Europe should learn from RI

Europe should learn from RI

Confronted with the riots of the last weeks, France and other
countries in western Europe could perhaps learn a lot from
Indonesia. But first let's not forget that the multicultural
principles of Europe and those of Indonesia are fundamentally
different.

In the case of Indonesia, it is purely an Indonesian pan-
nationalism based on the unifying principles of Pancasila. This
means for instance that Indonesians of Chinese or Indo-
European descent -- in spite of their centuries-long presence in
Indonesia and contributions to its culture -- are effectively
considered alien elements.

Full rights as resident civilians are in fact also denied to
minorities who are pribumi (indigenous) but don't belong to the
mainstream recognized religions. This, it can be said, protects
the harmonic society from dissent and disintegration. Indonesia's
immigration policy is based on the principle that there should
be no immigration except in the very exceptional circumstances
when it benefits the state -- or the people that run it.

Foreigners cannot legally own land or houses, they can't send
their children to public schools, they don't have the right to
work or import elements of their culture that conflict with local
traditions, etc. In contrast, multiculturalism in western
Europe is based on the principles of human rights, which
guarantee freedom of faith, expression and -- at least in theory
-- freedom from discrimination.

The right of asylum is considered holy, regardless of the
attitudes of the asylum seekers toward their hosts and their own
acceptance of human rights. For instance, it is easy to give many
examples of people prosecuted for their radicalism in moderate
Islamic countries who have found refuge in Europe. Still, most
immigrants are simply motivated by their desire to have a better
life and immigrate legally or illegally for that reason.

For humanitarian reasons several western European governments
have legalized large groups of illegals on a couple of occasions.
Immigrants can easily become legal residents with full citizen
rights to own land, work, benefit from social security, get other
forms of state support, study, etc. Sometimes they even have
voting rights and can easily acquire their host country's
nationality while keeping their original nationality.

Immigrants are usually not required to demonstrate their
loyalty to their new home country either. Of course some people
have taken advantage of this whole situation. Nevertheless, when
some policymakers try to harden the rules and actively pursue
immigration law violators, the left-wing dominated press cries
foul and accuses them of xenophobia and racism. The riots in
France are sometimes attributed to angry young men whose
grandparents immigrated from North Africa and are rebelling
against real or perceived discrimination and injustice.

JESSICA LIEM
Ivry-sur-seine
France