Double standard in education

Double standard in education

This letter refers to Mr. de Kort's letter in The Jakarta Post
on Oct. 13, 1994.

Come on Mr. de Kort, you know better than that. Even if we
substitute "International" for "European" everything has changed
for the better in Indonesia. I appreciate your explanation of the
double system of education under Netherlands Indies rule, but
with one correction though: it smacked of favoritism.

I know of students with lower grades, who did not come up to
the standard qualities in oral examinations and yet were
accepted. They had one thing in their favor, the color of their
skin. This is a logical effect of the system: double standards.

The barring of Indonesian children from international schools
in Indonesia by our government, has educational considerations,
not political ones like in the colonial times. Children are free
to join schools anywhere in the world and obtain any knowledge
there is to be gained, if their parents can afford it. But could
our parents, with earnings of a few rupiah a day, afford that
then? It is possible now, but deliberately made impossible then.

Do you really not see the difference in categories? In those
times you refer to 98 percent of the population being illiterate.
Was it too big a project to make them at least able to read and
write, considering the amounts of revenues taken from this
country?

Hypothetically, what would have happened to this country if
there were thousands of more Sukarnos, Hattas and Sjahrirs? The
Dutch would have lost us ages ago. Heaven forbid. What
colonialism is all about anyway, is profit seeking (why is it
that Multatuli made the subtitle of his book: De Koffie veiling
van Amsterdam (The Coffee Auction in Amsterdam). There is a
common denominator between Amsterdam and Batavia and continued
interdependence.

I can accept positive criticism. We all have to learn and
adjust more to one another. No country is perfect.

The attitude of not being willing to accept what we have
achieved despite the rough colonial times, and of not willing to
admit what went wrong in the 350 years of Dutch occupation,
triggers my resentment. If, if only ... we could have been so
much better in understanding each other as well.

INA SUMARSONO

Jakarta