@pgandina (3)

by Aika Mentari · July 12, 2025

Merdeka Is a Verb: Nationalism in a Stroke of Ink

How do you celebrate independence? With a ceremony? With games? Or with a work of your own? This photograph from @pgandina shows the third way. The most personal, the most creative and, to us, the most beautiful.

On a sheet of warm brown paper, a national spirit is spelled out not in typed letters but in strokes of calligraphy full of feeling. This is not merely a greeting. It is an offering.

“Merdekaligrafina”: When Two Worlds Meet

Look at the magic word at the centre of the page: “Merdekaligrafina.” A word you will not find in any dictionary. A word born of a crossing between “Merdeka” — independence — and “Kaligrafi.” It is a brilliant creative act. A claim that art, that the beauty of writing, is part of independence itself.

Around it, a clever play on words: “Kerja Nyata” — real work — the spirit being sounded at the time, realised in brush strokes. Two small red-and-white flags painted by hand make the perfect full stop. This is not only patriotism. It is patriotism with style.

A Canvas for a Nation

This journal, which we saw earlier holding a poem called “Jarak Rindu,” has now become the canvas for a declaration of nationhood. It is the strongest evidence of what we believe: a journal is a space. A space for the most personal and the most fragile, and at the same time a space for the most communal and the loudest.

I feel like the brown paper itself becomes part of the message. Its grounded colour, which feels like the soil of a homeland, is the perfect backdrop for this celebration.

Patriotism does not always have to be in a speech. Sometimes it is spelled out in beautiful strokes of ink on honest paper.

Thank you, @pgandina, for showing us once again the strength of a blank page. You remind us that merdeka is a verb. And one of the most beautiful forms of real work is to create.

Have a big idea you want to declare? We will set the stage.