The Spice Garden: A proxy clash of civilizations

The Spice Garden: A proxy clash of civilizations

Rich Simons, Contributor, Jakarta

The Spice Garden Michael Vatikiotis, Equinox Publishing, Jakarta, 2003
253 pp

Not too long ago (about four years, to be exact) and not too far
away, there was an idyllic tropical isle called Noli, where the
gentle fisher folk lived in almost perfect harmony and peace,
with nature and themselves.

They were Nolians before anything else, even though they were
also nominally followers of a pair of giant world religions (a
legacy of the spice trade which began some 400 years ago
involving European and Arab traders).

They were Nolians before they became part of the giant
Republic, which had sent one slothful, bored police officer from
the main island. However, through machinations, scheming and
deceit, wicked men from the main island managed to tap into the
animal instincts that lie within the soul of every man to
generate some of the wildest, most bizarre and sadistic mayhem
ever seen on earth.

Neighbors began hacking the heads off people they lived next
door to for years. Boys who grew up together, played with each
other and battled together on the high seas to bring in a load of
Nolian tuna were suddenly swept into a bloodthirsty frenzy of
murderous rage against each other.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the story you're about to hear is true.
Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent." That
was the opening line from the hit U.S TV show Dragnet, but it
could easily be adapted for this chillingly accurate piece of
historical fiction by Michael Vatikiotis, who has been a writer
in Southeast Asia for 20 years.

For the story of Noli and its people, the opening could go
something like this: "The story you are about to experience is
true, the names have been changed to protect the innocent ... and
perhaps to prevent a major upheaval against the state
institutions that perpetrated this mayhem in pursuit of dubious
ideological goals."

Many readers may have heard the news of this tragedy via the
BBC, newspapers or the Internet, but rarely if ever in those news
soundbites or articles, which talked about death tolls and fresh
clashes, is one painfully aware of the very real personal, human
tragedy that took place on the ground.

This story is in-depth, with well-constructed, true-to-life
characters: villains, duped pious fanatics, heroes and tragic
victims.

Throughout the story, there are the antagonistic forces of
the two major world religions in open war, religion versus
traditional forms of communal harmony, the perfection of nature
against the imperfection of humankind, the state apparatus versus
the people, but most of all the men and women striving to be
civilized and good as they battle the barbarian that lies dormant
within us all.

It is by no means all tragedy and grief, however. There is the
underlying theme of a passionate romance between a young boy and
an exquisitely beautiful girl, from either side of the religious
divide, bringing to mind Maria and Tony of West Side Story or
Romeo and Juliet.

Their undying love for each other survives and eventually
becomes the catalyst for renewal on Noli, defeating the forces of
evil.

The reader comes away breathless, but with a profound
understanding of the events that caused so much pain that the
world hardly knew about, and also enriched by the power of love
and goodness that eventually wins out over barbarism.