Galang refugee memorial

My name is Quynh Dao, a former Vietnamese refugee currently living in Australia. I am among many thousands of refugees from Vietnam who received the great gift of humanity and compassion from the people of Southeast Asia, including Indonesia and Malaysia. You rescued us in our tragic circumstances.

The memorial in Pulau Galang is an expression of deep gratitude from the Vietnamese refugees toward the Indonesian government and the Indonesian people. It honors the Indonesian people's humanity for posterity and for history, which I feel would make your people proud.

I am therefore greatly dismayed to learn that the Vietnamese communists dared to demand to your President that this monument be destroyed. It seems to me that by conveying this demand to your President, the Vietnamese communists dared to deny the Indonesian people the right to take pride in their humanity.

I am further dismayed that your President has acquiesced to the Vietnamese communists' demand and that the monument has been destroyed.

Pulau Galang is a place of great spiritual and historic significance for the Vietnamese people and the Indonesian people. This monument was inspired by the noblest of human values, those of generosity and compassion. It is also a landmark of a major tragedy in human history and therefore should be preserved. It carries the sacredness that many refugees see as a place of pilgrimage.

May I call on The Jakarta Post and the Indonesian public to join with us in asking the President of Indonesia to reverse his decision and restore the monument. Please do not give in to the Vietnamese communists. They deny the living even the right to commemorate deceased relatives, friends and compatriots. They deny the dead the right to be remembered. They deny the Indonesian people the right to commemorate a great deed of humanity.

QUYNH DAO, Member of the Australian-Vietnam, Human Rights Committee, Australia