'Bule' and racism

On July 29, 1995 The Jakarta Post published two letters On racism (1) and (2).

Originally, Mr. Baskoro wrote a letter entitled Western view (June 22, 1995), which may, or may not, have been his title. I personally found this letter to be racially biased, xenophobic and a slur on the expat community. Evidently, so did Mr. Ross Gulliver, who replied to this letter in On racism (July 17, 1995).

I found Mr. Gulliver's letter to be well-balanced, thoughtful, and a pretty fair assessment of the problem. His comment that, "it is impossible for a foreigner to walk 100 meters in Jakarta without attracting some abusive racial comment" and "this is doubly true for mixed couples who are bombarded with insults wherever they go," to be especially on the mark.

Actually, Mr. Gulliver was being generous. Let's make that 50 meters, and 10 in crowded areas. As for mixed couples -- my wife is Indonesian and we have given up going out together in public areas.

Mrs. Reksodipoetro in her letter Racism (2), July 29, 1995, says that Mr. Gulliver must have some sort of problem. She says that she moved here in 1974 and has been married to an Indonesian for 18 years. She goes on to say that, "as a bule (as Indonesians refer to Westerners) I have walked around Jakarta for 21 years and have never attracted an abusive racial comment."

Obviously Mrs. Reksodipoetro has never heard words like: slope, frog, wop, whitey, dink, patty, pom, greaser, guinea, spic -- the list is endless. Perhaps the next time someone calls her bule, she should ask that person to explain the real meaning to her. Meanwhile, keep on walking Mrs. Reksodipoetro.

JIM SCHARF

Jakarta