Political kidnappings<\/p>\n
Mulyana W. Kusumah's article titled 'Stop political kidnappings'
\nin the May 12 edition of your newspaper provided a degree of
\nchilling insight into the ugly reality of political kidnappings
\nwhich now plague Indonesia.<\/p>\n
According to Mr. Mulyana, the Spanish have coined a special
\nword to describe politically inspired disappearances. The word,
\nhe writes, is decaparacido. This is incorrect. The correct word
\nis desaparecido, which is both the past participle of the verb
\ndesaparecer (in both Spanish and Portuguese for that matter) and
\nan adjective. As a verb, desaparecer just means \"to disappear,
\nvanish, go missing\". As an adjective, it also serves to refer to
\nmissing persons, hence the form that has gained no notoriety
\nunder the despicable military regimes of Chile and Argentina in
\nthe late 1970s and 1980s: los desaparecidos, or those reported or
\nfound missing. Desaparecido, therefore, can only qualify the
\ncondition of a missing person, and it cannot be the act of
\ndisappearance, which would be desaparicion in Spanish and
\ndesaparimento in Portuguese.<\/p>\n
Let us hope that the Indonesian people will never need to coin
\na word in their language to refer to that abominable practice.
\nHopefully, it will desaparecer for ever from this country in the
\nnear future.<\/p>\n
J. PAUL BRAIBANT<\/p>\n
Jakarta<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/political-kidnappings-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }