Letter misunderstood

Letter misunderstood

In my letter to The Jakarta Post dated May 12, 1999 I did not
question, attack or reject religion, yet all the letter writers
assume that I am an atheist.

I am certainly not an atheist. I do believe in God and I do
have a religion. The letter writers should learn to read other
people's letters more carefully. Where did I write that I do not
believe in God?

Pak Muhammad Rusdi (The Jakarta Post, May 15) wrote: "For some
Westerners, to have or not to have religion is not a big deal as
we can see from their lifestyles."

Pak Muhammad, there are as many bad people with a religion as
there are bad people without a religion.

Ibu Nita wrote (May 18): "It's beyond my imagination to live
in a country without religion, where human power dominates our
life." I did not write that I come from a country without
religion. My country of origin, the Kingdom of Belgium, is a
secular state.

Ibu Nita, for your peace of mind, there are a lot of mosques
in Belgium, as well as churches, synagogues and temples, and
those buildings are not museums. Every day many Belgians and
foreigners pray in those buildings.

By the way, what does Ibu Nita think about the deeds of former
president Soeharto, the violence in Maluku, Aceh, the bombing of
Istiqlal, corruption, collusion, nepotism and last year's rape of
Chinese? Religion has a lot to do with all those cruelties. So
has human power.

Ibu Nurhani (May 22) should not invent words I have never
written. I repeat: I have never written that I am an atheist.

Pak Gunawan Ahmad's letter of May 19 made me sad. It is
obvious that he does not understand what I have written. He seems
to think that I wrote that religion belongs to the 19th century.
I never said that. I only pleaded for a secular state, i.e.
separation of religion and state.

Regarding Pak Gunawan's peculiar views on press freedom -- he
wonders how my letter could be published in The Jakarta Post --
he should remember the words written by Voltaire over 200 years
ago: "I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death
your right to say it."

Pak Gunawan has a very low opinion of the Indonesian people
because he thinks that my humble opinion is so dangerous that
Indonesian people will be influenced by it. So he suggests that
the Indonesian government should deport me. In other words, Pak
Gunawan wants to silence me. He might as well try to ban the
Internet.

He also seems to think that Indonesians cannot think for
themselves and they are easily influenced by my opinions.

Finally, although Pak Gunawan's views sadden me, I am also
very happy that people such as him have not yet come to power in
this country because they would not hesitate to burn me at the
stake together with The Jakarta Post just like in the old times
in Europe and elsewhere when press freedom was unheard of.

DIRK JJ VLEUGELS

Sanur, Bali