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