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Letter to the editor: Response from Goenawan Mohamad
The nightmare of our totalitarian past is a formula that weighs on the minds of the present generation
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T
he nightmare of our totalitarian past is a formula that weighs on the minds of the present generation.
Julia Suryakusuma's piece 'From rape culture of 'Blurred Lines' to 'Defined Lines' of feminist assertiveness' (The Jakarta Post, Jan. 22) obviously fails to free itself from such a formula ' which is rather unusual for the author's innovative mind. She uses words like 'GM-camp', implying the presence of monoliths.
As far as I know, poets like Sitok Srengenge and his fellow writers may share some basic ideas, but none of them belong to a monolithic unit, a collective, or a 'camp'. Each is an individual, responsible for his or her own words and acts. Only a totalitarian or military mind assumes otherwise ' and applies the axiom of 'crime by association'.
And it is also the mark of a totalitarian and military mind to readily dismiss the principle of 'the presumption of innocence'. To generate productive discussions, the idea that 'who is not with us is against us' should never prevail.
Thank you for your kind attention.
Goenawan Mohamad
Poet and a curator of arts community
Komunitas Salihara, Jakarta.
