Reply to Goenawan Mohamad

Goenawan Mohamad, thank you for your note in Tempo's edition of October 7-13, 2013, responding to my column in a special edition of Tempo for September 30-October 6, 2013. My response to Goenawan's letter is as follows: Without wanting to repeat myself, it is better if I quote what I have already written, as published in the aforementioned column. Among other things, I wrote:

"The Republic of Indonesia was no longer independe