Expatriates
Expatriates
When I read the last edition of the Sunday Post on Feb. 15:
Expatriates set sail as economy sinks, I felt a strong urge to
comment on some of the rather shortsighted statements with
regards to the expatriates working in Indonesia, obviously with
no other purpose than of bleeding the country dry of its foreign
exchange.
When an expatriate is sent by his company to work in Indonesia
it is usually because this company is engaged in business in
Indonesia. That means, that they want to have a certain amount of
control and technical or commercial expertise to safeguard their
investment in the country. Yes, believe it or not, these
companies invest in Indonesia and not only for their benefit,
there a long list of people who benefit as well. There are
commissioners, local employees who have a job and a salary, which
supports their families and provides for food and education for
their children and often enough other relatives.
Expatriates rent houses, sometimes at quite horrendous prices
-- in US dollars by the way, they employ household help for whom
this provides a way out of poverty and so on and so forth.
Expatriates go to supermarkets, shops, restaurants, hotels,
they travel through the country etc., in one word, they spend
money that again maintains whole industries.
So to just say "good riddance" when more than 60 percent of
the expatriates have left the country is perhaps a bit hasty, to
say the least, as it will also involve a lot of Indonesians
losing their jobs and slipping on the social ladder again as
their government does not provide for them in a sufficient
manner.
Having also read Bill Guerin's letter on editing by the Post,
I can only confirm his findings as I, too, have had some recent
experiences where the printed end result bore no resemblance to
what I initially submitted for printing, which made me feel like
an idiot, especially as people who know me, could not know that I
actually did not contribute the rubbish finally printed in my
name.
Written complaints and requests for printing the correct
version only resulted in some hardly understandable explanations
on my answering machine, which did not help me much with the
damage done already.
ROLAND WOEHRLE
Jakarta