Antara Darah dan Hati: Dream Reality English Translation

Chapter 18 Part 4 "Demonstration Demanding Our Comrades To Be Freed"

*Play the song above for the theme of this part

"And if I do what you demand (You say)
You'll let me understand (You say)
You're gonna hold me to your word
And if I sell myself away (You say)
I'll have no debt to pay (You say)
I'm gonna get what I deserve

Your word, obey
My debt repaid
Our trust betrayed
All for nothing, all for nothing"
-
"All For Nothing" by Linkin Park

POV Muhamed

Karim's house, finally I came back after days being away from here without giving any news to my uncle and aunt which made them very worried about me. I apologized to both of them for only reading the WA messages that they've sent to me and I did not reply to them by saying that I was very busy doing group assignments.

The two of them were so mad at me because they were afraid of losing me. My aunt hugged me so tightly and cried. Karim's parents are not my parents but even though I am just their nephew, they are very nice to me while I am here and treat me like their own child. They are very grateful to know that I am fine, well, considering that Karim himself is not well I understand why.

After apologizing, I went to Karim's room. When I entered, the silence that filled the whole room made me uncomfortable because this is not my room. Maybe this room's feeling is the same as mine, it missed the presence of its master who was imprisoned. When Karim was not yet imprisoned, every night before going to bed, this room was usually filled with jokes and laughter. So this is what it feels like to lose a brother? I wonder what brother Lodewijk did to get rid of his sadness and had to let his brother go forever.

I know Karim is still alive but I can't do anything anymore to fight for his freedom other than to join the demonstration which will be held tomorrow to demand the release of the students and other demonstrators who are still in prison because being arbitrarily arrested by the police at the previous demonstration. I don't know if tomorrow the students from my campus are also demanding Karim to be released or not I don't know but I have to come because that's all I can do.

When the next day arrives, after studying in the early morning to catch up on the lesson material that I missed, I went to campus, studied in various classes until it ends at noon and after I did the noon prayer I went to the demonstration gathering point with the students who wants to join today's demonstration.

We did the demonstration in front of the Volksraad building again which according to the informations that are circulating from the demonstrators who were already at the location. The security system that they put was tighter than the previous demonstration because in addition to the Schutterij  troop barricade, they also used water canon tank and put up barbed wire, among the policemen on guard. there are several police personnels stationed using rifles. Is that a rubber bullet rifle or a sharp metal bullet rifle? I don't know but if things went wrong I have to help saving my friends as many as I can.

According to the informations that are circulating on social media, today's demonstration is leaderless resistance following the tactics of demonstrations in Hong Kong. All those who demonstrate are required to wear ordinary clothes to symbolize that we are representing the will of the ordinary people, they are also asked to wear safety google to protect their eyes from the pain of tear gas and for those who can afford to wear tactical gas mask capable of filtering the effects of tear gas smoke are being asked to wear that. We are also being told to carry a laser pointer to be directed at the eyes of the security forces to blind their eyes for a moment and carry one of these three objects, an umbrella, a badminton or tennis racket.