A narrow-minded attitude

A narrow-minded attitude

Over eight million harrowed Chinese-Indonesians owe their
heartfelt gratitude to Mr. Andreas F. Limin of Medan (Aug. 3), a
simple ethnic Chinese who has articulately out-Englished an
English-educated academician and has outwitted this anti-Chinese
intellectual with a volley in a dry style, laconic civility and
with humility.

Also with a spirit of righteousness, Mr. Susanto (Aug. 3), Mr.
Rudy Gunawan (Aug. 1) and Mr. Rochili (Aug. 1), all of Jakarta,
have severely hit out at Mr. Masli Arman. Perhaps dozens others,
if not hundreds, have indignantly voiced their resentment against
this Australian trained engineer, whose chauvinistic perception
of the Chinese-Indonesian has grievously hurt his "adversaries".

It is worthy to note that Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir
Mohammad, who possesses a wider and farther vision than most
Indonesian leaders, has openly admitted that the Malaysian design
of assimilation has failed in toto for the simple reason that the
Chinese-Malaysians have inherited a culture of 5,000 years, which
is older than any in the world. So, "let nature take its course,"
conceded Dr. Mahathir in fairness.

If every indigenous Indonesian is part of "birds of a feather"
with this senior geologist, all Chinese-Indonesians will be
buried alive in a mass grave in a site he knows best.

Fortunately, I can take heart with truly learned academicians
in the person of Professor Sarlito Wirawan, a psychologist, dean
of the Faculty of Psychology at University of Indonesia, who
dared to openly criticize the New Order government's folly for
its Assimilation Policy, which has become the crux of antagonism
between races.

We must all be thankful to such humane people with
benevolence, including Father Sandyawan, Madam Ita Nadia and
countless others. They have intrepidly, undauntedly, and with
unbending courage, come to the aid of the helpless rape victims
of unprecedented barbarism. They are the reverse of dangerously
ignorant elements in our society.

Mr. Bart van Assen (Aug. 3), who joined the bandwagon in
denouncing this writer with his Dutch altruism, has come forward
heroically to fight injustice. He has landed a deadly blow to Mr.
Masli Arman's eye. But all Chinese must beware that the shame
sustained from a white man may drive a wounded boar to become a
vicious demon.

LIEM SIAN TIE

Jakarta