Communism and dictatorship

Reading Hilde May's letter The true face of communism (The Jakarta Post, April 25, 2000), fed my growing sympathy for those living and dying under dictatorships.

Was it just me or did anyone else wonder upon reading "Wherever communism gained power, the countries virtually turned into jails. No communist country has ever experienced free elections, nor freedom of the press... Everyone's movements are controlled by the government," where the writer has been living these past thirty years?

In recent history there have been many dictatorships using the culture of terror, but none more recent than Indonesia. While Hilde May is sending Communism to hell, could Imperialism be sent too? The victims of such regimes would probably agree with me.

HENRY JONES

Yogyakarta