Ultraman

It all happened when I was 6 years old. I did not know what was going on but it seemed like people around me got panicked, especially my parents. In the middle of May 1998, my parents did not allow me to go to school and I was so happy to hear that! I could imagine myself staying at home, running and playing around with my neighbour. But it was far from my expectation. My parents kept telling me and my older brothers to stay in their bedroom and be quiet. The furthest place that we could go to was the bathroom, which is… inside their bedroom. I wondered why we could not go outside and the only thing that crossed my mind was... ‘The monster from Ultraman that I watched yesterday is coming to destroy my city. OH NO!’

There was one time when my parents came to the bedroom and were really angry at me because I was really noisy when I played with my brothers. I asked my parents why they were so angry and they only replied, 'Because you are a girl.' I was really confused and for me, they were just being mean. During that time, I had not seen my older sister for almost one week and every time I asked my parents where my sister was, they said that she was in a hospital. However, I will never forget the look in their teary eyes; terrified and exhausted. I could feel their fear and I was really sure that the monster started attacking some hospitals.

Today is already 10 years since May 1998 and most news on television has been talking about the Riot that happened during that time.  From that moment, I just knew that the May Riot in Indonesia happened due to economic and ethnic Chinese issues. Instead of using the term Tionghua, the term Cina is commonly used to insult Chinese Indonesians. Many victims from the May Riot were Chinese Indonesians; their houses and commercial buildings were burnt down and hundreds of Chinese Indonesians women experienced extreme sexual violence, which was done by Native Indonesians, also called pribumi.

Everything now makes perfect sense. Finally, I understand why my parents were so scared and did not allow me to make any noise at that time. Finally, I understand why my parents were so thrilled when my sister came back from hospital and arrived at home safely. Finally, I understand why my parents are upset every time they hear their children say Cina, instead of Tionghua. And finally, I understand that the monster from Ultraman actually did not attack my city. However, the real monster lives within society and I call it racism. That real monster could destroy people anytime and it will become bigger if people feed it with big portions of revenge and hatred.

I am not an expert, but I think…

The monster would die slowly if people start feeding it with massive portions of mercy.