SOMETIMES people capture others with words; ensnare themselves with words. The history of modern Indonesian politics can be written as the history of capturing and ensnaring in words from one era to the next.

In the 1960s, under “guided democracy”, this capturing and ensnaring was, for instance, shaped in the word “counterrevolutionary” (kontra-revolusioner). When applied to a person, a group, or to an attitude, this word could make who