Flores and Iraq

Flores and Iraq

Two humanitarian tragedies are taking place in two different
places in the world. One is in Iraq in the Middle East, which
has been in war with the US, and the other is in Flores in
southern Indonesia, which has been hit by a typhoon. There have
been casualties in both tragedies.

But how big is the Flores tragedy to us, Indonesians?

It has been three days (since the typhoon hit Flores), but
people only know about it from the newspapers. Without the
press, we must have overlooked the tragedy as it took place in
our backyard.

We do not expect (Indonesian) President Megawati Soekarnoputri
to make a statement that the Flores tragedy is the affairs of the
provincial administration. We want to see party leaders who took
part in the demonstration in Jakarta to denounce the US attack on
Iraq, to get sympathy for the domestic tragedy.

We are used to putting domestic tragedies in bad political
instinct. They often becomes a person's or a certain
institution's instrument to gain popularity.

As scions of this nation, we want to see whether the Flores
tragedy can make the people feel sorrow, just like what they have
shown over the Iraq tragedy.

-- Media Indonesia, Jakarta