Learn to respect others

Since the May riots I have been following with interest the letters and articles that have been published in The Jakarta Post and have noted that not one pribumi, or indigenous person, has actually apologized for the barbaric acts committed by the people. Instead letters of justification have poured in.

The most appalling article was the one by Masli Arman printed on July 30.

Do we really think that we can generalize and say that all Chinese are bad just because a few have behaved in that manner? In that case Hitler is justified for the massacre of Jews, for I am sure he must have had his own grievances against a few of them.

We, during the Soeharto regime, became used to being oppressed and therefore do not see the need for freedom of expression, respect for other races and habits.

When in a foreign land, a person feels secure among his own race until the indigenous people make him feel so at home he actually forgets his origin. I think, in that way, the Chinese have actually done that. As Masli Arman himself puts it 70 percent of the Chinese have assimilated and 75 percent don't even know Mandarin.

If the Chinese tend to stay in one area -- they do in all countries, but then so do the Indians, the Africans, the Italians and the Indonesians -- they cannot be chastised for it. I think that an Indonesian in America or India would be delighted to speak his own language on meeting a fellow Indonesian, or would you rather speak English or Hindi for fear of disrespecting the national language there?

So why this stress on assimilation, especially for the Chinese? Where is the respect and regard for a foreign race? What about Bhinneka Tunggal Ika (Unity in Diversity)?

Yes, surely they say, in Rome do as the Romans do -- but this means adapt yourself to the situation at hand. It does not ask you to forget your culture. It does not ask you to forget your roots. It asks you only to be social, to live peacefully, have regard for the indigenous people's habits and to enjoy whatever is available without discrimination.

As a mother and a woman, the acts of barbarism have so frightened me that today, when I go out of the house, I am not sure what my fate will be. I am not the only mother who thinks like this -- there are mothers who all over this country worry about the welfare of their daughters.

A letter by Sumarsono Sastrowardoyo in the July 29 edition says that the Chinese should not blame others for their fate. I would like to ask him, Should every Chinese-Indonesian become a martyr because it is their unfortunate fate that they chose to stay and settle in Indonesia? Should they just wait for another wave of barbarism, the rape of their women and children and loss of their life's earnings? Should they just silently suffer?

I would request the Post not to print such articles. Although I fully believe in the freedom of speech, in the current situation such articles will only serve to fuel the minds of more people. The article has lowered the dignity of journalism.

Let us learn to respect others and to accept them for the way they are, for don't we accept every child of ours regardless of how good or bad they may be?

POONAM

Jakarta