Hate and anger prevail

When I read The Jakarta Post's editorial of Sept. 18, A familiar story, I began reading it with great interest. Not just because of its good and eloquent writing but it also seems that the Post is the only Indonesian paper which gives enough space to the debate of one of the most urgent problems of this nation, which seems to be neglected by many: anti-Chinese riots which occur again and again, with no sign of when these ugly demonstrations of hate and anger will end.

However, when I was about finished reading, I was a bit disappointed when the writing comes to the conclusion about why these abhorrent demonstrations of shortsightedness, hate, ignorance and impatience always happen. The writer says: "It is because nothing has been done to address the scandalous social gap left as a legacy of Soeharto's regime."

While it is hard reality that there is economic and social disparity (and there always will be, except in an ideal society, which doesn't exists), with the stigma that the Chinese "own vastly disproportional amount of the country's wealth", and it is quite reasonable to put the blame partly on the economic gap, it would be totally wrong to draw a single conclusion/answer on why the above problems keep recurring.

The Post misses one, and perhaps a major, explanation about the problems: there still exists racist mayhem, hate, shortsightedness and jealousy in our society. Only when we have the courage to admit that there are still many shortcomings will we be able to strive, struggle and tackle the problems with honesty and determination, even though honesty is, at times, painful.

ILHAM DJAJA

Jakarta