu-satunya yang paling patut untuk kita idolakan dan kita cintai, adalah beliau yang hidup tanpa Facebook, Instagram atau Twitter, namun memiliki 1,7 milyar followers. Beliau, adalah Nabi Muhammad SAW.

Nilai akhir dari proses pendidikan, sejatinya terrekapitulasi dari keberhasilannya menciptakan perubahan pada dirinya dan lingkungan. Itulah fungsi daripada pendidikan yang sesungguhnya.

seperti telah kubuktikan kepadamu, aku bisa membuat kesalahan seperti orang lain. Malah, karena aku -maafkan aku- agak lebih pintar daripada sebagian besar orang, kesalahanku cenderung lebih besar juga.

Sekarang, kekuatan sosial itu tidak hanya kekuatan politik

Siapa yang hidup dalam dunia pikiran, dapat melepaskan dirinya daripada gangguan hidup sehari-hari

I've often heard people say, “Your country is beautiful, a virtual paradise.” When will the people of Indonesia be as beautiful as their land, with a civilization and culture that contributes to the greater beauty of humankind and no longer smothers and strangles the mind?

Incompatible religious doctrines have balkanized our world into separate moral communities, and these divisions have become a continuous source of bloodshed. Indeed, religion is as much a living spring of violence today as it has been at any time in the past. The recent conflicts in Palestine (Jews vs. Muslims), the Balkans (Orthodox Serbians vs. Catholic Croatians; Orthodox Serbians vs. Bosnian and Albanian Muslims), Northern Ireland (Protestants vs. Catholics), Kashmir (Muslims vs. Hindus), Sudan (Muslims vs. Christians and animists), Nigeria (Muslims vs. Christians), Ethiopia and Eritrea (Muslims vs. Christians), Sri Lanka (Sinhalese Buddhists vs. Tamil Hindus), Indonesia (Muslims vs. Timorese Christians), Iran and Iraq (Shiite vs. Sunni Muslims), and the Caucasus (Orthodox Russians vs. Chechen Muslims; Muslim Azerbaijanis vs. Catholic and Orthodox Armenians) are merely a few cases in point. These are places where religion has been the explicit cause of literally millions of deaths in recent decades. Why is religion such a potent source of violence? There is no other sphere of discourse in which human beings so fully articulate their differences from one another, or cast these differences in terms of everlasting rewards and punishments. Religion is the one endeavor in which us–them thinking achieves a transcendent significance. If you really believe that calling God by the right name can spell the difference between eternal happiness and eternal suffering, then it becomes quite reasonable to treat heretics and unbelievers rather badly. The stakes of our religious differences are immeasurably higher than those born of mere tribalism, racism, or politics.

I want to explore the art of pleasure in Italy, the art of devotion in India and, in Indonesia, the art of balancing the two. It was only later, after admitting this dream, that I noticed the happy coincidence that all these countries begin with the letter I. A fairly auspicious sign, it seemed, on a voyage of self-discovery.

Don’t be an asshole. Just because you have one, it doesn’t mean it’s okay to act like it.

The only thing worse than losing hope is to be the reason someone else loses hope.

Kita tidak akan jatuh oleh hadangan gunung. Tetapi kerikil, justru yang paling kerap membuat kita jatuh terhuyung.

Dulu saya pikir Indonesia itu Jakarta. Pemahaman saya tentang Indonesia itu absurd.... Setelah saya keliling Indonesia, saya paham betul bahwa tidak mungkin Jakarta jadi tolok ukur untuk menggambarkan Indonesia karena sangat tidak mewakili Indonesia secara keseluruhan.

Senja melarutkanku di batas waktu Ketika ada dan tiada sejenak menyatu Ada yang beringsut menjauh Ada yang perlahan merengkuh Bayanganku mengais sisa terang Sebelum terkubur malam panjang

Kitalah planet yang hidup itu, Sophie! Kitalah kapal besar yang berlayar mengelilingi matahari yang membakar alam raya. Tapi kita masing-masing adalah juga sebuah kapal bermuatan gen-gen yang melayari kehidupan. Jika kita sudah membawa muatan ini dengan selamat ke pelabuhan berikut --berarti hidup kita tidak sia-sia.

