Suharto: ‘Water will wear away the Stone’

Because we have to eat roots
while grain piles up in your storeroom...
Because we live crowded together
and you have more space than you need...
Therefore we are not on the same side.

Because we're all creased and crumpled
and you're immaculate...
Because we're crowded and stifled
and you lock the door...
Therefore we are suspicious of you.

Because we're abandoned in the street
and you own all the shelter...
Because we're caught in floods
while you have parties on pleasure craft...
Therefore we do not like you.

Because we are silenced
and you never shut up...
Because we are threatened
and you impose your will by force...

The shooting of students at Jakarta’s Trisakti university was one of the events leading to Suharto’s fall. The day after the shooting, leading political figures came to the Trisakti campus. So did the poet Rendra, who read a poem directed at the dictator. (English translation by Tom O’Lincoln.)

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