A muddled tale indeed

A muddled tale indeed

In his letter published in The Jakarta Post on March 29, 2000,
titled A muddled tale, Y. Santo claims I overlooked a few basic
facts. Rest assured I did not, and I surely do not need to watch
romanticized movies to realize the "Dutch" became filthy rich at
the expense of their colonies. But my point was that they were
not the only culprits in our colonial history. Muddling this
message with the religious context of that time will make that
message more difficult to grasp. But since Y. Santo mentioned
this context, I feel I should partially defend my ancestors
again.

The point I am making is that one cannot judge people without
some reference to their frame of mind! Judging from your name --
Y. Santo -- I assume you are a Catholic, which means you likely
pray to the Virgin Mary and other saints. Many Protestants --
Muslims too -- claim this is a heathen custom that should be
eradicated. In the unlikely event the Catholic Church has
disappeared in 300 years from now and every earthling prays
directly to God, can they blame you for praying to saints? Can we
actually blame anybody for their misinterpretation of any
religion?

Y. Santo should realize that spreading the gospel through word
and sword in those days was an accepted practice that would
surely reserve one's place in heaven. Similar dogmas are spread
today among the child-terrorists in the Middle East. Throughout
human history potentates abused their local religions to brutally
rule mankind in a similar manner. The greed for money and power
can thus not be solely attributed to the Dutch; the events in
Aceh, Maluku and East Timor prove Indonesians are just as capable
of it.

Again, I do not condone the actions of my ancestors; in fact
many fill me with a sense of shame! But I truly wonder if the
archipelago's atrocities would have been much different if they
-- and all other colonial powers -- had not been there! As to
determining who were the main culprits of that period, my
historical knowledge is just as insufficient as Chichi Marti's
and Y. Santo's. With this in mind, the "holier than thou"
blamestorms recently published in the Post have very little
foundation.

BART VAN ASSEN

Bogor, West Java