A Letter to a Friend Who Mocks Indonesia

Tempo

January 25, 2005

INDONESIA will never be born anew in one term, my brother. If you think a big change will occur in 100 days, this is what I have to say to you: a span of 100 days here is more akin to "1001 nights" or "seventh heaven:" a figure more rhetorical than mathematical. We cannot use it as a measuring tool. We can only use it as a trigger of imagination.

Yet don't equate the rhetorical with the flippant. Imagination is not just s

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