Revolusi Indonesia, bukanlah Revolusi Nasional SEMATA-MATA, seperti diciptakan beberapa gelitir orang Indonesia, yang maksudnya cuma membela atau merebut kursi buat dirinya saja, dan bersiap sedia menyerahkan semua sumber pencaharian yang terpenting kepada SEMUANYA bangsa Asing, baik MUSUH atau sahabat. Revolusi Indonesia, mau tak mau terpaksa mengambil tindakan ekonomi dan sosial serentak dengan tindakan merebut dan membela kemerdekaan 100%. Revolusi kemerdekaan Indonesia tidak bisa diselesaikan dengan dibungkusi dengan revolusi-nasional saja. Perang kemerdekaan Indonesia harus DI-ISI dengan jaminan sosial dan ekonomi sekaligus.

Membaca sejarah adalah cara menemukan harapan. Harapanlah yang membuat kita rela dan berani melakukan kebajikan-kebajikan hari ini, walaupun buah kebajikan itu akan dipetik oleh mereka yang baru akan lahir esok hari.

Satu dari seribu, aku mau kamu

Mari kita beri tepuk tangan bagi mereka yang bekerja (dari dan) untuk hatinya.

Orang-orang besar tumbuh bersama keputusan-keputusan besar yang diambilnya. Bukan oleh kemudahan-kemudahan hidup yang didapatnya.

But the up-front reason is that he was reclaiming rightful Iraqi territory. Look, it happens all over the world. India took Goa, China took Tibet, Indonesia has taken East Timor. Argentina tried for the Falklands. Each time, the claim is retaking a chunk of rightful territory. It’s very popular with the home crowd, you know.

They don't believe in anything either. You and your like are trying to make a war with the help of people who just aren't interested." "They don't want communism." "They want enough rice," I said. "They don't want to be shot at. They want one day to be much the same as another. They don't want our white skins around telling them what they want." "If Indochina goes--" "I know that record. Siam goes. Malaya goes. Indonesia goes. What does 'go' mean? If I believed in your God and another life, I'd bet my future harp against your golden crown that in five hundred years there may be no New York or London, but they'll be growing paddy in these fields, they'll be carrying their produce to market on long poles, wearing their pointed hats. The small boys will be sitting on the buffaloes. I like the buffaloes, they don't like our smell, the smell of Europeans.

Demokrasi hanya berjalan kalau disertai rasa tanggung jawab. Tidak ada demokrasi tanpa tanggung jawab. Dan, demokrasi yang melewati batasnya dan meluap menjadi anarki akan menemui ajalnya dan digantikan sementara waktu oleh diktator.

In pursuit of counterrevolution and in the name of freedom, U.S. forces or U.S.-supported surrogate forces slaughtered 2,000,000 North Koreans in a three-year war; 3,000,000 Vietnamese; over 500,000 in aerial wars over Laos and Cambodia; over 1,500,000 in Angola; over 1,000,000 in Mozambique; over 500,000 in Afghanistan; 500,000 to 1,000,000 in Indonesia; 200,000 in East Timor; 100,000 in Nicaragua (combining the Somoza and Reagan eras); over 100,000 in Guatemala (plus an additional 40,000 disappeared); over 700,000 in Iraq;3 over 60,000 in El Salvador; 30,000 in the “dirty war” of Argentina (though the government admits to only 9,000); 35,000 in Taiwan, when the Kuomintang military arrived from China; 20,000 in Chile; and many thousands in Haiti, Panama, Grenada, Brazil, South Africa, Western Sahara, Zaire, Turkey, and dozens of other countries, in what amounts to a free-market world holocaust.

