Can't Indonesians enjoy own country?

I had two weeks annual leave from my job and wanted to take my child away for one weekend. I had saved for this all year. I thought that this trip might also help the tourism trade in a small way. All of the advertisements in the paper were about great packages to encourage domestic travel. They favored Indonesians. This also gave me an opportunity to see a part of my country that I had never seen before.

I was therefore very surprised when I decided to take a trip for the weekend to Bintan, staying at the Bintan Resort Villa. There were no special packages for Indonesians. Not only were there no packages but all rates were in Singapore dollars with special rates for Singaporean residents. I had thought that Bintan was part of Indonesia.

When I tried to make a plane reservation to get there from Jakarta, I found that the quickest way was to fly to Singapore and take the ferry to Bintan. After some thought I realized that I would be charged twice for the "fiscal tax," once to Singapore and once returning from Singapore. I made numerous calls but there seemed to be no other way, I would have to pay the tax. The cost of this would have been four million rupiah.

If going from Jakarta one must first fly to Pulau Batam, then take a ferry to Pulau Bintan where the hotel would pick me up. Since I was traveling with my daughter, I could not leave till afternoon. If I left on the 2:30 p.m. flight, I would miss the last speed boat. The only way I could get to the resort was to rent a speed boat for Rp 600,000. I was therefore left with no other choice but to cancel this holiday. The price would have been too exorbitant. I could have gone to many other places for much less money.

It seems that Indonesia is no longer for the Indonesians. Is not our currency as good as Singapore dollars? Should we not be given the same opportunities as Singaporeans to visit one of our islands? I am aware that there are not hordes of people rushing to Bintan for a holiday. Even the Sigaporeans are not spending money at this time, that is why there are special packages. Why then wouldn't our government wants to encourage Indonesians to enjoy their own country? Have we reached a point in our growth where we are only interested in foreigners and their money and have no regard for our own people? Is this the price of our economic crisis?

MRS.DORCAS M. POLNAYA

Jakarta