In forgotten Arabic script, Indonesian artist rewrites Southeast Asia’s colonial past

DUBAI: When Dutch colonizers phased out Indonesia’s traditional Arabic-based writing system, they replaced it with Latin letters that served their administration. Centuries later, Indonesian artist Faisal Kamandobat is reviving that lost script to retell the colonial past. The Pegon Arabic script was widely used to write different languages across the Indonesian Archipelago from the era of the Banten Sultanate in the 15th century. It served Islamic religious scholarship, government and trade, li