Hanya ada dua pilihan untuk memenangkan kehidupan: keberanian, atau keihlasan. Jika tidak berani, ikhlaslah menerimanya. Jika tidak ikhlas, beranilah mengubahnya.

Satu dari seribu, memang harus kamu

Demi persahabatan! Demi kebaikan hati! Demi sepuluh Galleon per helai rambut-!

Aku ingin jadi orang yang kamu ingat saat gembira,Bukan yang kamu hubungi saat sedang kesepian saja.

..Pamanku yang berjiwa lapang dan merupakan umat Nabi Muhammad yang amat pemurah, menyediakan kopi miskin dalam menu warungnya. Sesekali, secara diam-diam, pamanku menyuruh kami menambahkan gula untuk kopi miskin, karena ia tak sampai hati pada kaum yang papa itu. Namun aneh, pembeli melarat yang telah terbiasa dengan kopi miskin malah tak menyukai hal itu. Pelajaran moral nomor dua puluh dua: kemiskinan susah diberantas karena pelakunya senang menjadi miskin.

Yang tak berdarah mati. Yang kekurangan darah lemah. Hanya yang berlumuran darah saja perkasa. Ada adinda dengar? Perkasa! Dan hanya si lemah berkubang dalam air matanya sendiri. (Tumenggung Mandraka)

Tak ada yang lebih merugi Dari mereka yang kehilangan pagi Satu-satunya kesempatan menikmati Sajian Tuhan yang paling murni Sembari mengintipNya meracik Takdir kita hari ini

Apa peduli saya bagaimana tampangnya? Saya cukup cantik untuk kami berdua, menurut saya! Semua luka ini hanya menunjukkan bahwa suami saya pemberani!..

Kalau aku memarahimu, itu berarti aku mencintaimu. Aku melampiaskan marahku kepada orang-orang terdekat dan paling kusayangi. Ibaratnya merekalah papan peredam suaraku.

Diktator yang bergantung pada kewibawaan orang seorang tak lama umurnya. Sebab itu pula, sistem yang dilahirkan Soekarno tidak akan lebih panjang umurnya dari Soekarno sendiri. Umur manusia terbatas. Apabila Soekarno sudah tidak ada lagi, maka sistemnya akan roboh seperti rumah kartu.

Kita tak ingin selama-lamanya berada di bawah pemerintahan satu orang selama puluhan tahun, Laut. Hanya di negara diktatorial satu orang bisa memerintah begitu lama...seluruh Indonesia dianggap milik keluarga dan kroninya. Mungkin kita hanya nyamuk-nyamuk pengganggu bagi mereka. Kerikil dalam sepatu mereka. Tapi aku tahu satu hal: kita harus mengguncang mereka. Kita harus mengguncang masyarakat yang pasif, malas, dan putus asa agar mereka mau ikut memperbaiki negeri yang sungguh korup dan berantakan ini, yang sangat tidak menghargai kemanusiaan ini, Laut. Kinan

Jangan menilai perempuan dari fisiknya. Tapi hatinya. Jangan menilai laki-laki dari kekayaannya. Tapi jiwa dan dedikasinya. Karena perabot kehidupan (fisik, jabatan, atau pun kekayaan), sungguh bersifat sementara. Tapi hati dan jiwa, adalah yang kekal dan menentukan segalanya.

