Fay's vandalism
Well there we have it, your correspondent, Toni Hardi, (The Jakarta Post, May 17, 1994), tells us that the reason that Michael Fay vandalized cars in Singapore is that he was traumatized by global warming! Personally, I doubt the subject occupied his mind for micro seconds before he reached for his aerosol and sprayed paint over the vehicles that those, less rich than his father, had worked so hard for.
The truth is that Mr. Fay has it a lot easier than many of us did in our youth. Our fathers were off fighting a war: I never saw mine till I was five. There was little food, and less money. But none of us took out our deprivations on our fellow citizens. Of course, if you cast around enough, you can find problems in today's world that didn't exist in ours, but those such as drugs, excess alcohol and AIDS are largely self inflicted. They don't impinge on my life, or the lives of anybody I know. And I doubt very much that they do so on that of young Mr. Fay.
Mr. Hardi tells us that he would "love to see some parent/teen dialogs started here." I can't speak for America, but in Europe we already have them. We call this mindboggling innovative idea: "Talking to the kids!" If our children do good things, we praise them. If they do bad things, we explain the error of their ways. If they persist, we (dare I say the word) hit them. This doesn't traumatize the children: They know they are doing wrong. They give far more respect to a parent, who cares enough to correct them, than those who so are preoccupied with their work or their social life that they can't be bothered --until, as in the case of Michael Fay -- it's too late.
Judging from the fact that our violent crime is but a tiny fraction of America's, I suspect we are on the right track. I think it doubtful that Michael Fay will be tempted to return to crime in the future, and for that he can thank the Singaporean justice system. I congratulate them on it.
Americans should not believe that there is one law for them and another for the rest of the world. It is grossly hypocritical for them to condemn caning, while the majority of the United States still allows prisoners to be carried kicking and screaming to the electric chair, or the gas chamber, to be killed like aging dogs.
They should not believe either that everybody covets their idea of liberty. Freedom for what? To have drug pushers everywhere; to have no gun control; to be unable to walk in the park or go on the subway without fear; to need so many locks on your front door that it looks like the inside of the national gold depository. If that is freedom, Asia can well do without it!
JAMES DENNISON
Andorra, France
Poor coverage of Jackie's funeral
Perhaps it was due to a lack of space, as half a page had already been devoted to the entire world news in the Monday morning issue of The Jakarta Post.
But, I think it tends to reflect the prevailing anti-American sentiment that has been published regularly in the Post. However at the death of an honored and internationally loved individual such as Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, one would hope your paper could show a little more respect as opposed to referring to her only as "Onassis" twice in the article with no title. Yes, that was the last name of her last husband, but the last name alone without a title is how teenagers shout at each other on a playground.
It was rather cold-hearted as well not to include "Jackie", the name that the world affectionately knows her by. It would have been a refreshing change to recall an individual and not let our personal prejudices against a particular country, religion, or race get in the way, as seems so prevalent in the world and the Post recently.
The daily Bisnis Indonesia did a much more respectable tribute to this classy lady. Their article showed much more heart. It's too bad that the only English language paper did such a poor job, so that those whose Bahasa Indonesia is not very good could not enjoy and reflect on the light that a good soul can bring to us in this world in which we are surrounded by so much hate and competition.
Thank you Bisnis Indonesia for sharing the good of "Jackie."
MRS. MARY KRIS
Jakarta
Mandela and apartheid
Nelson Mandela has made it to the presidency of South Africa and like many people I can only say that justice has been done. What he or his fellow South Africans now proceed to make of this is another matter, highly fraught with risk, but nobody can say that he hasn't earned the right.
It is strange, however, to see which people are now claiming credit for the end of apartheid and the beginnings of a multi- racial system in South Africa. Take the British paper, The Daily Telegraph, long a supporter of apartheid regimes, which recently ran an article urging John Major to be seen to claim more kudos for the ending of white role. Pardon me, is this the same John Major who served under Margaret Thatcher, that long-time opponent of the anti-apartheid movement? The same Mrs. Thatcher who in March 1973, when she was secretary of state for education under Edward Heath hobnobbed with John Bathazas Vorster, apartheid prime minister, at the opening of the Sutherland Observatory in South Africa where she welcomed the "opportunity for co- operation." And that was in her pre-Thatcherite phase, so to speak.
The rest we know, of how when she was prime minister she worked long and hard lobbying against sanctions and promoting ties with Pretoria's white supremacists, of how she expedited with obscene haste the passport application of one little white girl, Zola Budd because she saw Olympic glory for Britain in the thumping of Zola's feet, of how down the long dark years of Nelson Mandela's incarceration -- and indeed of people like Walter Sisulu and many, many others -- she never turned a hair at their suffering ... need I go on?
It is a fact of life that fair-weather friends emerge from nowhere when the sun is on your shoulders. That is no reason to trust them and I hope that President Mandela will remember that those, such as the British Tories, who now try to snuggle up to him did nothing for him through the 27 years he spent in the apartheid Gulag.
DAVID JARDINE
Jakarta
Bogus reporters
From Neraca
We are doing business which deals with entertaining conferences, meetings held by companies. Recently a client held a press conference in a reputed hotel. The company invited 10 reporters of different media to the conference with the purpose that they would spread the latest information about the activities of the company.
Surprisingly, besides the 10 invited reporters, a number of people, who said that they were representing certain media, also came and asked for transportation allowances. They did ask us for the information material, but we noticed that they just dumped it into the dustbin.
When asked to prove that they were members of the Indonesian Journalists Association, they failed to produce the proper identification. Some of them defended themselves by saying that not all reporters are members of the organization.
In this context I would like to call for the attention of the Indonesian Journalists Association to advise us on how to deal with the so-called reporters. We were told by one hotel staffer that the same self-styled reporters are found to be lingering about in reputed hotels just to collect the transportation funds usually provided to journalists by press conference organizers.
HARRY GA
Jakarta
Thomas Cup and TVRI
From Suara Karya
The symbols of world badminton supremacy, the Thomas and Uber cups, were snatched by top Indonesian players in heroic matches at the Senayan indoor stadium last week.
Pride and rejoicing dawn in the hearts of the public, including me. But unfortunately most of the Indonesian people, especially those who live in remote areas, could not see the most important matches in this country, except for the semifinals and finals.
The problem was that the private television station ANTeve bought up the broadcasting rights for all of the matches. But it has less sophisticated (limited radius) broadcasting equipment than that of the state television station, TVRI, whose programs are accessible nationwide.
TVRI should have held the broadcasting rights for such important events because badminton is one of the most popular sports in this country.
Was it too expensive for TVRI to buy the broadcasting rights? What is the use of the television taxes we pay every month, if TVRI cannot air the programs favored by the people?
So far only TVRI has the widest and best broadcasting quality in this country. So, next time a truly special event like the Thomas and Uber championships occur, it should be covered by TVRI, which can reach ever so many more people.
DIDING SURYADI
Cilegon, West Java