Hmmm … 1998. I want to tell you what it was like in that year.
The year 1998 was “The Year of Living Dangerously, the Sequel”. The first movie was played by Mel Gibson. The sequel was lived by me (no, not really a movie). That year was when President Suharto stepped down. Before his stepping down, the city was in a mess. One day at the peak of the chaotic time, I went up to a higher floor in the Landmark Building (Central Jakarta) and saw far-away spots with black smoke rising in the four directions of the compass. It was chaotic everywhere.
At home, in my neighborhood, a few of our neighbors alerted us that there were people from Japos, an area in the south, who were going to attack us (Later, I realized that this was just an unfounded rumor). We were on the alert every night, and took turn in manning the post at the entrance of our complex. The supermarket near our complex, Tops, got ransacked and looted. At night, someone threw a molotov cocktail to it and burned part of the building. And rumor has it that they found dead bodies in the building. Until now, I never know if that rumor is true or not.
We even hired a soldier with an automatic rifle to watch over our neighborhood for a few days, just to make sure that things were under control before things got back to normal. It was about a month or two of wariness, and thank God we got through the bad time without any other bad incident in our neighborhood.
[ID] Gedung yang mana pembangunannya tidak diteruskan ini berada di seberang jalan dari Landmark Building, dekat dengan Jl. Jend. Sudirman, Jakarta. Mereka membangun pondasi berikut empat atau lima lantai, kemudian menghentikan pembangunannya. Developer gedung ini memulai membangun gedung ini ditahun 1997, sebelum krisis moneter menghantam Indonesia dan negara-negara di Asia Tenggara. Krisis moneter yang menyebabkan turunnya Presiden Soeharto di tahun 1998.
Hmmm … 1998. Saya ingin sedikit memberi gambaran mengenai tahun itu.
Tahun 1998 adalah “The Year of Living Dangerously, the Sequel”. Film pertama dimainkan oleh Mel Gibson. Sekuelnya saya alami sendiri (bukan film benaran). Tahun itu adalah tahun Presiden Soeharto mengundurkan diri. Sebelum ia mundur, kota ini menjadi sangat kacau. Suatu hari pada puncak kekacauan, saya naik ke lantai yang tinggi di Gedung Landmark (Jakarta Pusat) dan melihat tempat-tempat dengan asap hitam mengepul di 4 arah mata angin. Kekacauan ada di mana-mana.
Di lingkungan saya, dekat rumah, ada rumor bahwa ada orang-orang dari Japos, sebuah daerah di selatan, yang akan menyerang kita (ternyata tidak lama sesudah itu, saya sadar bahwa itu hanya rumor belaka, tidak punya dasar yang jelas). Kami waspada setiap malam, dan bergantian berjaga di pos yang masuk ke kompleks kita. Supermarket dekat kompleks kami, Tops, dijarah dan dirusak. Pada malam hari, seseorang melemparkan molotov koktail ke supermarket tsb yang membakar sebagian dari bangunan. Dan ada rumor bahwa ditemukan mayat didalam supermarket tsb.
Kami bahkan menyewa seorang tentara dengan senapan otomatis untuk mengawasi lingkungan kami selama beberapa hari, untuk memastikan segala sesuatu berada di bawah kontrol sebelum keadaan menjadi kembali normal. Saat itu sekitar satu atau dua bulan dengan kecemasan, dan alhamdullilah kami melalui waktu yang buruk tsb tanpa ada insiden buruk lainnya di lingkungan kami.
[EN] The luxurious apartment complex is situated in Setiabudi, Jakarta. It is very near to the Sudirman area (the business district). In front of the apartment, they have the Four Seasons Hotel. The last time I went to the hotel was to have breakfast with a client. The hotel is luxurious and seems very pleasant to stay in. The apartment must be of similar quality too. I wish I could live in such an apartment.