1. Bangladesh.... In 1971 ... Kissinger overrode all advice in order to support the Pakistani generals in both their civilian massacre policy in East Bengal and their armed attack on India from West Pakistan.... This led to a moral and political catastrophe the effects of which are still sorely felt. Kissinger’s undisclosed reason for the ‘tilt’ was the supposed but never materialised ‘brokerage’ offered by the dictator Yahya Khan in the course of secret diplomacy between Nixon and China.... Of the new state of Bangladesh, Kissinger remarked coldly that it was ‘a basket case’ before turning his unsolicited expertise elsewhere. 2. Chile.... Kissinger had direct personal knowledge of the CIA’s plan to kidnap and murder General René Schneider, the head of the Chilean Armed Forces ... who refused to countenance military intervention in politics. In his hatred for the Allende Government, Kissinger even outdid Richard Helms ... who warned him that a coup in such a stable democracy would be hard to procure. The murder of Schneider nonetheless went ahead, at Kissinger’s urging and with American financing, just between Allende’s election and his confirmation.... This was one of the relatively few times that Mr Kissinger (his success in getting people to call him ‘Doctor’ is greater than that of most PhDs) involved himself in the assassination of a single named individual rather than the slaughter of anonymous thousands. His jocular remark on this occasion—‘I don’t see why we have to let a country go Marxist just because its people are irresponsible’—suggests he may have been having the best of times.... 3. Cyprus.... Kissinger approved of the preparations by Greek Cypriot fascists for the murder of President Makarios, and sanctioned the coup which tried to extend the rule of the Athens junta (a favoured client of his) to the island. When despite great waste of life this coup failed in its objective, which was also Kissinger’s, of enforced partition, Kissinger promiscuously switched sides to support an even bloodier intervention by Turkey. Thomas Boyatt ... went to Kissinger in advance of the anti-Makarios putsch and warned him that it could lead to a civil war. ‘Spare me the civics lecture,’ replied Kissinger, who as you can readily see had an aphorism for all occasions. 4. Kurdistan. Having endorsed the covert policy of supporting a Kurdish revolt in northern Iraq between 1974 and 1975, with ‘deniable’ assistance also provided by Israel and the Shah of Iran, Kissinger made it plain to his subordinates that the Kurds were not to be allowed to win, but were to be employed for their nuisance value alone. They were not to be told that this was the case, but soon found out when the Shah and Saddam Hussein composed their differences, and American aid to Kurdistan was cut off. Hardened CIA hands went to Kissinger ... for an aid programme for the many thousands of Kurdish refugees who were thus abruptly created.... The apercu of the day was: ‘foreign policy should not he confused with missionary work.’ Saddam Hussein heartily concurred. 5. East Timor. The day after Kissinger left Djakarta in 1975, the Armed Forces of Indonesia employed American weapons to invade and subjugate the independent former Portuguese colony of East Timor. Isaacson gives a figure of 100,000 deaths resulting from the occupation, or one-seventh of the population, and there are good judges who put this estimate on the low side. Kissinger was furious when news of his own collusion was leaked, because as well as breaking international law the Indonesians were also violating an agreement with the United States.... Monroe Leigh ... pointed out this awkward latter fact. Kissinger snapped: ‘The Israelis when they go into Lebanon—when was the last time we protested that?’ A good question, even if it did not and does not lie especially well in his mouth. It goes on and on and on until one cannot eat enough to vomit enough.

Lenyapnya perikemanusiaan dalam kegalauan sosial yang busuk, berarti pula tipisnya kepribadian, bukan saja sebagai bangsa, tetapi juga sebagai individu. Dan bangsa atau nasion yang begitu mudah menanggalkan perikemanusiaan dengan sendirinya mudah pula tersasar dalam perkembangan sejarah.

Indonesia adalah sebuah republik yang didirikan oleh para pejuang kemerdekaan, cendekiawan, wartawan, dan aktivis politik yang sangat yakin bahwa kapitalisme adalah faktor utama di balik penindasan dan kekuasaan sistem kolonial. Mereka umumnya sangat nasionalis. Tokoh-tokoh yang paling menonjol di kalangan pejuang muda kemerdekaan ini, seperti Soekarno, Sutan Sjahrir, dan Tan Malaka, sangat dipengaruhi oleh berbagai gagasan kiri di Eropa pada tahun 1920-an dan 1930-an. Bahkan tokoh-tokoh yang paling terdidik secara profesional dalam ilmu ekonomi di antara mereka, sepert Mohammad Hatta atau Prof Sumitro Djojohadikusumo, pendiri fakultas Ekonomi UI, atau tokoh yang memiliki pengalaman praktis dalam dunia administrasi ekonomi, seperti Sjafruddin Prawiranegara, tidak terbebas dari pengaruh demikian.

