Sidelines – Thought pieces from Tempo Magazine (book review)

Title :-Sidelines – Thought pieces from Tempo Magazine

By :- Geonawan Mohamad

Published :- Hyland House, Australia (1994) Paperback (230 pages)

Outline;- Sidelines started its life as a column in the Indonesian weekly magazine Tempo in 1976 under the name Fokus Kita (Our Focus), and continued til its banning by Suharto in June 1994. Temo was the clear industry leader into investigating, thought provoking and professional journalism. Many of their articles drew attention to the gaps in the Suharto administration, and eventually lead stories that contributed to the bringing down Suharto from the “unquestioned respect” and national fever that surrounded Suharto. The 100 or so short articles in this book look at a much wider side of Indonesian life, including culture, arts and peoples stories.

Some short extracts;

• “A famous Russian said..…”art guards against the deadening effect of just crawling from one routine to the next. Routine, said Victor Shlovsky, crushes things, furniture, our wives, and our fear of war”.
• Why would a solar eclipse be considered dangerous or a gravestone be considered subversive ? The answer; because we are afraid. And censorship is an institutionalization of that fear.

A wonderful read, easy to put down for a bit and pick up again