Seno Gumira Ajidarma on compassion
Seno Gumira Ajidarma
Seno once said ‘when journalism is repressed, literature will speak up’. When an audience member asked him about this quote Seno commented that he was now bored with this topic (he’s spoken so much about it).
It’s not necessarily compassion that makes him write. It’s anger.
He thinks there is something dangerous about compassion because everyone has their own conception of it. The circumstances of the violence against Chinese-Indonesians in 1998 is an example of when compassion was used selectively. He says most people who took part in the communist cleansing in 1965 speak with pride about this period and says this ideology is still alive. There’s the military concept of peace, and the peace of conservatism. (I think some of his ideas have been lost in translation. He was speaking in English which is not his first language).
Wole Soyinka on Suka Duka « Literally Ubud replied:
[...] of compassion. The event was packed (see photo) and his fellow panelist was Indonesian writer Seno Gumira Ajidarma. (See post above for Seno’s response.) Suka Duka audience Wole Soyinka at the 2009 Ubud [...]
October 13, 2009 at 8:13 pm. Permalink.