Pieces of History in "Blockchain"

KOMPAS/SATRIO PANGARSO WISANGGENI

The front page of Kompas daily for the 1983 total solar eclipse edition, as an NFT asset, as seen on the OpenSea page on Monday (27/6/2022).

The collection of “non-fungible tokens” or NFT entitled "Indonesia in 57 Events" from the daily Kompas inspires various stories among collectors. Those who collect the digital assets get new stories from the past. Some collect the old stories so that they will not quickly disappear from memory.

Kompas NFT has also enlivened OpenSea, one of the marketplaces on the Ethereum blockchain network since its release on Tuesday (28/6/2022). Even so, the euphoria for this collection has begun since the day before. On Wednesday night (29/6/2022), 41 of the 57 Kompas NFT collections were bought by a number of users.

From dozens of collectors, there was Peter Cung (29) who collected the edition ”Jatuhnya Orde Baru” (The Fall of the New Order), which was published in 1998. He was also quite obsessed with the edition entitled, ”Pak Harto: Saya Ini Kapok Jadi Presiden” (Pak Harto: I’m Tired of Becoming President) on the front page.

Peter acknowledged that he had never been involved in the unrest during the New Order era in Jakarta. He was in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, at that time. However, his memory is imprinted with the events of the New Order because he inherited a number of VHS video-tape recordings from his father.

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The archived video tape, a duration of 31 minutes, contains a number of television-news episodes about various New Order events. Later, the recording was immortalized as NFT by Peter.

“I felt compelled to complete my archives regarding the 1998 incident. When I saw that Kompas had the files, I immediately targeted them. I just want to live up to my father's thinking all this time that the recording is as important as a family archive,” said Peter, who is also a producer for a number of NFT projects.

Not only Peter, but many other Kompas NFT collectors, also shared their stories on a number of social media. Hadi Ismanto (33) was also proud to have collected three NFTs from three Kompas editions: ”Emas Pertama RI di Olimpiade” (Indonesia's First Gold at the Olympics) in 1992, “Pemberedelan Media Massa” (The Closure of Mass Media) in 1994 and “Pemilu” (Election) in 2014.

KOMPAS/SATRIO PANGARSO WISANGGENI

A screenshot of Peter Cung's Twitter account on Monday (27/6), showing his success in getting the 1998 edition of NFT Kompas.

Initially, Hadi collected the edition of "Pemberedelan Media Massa" because of his closeness to the media industry. Hadi felt that the event was important. This edition also reminded him of the significant role of the mass media at that time when freedom of expression was severely restricted by the government.

"The impressive thing about the 1994 events is that some of the media that were later banned, such as Tempo and Detik, still exist until today. I think young people today should remember such an event and know its historical context,” said the man, a publisher and director of a lifestyle media in Jakarta.

Hadi also saw the importance of “Pemilu 2014” because that year marked the growing political participation of many Indonesians. His choice to get the edition of “Emas Pertama RI di Olimpiade” was also based on Hadi's admiration for Susy Susanti, a former national badminton player. He admired Susy because she is also Chinese, like him.

Pieces of history

For some collectors, the edition of “Indonesia in 57 Events” has become a kind of way to treat historical pieces. Randy Nugraha (40), for example, bought the edition ”Operasi Seroja ke Timor Timur” (Operation Seroja to East Timor) published in Kompas in 1975 because he considered it a milestone that had a big impact on Indonesia and the international community. The event was related to the plan to declare the independence of the Democratic Republic of East Timor at that time.

“In my opinion, Operation Seroja is a historical landmark in Indonesia, in which human rights cases [related to the operation] have not yet been resolved. The impact of the operation is still felt until today, even though the figures involved are still affected by these issues in practical politics,” said Randy, who is engaged in a digital-based startup.

Likewise, Diela Maharanie (39) and Prasajadi (39) respectively became collectors for the 1983 edition of “Kasus Marsinah” (The Marsinah Case) in the 2001 edition of "Lengsernya Gus Dur" (The Fall of Gusdur).

KOMPAS/SATRIO PANGARSO WISANGGENI

Diela Maharanie through her Twitter account on Tuesday (28/7/2022) showed the assets of the 1993 edition of NFT Kompas, regarding the Marsinah case..

In her tweet, Diela wrote: “Marsinah is a female hero who fought for the rights of workers killed by the authorities. Hopefully Kompas will continue to preach the truth.”

Diela, who was an accountant for an outsourcing company, witnessed how contract workers were often treated unfairly. Having the Marsinah edition is Diela's way of taking care of that piece of history.

“I saw for myself at that time that workers were often treated unfairly and their rights were abused. This collection reminds me again that the struggle for labor rights is still a big problem. Marsinah is a hero for that," said the woman who works on digital illustration.

For Diela, archiving on the blockchain is quite important in order to safeguard records of important events such as Marsinah's murder case.

"Because I don't believe in documentation in Indonesia. If it's put on the blockchain, it might be better," she said.

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Prasajadi also saw the edition of "Lengsernya Gus Dur" as a historical event with political nuances that he had experienced. At that time, Prasajadi was still in university. He recalled that the at the time, the effects of the monetary crisis still lingered, resulting in political chaos.

The creator of the NFT illustration entitled “Muke: UFO” said that 2001 was a year he would never forget. "The political map at that time seemed to be in chaos and heated, especially after the fall of Gus Dur," said Prasajadi.

Meanwhile, the founder of the Indonesian Historia Community, Asep Kambali, said that history was written by the winners, while the future was written by those who wanted to fight. Kompas’ initiative to launch news archives in the form of NFT, according to him, is a form of struggle to preserve the nation's memory so that it will stay alive in the memory of the younger generation.

“If you want to destroy a nation, destroy the youth's memory of history. In a new way like this, Kompas is helping to keep those memories alive for the younger generation. It can be said that what Kompas is doing now is also part of a milestone in Indonesia's history," said Asep.

This article was translated by Hendarsyah Tarmizi.