Karim goes global with SE Asia concerns

Karim goes global with SE Asia concerns

Emmy Fitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A quotation in Karim Raslan's book reads as follows: "How to
define Southeast Asia -- a region that has a plethora of diverse
faiths and cultures?"

Meet the writer then. Verbose and resourceful, Karim is a
typical warm and polite Asian, enshrining a passion and love for
the region above all.

The 38-year-old lawyer has been traveling not only physically
to many places but he has emotionally gone deep with his mind and
heart to visit diverse places and meet many people.

In his recently launched book, Journeys Through Southeast Asia
Ceritalah 2, a collection of his essays published in many leading
newspapers, Karim shows off his shrewdness in portraying social,
political and cultural phenomena.

The recent horrific Bali bombing did not only shake Karim, it
almost ripped his soul apart as the place was close to his heart.
His time has equally been divided between homes in Kuala Lumpur
and Ubud, Bali.

"The Balinese are wonderful people, basically because of their
high tolerance and acceptance of differences. I have met a lot of
people, and they all just amazed me," Karim said.

As a peace lover, he could not come to grip with such violence
against innocence and against a peaceful community.

"I am angry with the way extremists -- I don't know who they
are -- I am angry with the way they kill people. The fact is, all
they want to do is destroy, nothing is ever constructive."

"We don't know what's their agenda, what would they do about
Muslim and Non-Muslim relations, they just don't care because all
they want to do is to destroy the social fabric, create an
environment in which they can survive," Karim said angrily.

He continued by saying that the extremists also wanted to make
non-Muslim people lose their trust in Muslims. This had not only
been occurring in Indonesia, but he had observed a similar story
in Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and even Thailand.

First of all, Muslims should not panic and should strive to
make sure that other religious believers knew that what had
happened in Bali had nothing to do with Islam. This was something
very bad and inhuman. While to Karim, religion should be freed of
all prejudices. He remarked, "After what happened in Bali, I'm
still very optimistic that this country can contain the impact as
long as Ibu (President) Megawati (Sukarnoputri) is willing to sit
down together with key leaders," he said.

The President and other key leaders must come up with a strong
consensus for unity, and not pursue attempts to politicize the
events for their own purposes.

Indonesian activists should also accommodate changes in the
balance between national security and civil liberties. The
balance should move back to national security for a while, he
said.

"It's a sacrifice but it doesn't mean that it's the end of the
game," he stressed.

He further said that what was needed by countries in the
region was to unite their stances as, basically, the region's
nations were comprised of delicate social structures that were
prone to attempts to tear them apart.

"I've begun to realize that greater regional integration can't
take place unless and until we learn more about one another,"
Karim said as stated in the introduction to his new book.

Karim also wrote Ceritalah: Malaysia in Transition, which was
described by Nobel laureate Sir V.S. Naipul as "educated and
elegant."

The warm and congenial Karim is not the kind of person who
believes that a big bang changes everything. Karim points to his
country, Malaysia, and the gradual, constant evolution in the
ruling UMNO party, which he said had a lot of factions.

"Under Pak Mahathir (Mohamad), a process of negotiating every
policy takes place," he pointed out, referring to the Malaysia
prime minister and UMNO chairman.

In Malaysia, there is always continuity -- the transition has
been smooth because there is continuity, he said.

"Although if we look back, I've been very disappointed by the
way Malaysia handled the undocumented migrant workers from
Indonesia."

"The Malaysian government has the sovereign right to determine
who's living on the boundary and kick anyone out. But they should
have addressed Jakarta long before the policy was determined and
not suddenly enforce it on people who are in Malaysia just to
earn a living," he asserted.

Interviewing Karim was a pleasure as he would start talking
and simultaneously figuring out big pictures about politics and
social problems, and then often quickly move to something
entirely different, like artistic appreciation, for example.

In line with the belief that good writers are usually people
who are restless in nature, senior Indonesian writer Goenawan
Muhammad described him with a one-liner, "Deft. He's like a
restless searchlight."

Born in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, in 1963, Karim was brought up
in England where he went to Cambridge University.

His syndicated column, Writers Journal, is published in
various newspapers, including The Business Times Singapore, the
Sydney Morning Herald, Bangkok's The Nation, Malaysia's The Star,
The Philippines Inquirer, and Hong Kong's South China Morning
Post.