Days before the fall of the Dictator

I was inside the cell of Jakarta Police Detention Centre when the students all over the universities in Indonesia staged daily demonstrations in April and May 1998. But May 12 1998 was different. From the visitors visiting criminal detainees (as a political detainee I was not allowed to be visited) and prison officers, we heard that some students were shot dead when having demonstration at the Trisakti University in Jakarta. On the night news on TV outside our cell I also heard the song "Gugur Bunga" sung. The song is usually sung when someone dies or passes away as a martyr and of a good value. Then there was silence from hundreds of the detainees inside the detention centre. Soon later, the silence broke and all the prisoner sang along the Gugur Bunga song, in solidarity with the victims at Trisakti University.

My fellow political detainee shouted at me, saying that we all will be freed soon. Not by the government, but by the students and people movements......