The Usman Harun

Again, a political hiccup in South East Asia...this time between Indonesia and Singapore.

As we all have probably heard about it, Singapore has called the Indonesian government as being insensitive for naming its patrol ship KRI Usman Harun. Usman and Harun were both convicted for bombing the MacDonald House in Singapore during the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation in the 60s causing death to 3 Singaporeans and left 33 injured.

 As we all can probably recall, the grand idea between this confrontation is Indonesia's (particularly President Soekarno) accusation towards Malaysia for being the British puppet. The MacDonald House in the Orchard Road was back then served as a house for British, American and Australian company... the neo-colonialism boss. Now here comes the twist, KRI Usman Harun was British-made and yep we bought it from Britain. ( I feel obliged to giggle at the Indonesian government now..)

I wonder how do Usman and Harun feel if they witness this...

Aside from that story, what I wanted to tell was really how much I fall in love with International Relations class. Being an exchange student, I am being experimental by taking classes from other departments, economics and communication. Occassionally, I sit-in at other classes and this time I was in Singapore Foreign Policy in the Southeast Asia.

Completing my 5th semester I felt like I got bored with International Relations class for their ngawang-ngawang-ness. Well I guess, I wasn't bored at all. Instead, I was just too amused by its complexity and eventually got overwhelmed with it. During my 5 semester in HI UI, attending classes has been an inspiring experiences, especially when my lecturer started the narratives. Their story is always full of drama and emotion, making it very exciting to be heard. As for now, we witness another drama between this two neighbours (remember when PM Lee Kuan Yew did the tabur bunga in Usman Harun graveyards? totally dramatic! ) and just like a normal life, you quarrel the most with your closest one. So, I guess.. a "working" crisis management is really what the ASEAN needs.