I used to be screwed by time, crossing place after place in a hurry. The only thing that made an impression was that after this building I had to turn left, or right to reach my destination. Nothing else crossed my mind. But now, I always slow down my pace. Just to feel and imagine the stories of the past.
Well, hi peeps! Welcome.
Like
other big cities, Bandung has many mediums to collect those who have interests
in various fields. Several communities were established and proved able to
bring together people from various circles of life who have the same interests.
It is good because we can increase our relations, and also learn a lot about
small things, which we may not have been aware of so far. At least that's how I
felt when I joined some of the communities that I was interested in.
Aleut,
taken from the Sundanese word which means to go hand in hand. It is a
history-loving community that has a routine agenda every week walking through
the places and discussing the past stories of that place.
Okay,
after registering myself the day before, that Sunday I went to meet at the
gathering point. Bandung Square. After all the participants had gathered, each
of them introduced themselves. It happened because every meeting there would be
some new people who joined and interested in the place that will be visited.
08.30,
we started to walk, step by step from the square. While walking, the tour guide
continued to tell us about APRA (Armed Forces of the Queen of Justice).
Equipped with a general story about how APRA was formed, who were the people
inside, and what they would do. One name that has a huge role in aleut that
time was Raymond Westerling. A troop commander who was greatly feared for his
prowess in strategizing and crippling his opponents.
At
the next stop point, we were told about the next incident that happened at the
location. West Java Bank Building (BJB). How did Westerling establish
relationships with company officials for his business. Many things that I
didn’t know before when the narrator told the history.
The
climax, we followed the Lembong street and stopped at the Siliwangi
Mandalawangsit museum. There, the narrator told us that there was a very tragic
story in the past, where along the street were scattered the bodies of victims
of Westerling and his army brutality. Any natives encountered along the way
will be killed, until the headquarters of the Siliwangi division was controlled
by Westerling. Unfortunately, at the wrong time, Lieutenant Colonel Lembong and
his aides entered the area, without knowing what had happened. Both were
immediately bombarded by bullets until they fell. As a form of respect for him,
the name Lembong is used as the name of the street where the tragedy took
place. And the Siliwangi Mandalawangsit museum is the building where he was
killed at that time.
In
the midst of hectic of Bandung traffic at this time, there are some bad
memories. That's just in one location, surely there are many more locations
that keep the dark history of Bandung in the past. As a result, I am more
sensitive to every street that is traversed, moreover, now, every time I pass
through several places that I know of its history, emotional feelings always
arise within me.***
