“Nationalism from the periphery” is a work that can be an essential proof of how the Acehnese youth showed their nationalism. It not only records the struggles of modernist figures, but also shows how the authors intelligently interpreted the events experienced by Aceh since the struggles of the PUSA, the New Order, after the Reformation, and after the Helsinki MoU. From this, it can be found how the author’s optimism in seeing an excellent opportunity for Aceh to determine its identity in the future.
This work is in the form of short essays with substantial meaning. This book shows that the author is an intellectual who has a methodological provision and meticulous, analytical skills. Written with high artistic taste, this work is a combination of intellectualism and art. Because it wrote in the form of essays, the writer does not direct his writing to an inevitable conclusion. Presumably, this is the most suitable way to read history, whether it is about an incident or relating to a particular character or person.
It is true what Muhammad Alkaf said in this book; history does have the right side when it ma a proclamation. In general, history is straightforward to understand chronologically. However, more important is how the discourse of the public does not seem forceful. History, which is a field of science, is full of dilemmas because it must be constructed in its entirety by relying on a trusted methodology. Thus, this work gives the most extensive possible space for the reader to interpret the history and the stories themselves.
Author: Muhammad Alkaf, Student of Doctoral Program of Political Islam-Political Science
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