Recipes

Recipes

On my 25th birthday, my family gave me a notepad with recipes of dishes we enjoy in our family. My father contributed four recipes. The first is for fried rice as he made it when I was small, the other are “Three Menus of Political Prisoners”.They are “head...
Buru’s First Harvest

Buru’s First Harvest

Here is an artefact from Buru Island; my older brother Tedjabayu sent this to Mother. It is the “padi kemanten” (first harvest) from the island of Buru, Unit 1, Wanapura, in 1976. The commander of this unit was Sri Murtonoputro, First Lieutenant of the Military...

Breaking the Chains of Silence

Good afternoon, and good wishes to all.The esteemed Dr. Erwan Agus Purwanto, Dean of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences of Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta.The esteemed Dr. Hilmar Farid, Director General of Culture at the Ministry of Education and...
Coming out

Coming out

I remember the first time I “came out”. It was in 2003, I think, five years after Soeharto’s messy step-down. I was still keeping all my family’s 1965 secrets to myself.  It was a habit nailed down at birth, my only roots. That day, I had lunch with ten of my friends...

A piece of cloth

Sri Sunardi was the architect of the scouting grounds in Cibubur and was the holder of the highest honour of the World Organisation of the Scout Movement (WOSM). He was married to a leftist lecturer of the Pedagogy Department at Gajah Mada University in...
Grandfather’s Book

Grandfather’s Book

For a very long time, all I wanted was an ordinary family. This is the family I was born into and the one I received. It’s extraordinary.Today, my kids walked into a bookstore and found their grandfather’s book, which is also dedicated to them.They may...