I feel dull. No longer am I the spearhead. Nothing but a stone pestle, perhaps…

ON an old wooden shelf, long eaten away by termites: two books. Both tell of ‘revolution.’  Anak-Anak Revolusi (Children of Revolution) by Budiman Sudjatmiko and A-Maze by Ma Thida, a doctor, a woman, a freedom fighter of Myanmar. There is something somber, also ironic, when we read them side by side today. Burma and Indonesia.

I met Ma