Fatal mistake in editing

I found that The Jakarta Post's editor made a fatal mistake in editing my article "Banning foreign scholars from entering the country undemocratic" (March 25, 1999).

The fifth paragraph of my article says: "The paper suggested a conspiracy involving the U.S. CIA." This is a fatal editing error and makes me really embarrassed, since the Cornell paper did not say anything about CIA involvement. The readers of my article simply think that I don't read or don't understand Ben Anderson's argument in A preliminary analysis of the October 1, 1965 coup in Indonesia (notoriously named "Cornell paper" by the Indonesian military).

I get the impression that the editor repeats the same mistake when reporting Ben Anderson's public lecture in Jakarta on March 4 (March 5, 1999: Indonesia needs to own up to past sins) saying: "The Cornell paper suggested a conspiracy involving the United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)." In addition, I did not mention any single word of "CIA" in my manuscript. It is really hard to imagine how the editor passed the word "CIA" in my article.

I do hope the editor won't make any fatal and embarrassing mistakes in the future.

BENNY SUBIANTO

Jakarta

Note: This is our mistake. Please accept our apologies.

-- Editor