Twenty years ago, Indonesia underwent tectonic shifts that paved the way for democratisation and reform. To this day, the 1998 Reformasi Movement is still fresh in my mind. For many Indonesians who lived through it, that year was a tumultuous period that brought despair and hope at the same time.
I was then an academic, and many of my students were involved in the movement and selflessly marched the streets to advocate for change. As much as I feared for their safety at that time, I could also relate to their struggle and ideals. They were courageous – a generation of brave souls who put their lives on the line for the greater good and carried a vision of how they see this nation should be.