Dear Terrorist, Thank You..

I was in the mid of enjoying massage when my mom called and asked where I was. Her voice was shaking, a bit nervous. When I answered, she said firmly, “Be careful. There’s a blast. Be careful.”

Watching the news and read messages on my Whatsapp Groups Chat, grabbing the idea of what’s happening, I honestly felt a bit jittery.

I went to the bank afterwards (as planned) and sat for nearly an hour there, recalling one article I read on my lunch time several months ago. It’s about a girl – a journalist – who went undercover and had video calls with one of the terrorist leader. The story was so tense it made my long-awaited sushi felt unappetizing. The story reveals how close the terrorist might be on real life. They might be near me, they might be friend of a friend of a friend of mine on Facebook. They might be one of my followers’ follower on Twitter. They might be one of my closest one. They might read this post as per now – OMG! I remember I looked around and suddenly felt a bit unsafe.

I felt like I was alerted.

And then I read another article about the same terrorist group.

If you asked why I read many articles about them, it’s because their existence and activities are illogical to me. I keep wondering, how can people be so heartless? Didn’t they have a glance of guilt when they were about to kill people? They’re taking some innocents’ life! What did they feel when they did the killing? How do they brainwash people to join them?

The second article I read was about four (or five) mothers whose sons were out, move to be part of the terrorist group. I saw the before-after photos of their sons and felt rather shaken. They looked like they could be one of my friends. They look normal.

Then how could they decide to be part of THAT side? Leaving their beloved family behind.

It’s pretty illogical  to me. And that’s why they’re dangerous. They can make something illogical happens.

The terrorist gets into people without them knowing. And when their surrounding finally knew, it would have been a minute too late.

Back to Jakarta blast, many write about how we are not afraid of the terrorist and how failed the terror they had given us. I think, this attitude is risky. We become so full of ourselves that we might put the fence way too down. Some of us took a different way, responding with a humor. And sometimes, the humor is a bit too off-guard, I suppose. For the families of the victims, allow me, on behalf of Jakartan, to offer my apology for the humor raised by whoever that is that might hurt you. I am deeply sorry.

And as much as I believe Jakartan (and Indonesian) are strong; my mind wanders to the what-ifs. What if this blast is NOT going to be the last one? What if this blast is actually part of their big plan? What if they’re actually not failing?

None of us (I guess) know how they actually work. None of us know how they make the plan. None of us know what’s behind their plan. For goodness sake, none of us know their (goddamn) plan.

Indonesia, in general, is a peaceful country. I personally never thought my country would be the target of any terrorist. But it happened. And it shows how imprudent I (and us Indonesian) might have been.

In my opinion, it is very risky (and early) to say that the terrorist failed to put the terror on us that makes it fine if we become loose in paying attention to our surrounding.

We are not afraid, indeed, but being careful and alert is not wrong, nor hard to do.

Take what happened two days ago as a way to be on the qui vive.

Let’s stay alert yet remain calm. Remind each other of how important it is to remain as one. To be together. To be strong. To fight The Illogical. To hold our dearest ones closer. To smile more. To spread the love. To do better in humanity.

I believe, we’re gonna stay strong! And even stronger than before.

And you, Dear Terrorist, thank you for the alert you gave us two days ago. It makes us, Indonesian, hold hands together, tighter than ever, becoming more solid as one nation.

And thank you for restoring my trust on my own government. I would never have thought my President would come again to the site a day after the blast and personally asked how’s the trade going and command our Minister of Tourism to check several hotels near the affected area to see if there’s any big exodus of tourist getting out of Jakarta because of the blast.

Lastly, thank you for returning my trust on Indonesian Police Squad, gotta mention the oh-so-good-looking man in khaki pants and black polo who was so bad-ass two days ago. Thank you.

If hell does exist, may you rot in one. Amen.

Senyum dulu ah.. 🙂