Colonizers owe colonized

Colonizers owe colonized

I refer to the letter Colonizers that bad? (July 22).
Colonialism is definitely a bad dream for Indonesians. Mr. Budi
Setiawan must have read the same books I have.

These books recount the pains our people endured a long time
ago, about forced labor in Java introduced by the British and the
Dutch some 300 years ago. And they that tell stories of our women
being raped or forced to act as sexual playthings for the
Japanese.

Even so, there is a province in our country called East Timor
that was freed some 20 years ago after being colonized by the
Portuguese for 450 years. All the torture, rape, human rights
abuses done hundreds of years ago still have echoes in our
present life.

For example, my grandmother still gets scared if she meets
with a European because her father was beaten so badly by Dutch
soldiers he was never able to walk again.

Another example, 75 percent of the East Timorese were still
illiterate when the Portuguese left. Do we have to thank the
colonialists for the damage they did?

Maybe the colonizers have to thank us as their kings and
queens can live the way they are now, because they benefited from
our land and people for generations.

SILVIA GILL

Jakarta