When Rocky Gerung made fun of ‘Colonial Smell’ and discussed Megawati’s smile

Jakarta –

A political observer A rocky gerung Calling a building Dutch or colonial heritage does not always perpetuate colonialism. According to him, the idea of ​​colonialism is not related to the construction of heritage, but about actions and policies.

Rocky’s statement mentions the location of the book review event ‘The Redness of Bung Karno’s Teachings’ by Airlangga Pribadi at Multatuli Museum, Lebak, Banten. Rocky said that even though it is a colonial legacy, the Multituli Museum has a spirit of liberation.

“This colonial building smells strongly of colonialism but has a narrative of liberation, which is different from someone who smells of colonialism but produces a colonial narrative. avoid and command,” said Rocky in Lebak, Banten, Friday (16/8/2024).

According to Rocky, the founders of the Indonesian nation, such as Bung Karno, were steadfast in fighting against colonial terror. In terms of fear, Rocky recalled PDIP Chairperson Megawati Soekarnoputri’s smile, which was said to be more beautiful than the smile of the famous Mona Lisa.

According to Rocky, Megawati stayed strong and smiled even though she faced several threats from those in power. “I liked Monalisa’s smile. But as soon as I returned to Indonesia, I knew that there was a more beautiful smile than Monalisa, Megawati’s smile,” he said.

“Intimidated by power, Megawati laughs, Monalisa doesn’t necessarily laugh if intimidated by power. So we have the ability, the energy to make ideas come true, to return this country to a tradition of thought,” he said.

At the same time, historian and PDIP politician Bonnie Triyana recalled the policies of President Jokowi that had a colonial smell. That is related to the control of land for more than decades for the benefit of capital exploitation activities.

“The colonial government introduced the Agrarische Wet law which allowed the colonial government to control land for capital purposes, which could last for 70 years,” said Bonnie.

“Today there are people who are renting out HGU for 190 years. So it is worse than the colonial era, this is no longer the smell of colonialism, but the rot of colonial practices that repeat again, and the person who is doing it is President Jokowi, so we can say that he is responsible for the reproduction of colonialism today,” he said.

At the same time, the author of the book ‘The Redness of Bung Karno’s Teachings’, that is Airlangga Pribadi, recalled the importance of Bung Karno’s teachings, especially in terms of decolonization. He said that Indonesia’s declaration of independence and the 1955 Asia-Africa Conference (KAA) in Bandung inspired many countries in the world to be free from colonialism.

“Are we aware that our declaration was the first decolonization after the second world war, so among the Asian-African countries after the World War Indonesia was the one that declared independence , and then other countries such as Vietnam and India,” said Airlangga.

“Then we saw that in 1955, the KAA opened by Bung Karno brought an important awareness, not only to that but also to the Civil Rights movement in the United States and elsewhere,” he explained.

(Azh/Azh)