Arafat -- a respected leader

I wonder what kind of a world that K.B. Kale thinks he lives in. In his letter about Yasser Arafat's departure from this world (The Jakarta Post, Nov. 29), Kale stressed out that except for the nearest and dearest to Arafat, the rest of the world would be more likely to celebrate than mourn his passing. The world as in the eyes and mind of Kale does not seem to include the countries whose leaders paid their respects to Arafat and flew to Egypt, including Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

It is clear that in the opinion of a person such as Kale, what one should define as the world is those few countries that did express a kind of relief about Arafat's death. We all know which countries they are. It may be an arguable point to Kale, but to me a so-called superpower country and its allies do not constitute the entire world.

Kale also overlooked the Palestinian people, millions of them, who were heartbroken and emotional during Arafat's funeral in Ramallah. The event was often pictured on television and aired live on several TV stations. Who could have missed the images? I assume Kale did.

I would like to add that when President Susilo, a leader of more than 200 million people -- surely quite a significant part of the world -- took off immediately to Egypt to say his last goodbyes to Arafat, there was no palpable sense of relief here over his death. Susilo represented our country and many Indonesians do respect Arafat and mourn his death. Needless to say, I am proud that he went to the funeral because it is simply what a respectable national leader should do on the passing of another respectable national leader, no matter successful or unsuccessful they are (then again, "unsuccessful" is only Kale's opinion within his limited worldview).

IRMA FITRASARI Tangerang, Banten

Note: With this letter published, the case is closed

--Editor