Getting the other side of the story about Indonesia today

Getting the other side of the story about Indonesia today

News of anti-American sentiment in Indonesia has reached the
outside world, causing foreign investors to reexamine their
positions and keeping tourists away in droves.

Universally, foreign readers are being besieged with reports
of Muslim student demonstrations demanding that the Indonesian
government break all ties with the United States because of its
attacks on Afghanistan. They also read of the fanatic groups that
have attempted to shut down American icons McDonald's, Kentucky
Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut and who have "swept" hotels looking
for Americans.

As the media is not differentiating between the demonstrations
and the "sweeps", nor are they reporting about the millions of
Indonesians who are not involved in either, as an American who
first came to Indonesia in 1989, I feel compelled to offer a
different perspective.

Indonesians have been unable to speak freely for practically
their entire existence. For centuries they were oppressed by
their own sultans and rajas; then for almost 350 years of Dutch
domination they were suppressed.

The dictators who ruled all the years since the country
declared independence in 1945 also kept them silent. Only when
ex-president Soeharto fell four years ago did they at last gain
the right to voice their opinions and grievances.

Many Indonesians have plenty to say, and there's a growing,
educated middle class that's ready to say it. As a sage taxi
driver in Jakarta told me recently, "America has had freedom of
speech for over 200 years. We've only had it four years, so we're
still learning." How true.

Yogyakarta is the cultural and educational heart of Java. As I
sat in the street-side patio of the Santika Hotel sipping a Diet
Coke while watching thousands of students march by waving flags
and shouting protests, I understood why my Indonesian friend had
invited me there. The point was to show me that the student
demonstrations in Yogya are intellectual and peaceful, and that I
have nothing to fear from them.

The fanatic groups that are "sweeping" hotels, however, are
tigers with different stripes. Even though their numbers are
small, their voices are the ones being heard most loudly by the
foreign press.

After a week of being "shut in" because of the potential
trouble, a friend, Thomas, the sales manager of a hotel,, invited
me to visit him on a Friday afternoon after prayers, a typical
time for demonstrations to begin. He had assured me it was safe,
which is how I happened to be sitting on the patio at his hotel
watching the current demonstration unfold.

After a pleasant chat, Thomas asked if I would like to go with
him to join his family in a nearby village for a traditional
Javanese wedding. I jumped at the opportunity to get out of the
city and to see more of Central Java. It wasn't until we were on
the highway that I realized how cooped up I'd been feeling since
the Sept. 11 events changed all our lives.

On Sunday, we arrived at the home of his parents in Magelang,
where many of Thomas' six brothers and sisters, their husbands,
wives and children had already begun to assemble.

The wedding was in a small village nearby, and the bride, Ary,
was radiant in her beautifully beaded sarong. Miniature nephew-
and niece-attendants were dressed in traditional costumes, the
little boys acting like little boys when the cameras weren't on
them and the young girls excited to be wearing makeup and
tediously coiffed hairstyles.

The following day, Monday, was a very important Muslim
holiday, so trouble in the cities was anticipated. There were
additional embassy warnings for Americans to stay on high alert.
In the afternoon, two carloads of Thomas' family -- 14 people in
all -- came back to Yogya to pick me up to take me to a festive
holiday gathering in Wonosari. As I sat listening to them speak
to each other in Javanese, I thought what a typical family
reunion this was.

No one is writing about families like this in the press
reports that reach foreign shores. Nobody is talking about the
millions of lives here that are going on normally, about the
children who are still going to school and giggling while they
play, about the brothers going back home on the weekends to
rebuild old cars with their father and about mothers and sisters
who are cooking for the family and their friends.

Nor are they writing about the vast majority of Indonesians,
the ones who want all this to be over as badly as the rest of us
do. What the world is reading about is demonstrations, which are
peaceful and are a natural form of self-expression, and a few
troublemakers.

There is another side to the story, and it's representative of
the majority of Indonesians.

-- Linda Hoffman