He was his usual philosophic self and tried very hard to explain to me that although life was stained with agony, this was necessary. That scars only concealed, and finally helped to reveal, an essential peace. He said that what we, who pass so swiftly, experience as songs of love or cries of pain are only overtones to a single note in a very much larger harmony.

Iblis tidak berjarak dengan diri kita, dengan karakter budaya, politik dan pasar sejarah kita. Malah Tuhan yang jaraknya cenderung semakin menjauh dari kita, kecuali pas kita perlukan untuk memperoleh keuntungan atau mentopengi muka. Akan tetapi dalam kehidupan kita Iblis bukan fakta. Ia hanya simbol. Idiom. Icon. Hanya abstraksi untuk menuding “kambing hitam”. Atau Tuhan kita perlukan untuk kapitalisasi karier, bisnis pendidikan, usaha dagang sedekah dan industri zakat, kostum religi perbankan dan bermacam-macam lagi dusta liberal penyelenggaraan kapitalisme kita.

.... Dan semua itu berjalan dari detik ke detik, hari ke hari. Akhirnya orang jadi biasa juga dengan keadaannya. Dan mereka, yang tidak kena kerja paksa, tidur sehari-harian, atau berjalan-jalan mengedari pelataran dalam yang sempit itu, mengelamun, berangan-angan. Ya itu pun berjalan saja dan berjalan saja. Kadang-kadang orang tak sempat menginsyafi apa sesungguhnya yang telah dialami sehari-harian. Tapi dengan pasti hidupnya telah gompal sejam demi sejam. Kadang-kadang orang tidak sempat mengenangkan hari-depannya. Orang lebih suka memikirkan hal-hal yang dekat-dekat: makan, buang air, nyanyi, mengobrol tak berkeputusan, memaki-maki, atau mengaduh dengan tiada maksud. Atau-orang memikirkan sesuatu yang jauh, yang besar, yang takkan tercapai oleh tenaga dan tangan manusia-terutama sekali manusia yang dipenjarakan. Kemudian.. Kemudian semua berjalan saja. Berjalan saja. Berjalan saja. Juga umur manusia berjalan mendekati akhirnya. Juga balatentara kedua belah pihak berjalan mendekati keruntuhan atau kemenangannya. Dan tak ada tangan manusia yang kuasaa membatalkan proses itu ...

