"Where are you taking my sisters?"
"Do not worry, senorita. I will take good are of her."
"Trust me, dear... Your sister is in good hands."
"Why are you taking them from me?"
The two men turned, Malacca and Tawalisi in their arms, as they sauntered away. Nusantara watched, before her feet ran, and ran... After her baby sisters... As they boarded two different ships, and sailed away... As fast as how her tears trickled down her cheeks, and as fast as the rain that fell not long after that...
Please come back... Please come back...
Nusantara watched her friend slowly change. His dark skin that she had loved so much turned white, his beautiful warm brown eyes turning green behind his closed eyelids. Why was he changing? Her young, innocent eyes stared in confusion into something she didn't understand and yet something so painfully familiar; abandonment.
"Yolngu? Are you leaving me too?"
He remained silent, and Nusantara could only cry yet again.
Please come back... Please come back...
She is slowly pulled away, out of the room, into a world she did not recognize.
"What is this place?"
It looked familiar, and yet, she didn't know what this place was.
"This is home, Indie."
"Who is Indie?"
"You are Indie."
"I'm not Indie. My name is Nusantara."
"Not anymore."
Please come back... Please let me come back...
Nusantara grew up alone, under opression and pressure. Her days were spent out in the fields or in the mines. If she was a good girl, she would be given bread. If she was a bad girl, she would be given an empty plate.
Every morning, Netherlands would ask her, "Are you a good girl, or a bad girl today?"
And she would answer, "I will be good if you treat my land well. I will be bad if you treat my people badly."
It was the same everyday.
Let me come back...
Nusantara grew up a lonely girl. She was not allowed to laugh, or play like other children her age. She was not allowed to speak unless spoken to. She was becoming something she never wanted to be. She wanted to be free and do as she pleases. She wanted to have a friend.
Let me be heard...
On one faithful day, she was taken away from her prison of a home. It was the most amazing thrill she had felt in ages. She was taken to a home, somewhere in Batavia, where she was introduced to two men named Sukarno and Hatta. That was after people started calling her Indonesia. "We will set you free." They said. "We will help you become a nation."
"... A nation...?"
Please hear me...
Indonesia tugged hard at the hem of her new clothes. Her heart was beating hard against her chest, as if attempting to burst through her ribcage and run away from her impending fate. She was going to made into something... Something she didn't know she could be... Something she didn't even want to be. But... She wanted freedom, right?
"Everything has a price..." Indonesia took a deep breath. She would lose her free will... But she would have her freedom, right? And yet still, she was afraid.
"Indonesia Merdeka!"
The words rang in her head. Even long after everyone had gone. She covered her ears, hoping it would go away, and yet it never did. She took a shaky breath, and stepped on to the stage where Sukarno was standing on just a few moments ago. She gazed up at the flag pole, where a red and white was flag fluttering in the wind.
So... This was who she was now... This... Indonesia... Not Majapahit, not Kutai... Not Nusantara...
Indonesia. She was Indonesia.
Without her consent, her fate and name were decided for her. But she wasn't human. She didn't have a choice in anything. Everything was decided for her. And if it were the wrong decision, she suffered for them.
Indonesia watched as the skies turned gray, and soon rained.