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