Thank you," he said. "Welcome. Welcome especially to Mr. Coyle Mathis and the other men and women of Forster Hollow who are going to be employed at this rather strikingly energy-inefficient plant. It's a long way from Forster Hollow, isn't it?" "So, yes, welcome," he said. "Welcome to the middle class! That's what I want to say. Although, quickly, before I go any further, I also want to say to Mr. Mathis here in the front row: I know you don't like me. And I don't like you. But, you know, back when you were refusing to have anything to do with us, I respected that. I didn't like it, but I had respect for your position. For your independence. You see, because I actually came from a place a little bit like Forster Hollow myself, before I joined the middle class. And, now you're middle-class, too, and I want to welcome you all, because it's a wonderful thing, our American middle class. It's the mainstay of economies all around the globe!" "And now that you've got these jobs at this body-armor plant," he continued, "You're going to be able to participate in those economies. You, too, can help denude every last scrap of native habitat in Asia, Africa, and South America! You, too, can buy six-foot-wide plasma TV screens that consume unbelievable amounts of energy, even when they're not turned on! But that's OK, because that's why we threw you out of your homes in the first places, so we could strip-mine your ancestral hills and feed the coal-fired generators that are the number-one cause of global warming and other excellent things like acid rain. It's a perfect world, isn't it? It's a perfect system, because as long as you've got your six-foot-wide plasma TV, and the electricity to run it, you don't have to think about any of the ugly consequences. You can watch Survivor: Indonesia till there's no more Indonesia!" "Just quickly, here," he continued, "because I want to keep my remarks brief. Just a few more remarks about this perfect world. I want to mention those big new eight-miles-per-gallon vehicles you're going to be able to buy and drive as much as you want, now that you've joined me as a member of the middle class. The reason this country needs so much body armor is that certain people in certain parts of the world don't want us stealing all their oil to run your vehicles. And so the more you drive your vehicles, the more secure your jobs at this body-armor plant are going to be! Isn't that perfect?" "Just a couple more things!" Walter cried, wresting the mike from its holder and dancing away with it. "I want to welcome you all to working for one of the most corrupt and savage corporations in the world! Do you hear me? LBI doesn't give a shit about your sons and daughters bleeding in Iraq, as long as they get their thousand-percent profit! I know this for a fact! I have the facts to prove it! That's part of the perfect middle-class world you're joining! Now that you're working for LBI, you can finally make enough money to keep your kids from joining the Army and dying in LBI's broken-down trucks and shoddy body armor!" The mike had gone dead, and Walter skittered backwards, away from the mob that was forming. "And MEANWHILE," he shouted, "WE ARE ADDING THIRTEEN MILLION HUMAN BEINGS TO THE POPULATION EVERY MONTH! THIRTEEN MILLION MORE PEOPLE TO KILL EACH OTHER IN COMPETITION OVER FINITE RESOURCES! AND WIPE OUT EVERY OTHER LIVING THING ALONG THE WAY! IT IS A PERFECT FUCKING WORLD AS LONG AS YOU DON'T COUNT EVERY OTHER SPECIES IN IT! WE ARE A CANCER ON THE PLANT! A CANCER ON THE PLANET!

The Oscar-nominated documentary The Act of Killing tells the story of the gangster leaders who carried out anti-communist purges in Indonesia in 1965 to usher in the regime of Suharto. The film’s hook, which makes it compelling and accessible, is that the filmmakers get Anwar —one of the death-squad leaders, who murdered around a thousand communists using a wire rope—and his acolytes to reenact the killings and events around them on film in a variety of genres of their choosing. In the film’s most memorable sequence, Anwar—who is old now and actually really likable, a bit like Nelson Mandela, all soft and wrinkly with nice, fuzzy gray hair—for the purposes of a scene plays the role of a victim in one of the murders that he in real life carried out. A little way into it, he gets a bit tearful and distressed and, when discussing it with the filmmaker on camera in the next scene, reveals that he found the scene upsetting. The offcamera director asks the poignant question, “What do you think your victims must’ve felt like?” and Anwar initially almost fails to see the connection. Eventually, when the bloody obvious correlation hits him, he thinks it unlikely that his victims were as upset as he was, because he was “really” upset. The director, pressing the film’s point home, says, “Yeah but it must’ve been worse for them, because we were just pretending; for them it was real.” Evidently at this point the reality of the cruelty he has inflicted hits Anwar, because when they return to the concrete garden where the executions had taken place years before, he, on camera, begins to violently gag. This makes incredible viewing, as this literally visceral ejection of his self and sickness at his previous actions is a vivid catharsis. He gagged at what he’d done. After watching the film, I thought—as did probably everyone who saw it—how can people carry out violent murders by the thousand without it ever occurring to them that it is causing suffering? Surely someone with piano wire round their neck, being asphyxiated, must give off some recognizable signs? Like going “ouch” or “stop” or having blood come out of their throats while twitching and spluttering into perpetual slumber? What it must be is that in order to carry out that kind of brutal murder, you have to disengage with the empathetic aspect of your nature and cultivate an idea of the victim as different, inferior, and subhuman. The only way to understand how such inhumane behavior could be unthinkingly conducted is to look for comparable examples from our own lives. Our attitude to homelessness is apposite here. It isn’t difficult to envisage a species like us, only slightly more evolved, being universally appalled by our acceptance of homelessness. “What? You had sufficient housing, it cost less money to house them, and you just ignored the problem?” They’d be as astonished by our indifference as we are by the disconnected cruelty of Anwar.