IMF, and a bad joke
The article in your April 2 and April 3 editions titled IMF not a good Samaritan by T.J. Addati is staggering for more than one reason. First, because it is an exquisite illustration of nearly all vital journalism perfidiously twisted and distorted. Second, it's a delicate example of heinous bad faith. Third, it's the perfectly wrong thing at the perfectly wrong time. Fourth, it's the most ridiculous article I've read over the last 15 years in any serious newspaper. Fifth, why for heaven's sake did The Jakarta Post want to shoot itself in the foot by opening its columns to such hype?
It would take too long to explain my full analysis, but a short parable will do. It goes like this.
Once upon a time, there was a patient, Nindo, who was very sick. Nindo's family called Dr. Fim. Fim examined the patient and diagnosed a heart attack. He urgently advised the family to have Nindo operated on, otherwise it was unlikely that he'd survive.
To strengthen Nindo, who was very weak, the doctor gave him an injection. While he was writing out a bill for his services, a very irate man called Addati, maybe a friend of Nindo's, or just a visitor, went up to Fim and said: "How can you ask for money, Sir? You don't even examine the cats here, nor the cattle, nor the chickens, and you haven't repaired the roof of the house yet for it is still leaking. You doctors, you always pretend to help people, but you're only after our money.
"Just look at my neighbor. For years he was a drunkard who always quarreled inside his house with his wife and kids. Then one day, he reels out of the front door, into the street, and is run over by a car. His legs are crushed, in the hospital they have to amputate them, and then they give him two prostheses. But even today, after all those years, he still can't walk like he did before. And his sons are still paying off the hospital bill, and one of his daughters is now a prostitute in a big city.
"We told a TV station about this scandal, but there are obviously many doctors on the board of directors of that TV company because until now they haven't broadcast anything about the case. And after all, what are doctors good for? Statistics prove that more people die nowadays than at the time of Adam and Eve. The only thing worse for poor people than doctors is death."
This metaphor illustrates (rather meekly) the vicious tone of Addati's article and the unbelievably bad faith that permeates every and each paragraph of it.
IDRIS KYRWAJY
Jakarta