Civilian militia

Lately, it seems to me that your editorial has obtained some Viagra to rejuvenate it. Good for you.

The last masterpiece was Animal Farm on Dec. 11. It is excellent. But, don't you think that you should add to it the scene when Napoleon makes the dogs stand on two legs and guard the pigs? One may recall the chapter in the novel when Napoleon engineered the dogs to go against the other animals on the farm. It rings a bell, doesn't it? The recently proposed civilian militia (Ratih) seems to closely resemble that idea of Napoleon.

To make things more bizarre, those civilians will be paid higher than the regional minimum wage standard. Some suggest a figure of about Rp 6 million a year, or Rp 500,000 a month; by the same government that pays many schoolteachers Rp 50,000 a month. It is indeed a bizarre, weird and ridiculous farm.

Perhaps the Big Brothers are fond of Orwell's works, and they try to recreate the scenes in our society with a higher level of absurdity.

We are nuts.

IWAN PRANOTO

Bandung, West Java