Gaining freedom by refusing to answer the cries of 'wolf'

By Myra Sidharta

JAKARTA (JP): We were left wondering when we heard that Celia and her husband were not leaving the country during the campaign and the elections. After all, they had every reason to be scared and to run away.

On May 13 last year they were in their office on Jl. Thamrin, Central Jakarta, and could see the burning of the shop-houses elsewhere. They knew that her parents, who own a medicine shop in the Glodok area, closed the shop early because the mob was looting and burning everything around them. It was all the more frightening because they could see the smoke and the flames, but did not know exactly where the fires were. There was no news about rapes then, so they were not worried about their children, at home with their servants.

When their parents returned to their shop the next day, they found that it was, miraculously, still standing. "It was saved by the street vendors," said Celia with tears in her eyes. "They usually keep their merchandise in my parents' store after closing time and on that day they told the looters not to loot the shop because they would be victimized, too."

Celia has sent her children to school in Australia. Whenever there were rumors about possible violence, she went away, too, only to find that nothing happened. She felt she was running away every time there was a cry of "wolf", but they were all false alarms and she felt guilty for being a coward by leaving.

Yes, violence occurred, but not against Chinese-Indonesians. Other ethnic groups were the target, which was just as painful and sad. She felt guilty for spending so much money on going abroad when it could have been used to help the victims or malnourished children.

One day she could not stand it anymore.

"It was like living on a roller coaster," she said. "Sometimes, we felt like we were riding happily and even had the feeling of being on top of the world, but sometimes we became so scared that we wanted to get off and leave the whole thing behind.

"But then I realized that a roller coaster is a commercial invention. People have to pay to get scared and scream. While we are getting scared, someone else is getting rich! So I suspect that we are being exploited by groups or organizations who are getting rich by instilling fear in us. The more we show our fear, not by screaming, but by packing our luggage and running away, the more they enjoy it and the stronger the rumors circulate to make us even more scared!"

So this time, during the campaign, Celia decided to stay home. Not only that, she enjoyed a first-class view of the demonstrations around the Welcome Monument at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle.

"This is an important historical event. So many parties are taking part in the rallies that it looks more like a carnival than the usual rallies," she told me. "Some parties are really original with their shows. I could even see a complete Chinese lion dance performance and also a dragon dance, which I had never seen before, because it was banned during the 32 years of the New Order.

"The lion dance was so similar to the Barong dance in Bali, I wonder why it was banned for the Chinese and considered a tourist attraction in Bali?"

Although I could not answer her question, I told her that she would get to see it more often from now on. The biggest hope is that the losing parties will be able to accept defeat, and not go on a rampage when they lose the elections, like hooligans at a soccer game. After all, the results will affect the fate of more than 200 million people.

Whatever happens, Celia is ready and, if necessary, is willing to help.