A symbolic new look

I was amazed to see the new look of The Jakarta Post, which I understand will appear from now on, starting from Oct. 1, 2001.

The editors and staff must have had special reasons for choosing the symbolic date in the Indonesian political calendar for the new facelift.

What is specially meaningful and encouraging to me in appraising the new look of the Post is that the constructive spirit of dynamism, as prevails in the press world, is not the monopoly of newspapers in Japan. Such a spirit turns out to exist also in Indonesia, as witnessed by the new look of the Post.

In Japan, the English-language daily Mainichi suddenly changed into The Mainichi Daily News in the 1950s. The name of the daily suddenly appeared in a different new print. The Nippon Times of wartime Japan began to bear the new name The Japan Times at the end of the "Greater East Asia War", the Japanese version of the Pacific War.

In response to the sympathetic passage in the editorial titled A new face, inviting comments and suggestions from readers, I am rather curious as to how the Sunday edition of the Post will show up in its new look. Will the distinctive columns like People, Life, Arts, Sports, Travel, Entertainment, Images, Cook's Corner, carrying instructive and thought-provoking features, be continued and improved?

Features that are cherished with great expectations, and excitement, among the intellectual or educated class are, for instance, a sequence of glimpses of classrooms with pupils in elementary schools in outer regions like Biak, Ambon, Sumbawa, Lombok, Bali, etc. For that matter, similar features may be run on elementary schools in Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi.

Could such features be given the chance to appear in, for instance, the Images column of the Sunday edition? It is important to note that the conditions of the classrooms in elementary schools will reflect on the quality and the state of mind of the local leaders, whether they belong to the class of politicians or that of bureaucrats.

In conclusion, I wish to commend the considerateness of the editors and staff in opting for a larger type of print, making English reading easier for the younger generations now studying in high schools and universities. The future of Indonesia lies in their hands.

S. SUHAEDI

Jakarta