-mumble talks-

Reading one of the first statements uttered by the newly appointed minister of finance aches me. I feel my chest tightening and my tears rolling. It’s 23.00 now and I can’t seem to just shake the feelings off. It seems so unfair that in this world, maybe specifically in this country for this context, so many people are suffering to make a living and this new Pak Menteri just claimed that the recent public demonstrations were because of people “merasa kurang”. What the actual fuck.

To this day, I am still haunted by this citizen journalism that covered everyday workers’ lunch. There was this picture of a wide-smiling young man with a quote “hari ini saya makan lauknya telur karena saya ulang tahun”. He genuinely looked so happy, but reading it broke my heart (it still does).

There were many instances where I read the stories of or interacted firsthand with hardworking yet vulnerable workers. Their stories vary, but they’re all struggling to have a decent and balanced quality of life.

I just… can’t comprehend how people can be sooo ignorant and even so vile towards their fellow human being. It truly aches me, mentally and physically.

It’s 23.20 now. My tears have dried and writing this has calmed me a bit. I have also read the full context of Pak Menteri’s statement and realized that it was a bad choice of words on his part, which was then blown out of proportion by many Instagram accounts. (From one of the online media that I forgot, the actual context was: “menurutnya, suara-suara ini merupakan representasi dari kelompok yang belum merasakan dampak positif dari kondisi ekonomi saat ini.”). Still, my concerns and my pain remain real and the same.

Anyway, I hope I can sleep now.