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