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.