Hard working Indonesians

On the "Your Letters" page dated Sept. 12 I read Dictated procedure written by Mr. Al Workman of Jakarta. The Jakarta Post is to be admired for providing this page as an open forum for discussion. Mr. Al Workman only tried to explain his problematic situation. Why, he may be Indonesian, Indian or Canadian, we are all still human beings and tend to help each other on a humanitarian basis. There were even, he says, plenty of wheelchairs lying around.

Mr. Chandramouli's reply (Sept. 13) is an agitated and irrelevant one. I don't see any justification for this matter. Maybe he wants to nurture beggars. In my experience, Indonesians are most hard working people. In fact, their day to day habits are to be highly appreciated: early to bed, early to rise, eat less and be healthy, clean and neat. What else do you need to lead a disciplined life? Why should Mr. Chandramouli try to make them inhuman without doing any work or hard work? Why should anyone pay for someone? It is like begging. More so, the example he quoted is a most irrelevant one. He also said: "...should apply a little compassion towards our poor brethren in whichever country we serve." I believe in the concept of "work is worship", work and earn money. I hope Mr. Chandramouli will not lead the hard working Indonesian people to become vagabonds.

JEYA MOHAN

Bekasi, West Java