Indonesia from a distance

Three and a half months have passed since my wife and I left Indonesia for the colder pastures of England. In the first two months we had to live in a small hotel room in what is supposed to be the leading hotel in Cambridge (a far cry from what a cheaper hotel in Jakarta would offer) and look at the continuous pouring rain of the England summer, that did not take place this year.

Then at least our furniture arrived from Indonesia and some even fitted through the door of our new home, with a big part of it filling the garage waiting for better times.

Now we have settled here in our Indonesian furniture and are often thinking back to Indonesia and its beauty, but also its shortcomings as well. But as life must go on, one has to look forward again to new beginnings in these times of change for everyone. However this does not mean that there is no more interest in what is happening in our previous home country, where we enjoyed living so much.

For that reason, not yet being on the Internet, I am reading the International Herald Tribune where one can still get some news about Indonesia occasionally, apart from reading about the "adventures" of Bill Clinton. The English newspapers are more concerned with the Spice Girls or even worse subjects, it seems.

Unfortunately, it is quite disturbing to receive news from Indonesia as basically nothing much seems to have changed, quite the contrary, it seems to be getting worse. People will face starvation to a greater extent than already experienced and the Chinese minority remain targets of looting and violence, which will further drain the country of a lot of money and intellect, both of which are desperately needed now.

People with politically different ideas are still in prison or disappear and it appears no trust base exists for the present government (which does not come as a surprise). All of this and much more might lead to even more social unrest and violence, which is partially understandable from the poor people's perspective, but does not help anyone and may ultimately lead to the military taking over for good again.

As one correspondent in the International Herald Tribune put it: Indonesia could have tremendous potential to become the leading nation for the whole region if it could become a truly democratic country and of course if it could overcome the economic turmoil of these days and I'm afraid, years.

I will keep my fingers crossed from a distance that both things can subsequently be achieved and that it won't take too long.

ROLAND WOEHRLE

Cambridgeshire, England