Letter to the editor

Letter to the editor

Get tough on
drug dealers

From Tempo

A recent report about drug abuse in Tempo weekly newsmagazine
said that Indonesia has become a fertile ground for the business.

One of the reasons why drug dealers like to operate in the
country is the light punishment handed out to smugglers. In
Malaysia, someone found guilty of importing more than 15
milligrams gets the death sentence. But here, someone convicted
of smuggling over 20 kilograms gets a 20-year jail term.

In view of the big money involved in drug smuggling, 20 years
is nothing.

Therefore, Indonesia should follow the step taken by the other
Golden Triangle countries (except Myanmar) as soon as possible,
since the conditions which encourage the filthy business will
only worsen.

Myanmar and Colombia serve as examples of how not to go about
it. Those two countries are known as havens for drug lords. It
seems that the governments of those countries have been late in
addressing the issue and hence the situation has become
complicated.

I think it is high time the Indonesian government increase the
severity of punishments handed out to drug smugglers.

Moreover, it is disgusting to see the Indonesian jet-setters
who wallow in the bulk of the profits of development out there
getting drunk.

ALAMSYAH M. JUWONO

Hobart, Australia

Computer
Discussion

Most of us enjoy the Monday edition of The Jakarta Post
wherein the Science/Technology articles appear, specifically the
computer articles by Mr. Zatni Arbi and Mr. James O. Scharf.

Mr. Arbi usually gives us useful information regarding new
releases of software and other nice to know information. He
obviously uses and likes Microsoft Windows. I would like to see
the names and addresses of the local representatives of
Microsoft, Borland, Lotus, etc. at some stage, but Mr. Arbi is
doing a great job. I wonder that he thinks about the recent
Novell purchases of Wordperfect Corp. and Borland Quattro Pro?
I'd also like to see his comments about the new Novell DOC 7,
which has many new features, including built-in networking, that
MS DOS does not have.

Mr. Scharf, on the other hand, entertains us with his more
scholarly approach and occasional puzzles to solve as well as his
stories of (among others) hard-of-hearing frogs with their limbs
being chopped off. These items make us appreciate Mr. Scharf's
obvious intelligence and sense of humor. Therefore, it is
difficult to understand his reference to MS-Windows in the March
28, issue of the Post. He says "Look for Windows to go out the
window (where it belongs) and OS/2 to take over as the dominant
Operating System". We thought Mr. Scharf was a rational man; next
he will be telling us that DOS is dead and that UNIX was
delivered straight from the Heavens! Or does he work for IBM?

I don't consider myself a Microsoft supporter; I don't like
Microsoft. I don't like their international representatives I
have met and I don't like their marketing strategies. I don't
like MS DOS, MS Word, MS Excel, MS Access or MS Powerpoint; I do
like MS Publisher and I like MS FoxPro, but it wasn't developed
by Microsoft.

Do I think OS/2, which is IBM's answer to Windows, is a better
Operating System than the Operating environment provided by
Windows? You bet I do. Do I think OS/2 has a chance of ousting
Windows as the dominant Operating System? It will snow on Jl.
Thamrin before that happens. If we have learned one thing over
the past few decades it is this: technical elegance will not be
the deciding factor. Ask yourselves this: how many copies of
Windows are in use in the U.S. and how many copies of OS/2? The
answer is about 50 million copies of Windows and less than 1/10
of that for OS/2.

We have to remember here that there is a major difference
between OS/2 and Windows at this point in time and it is that
OS/2 is a true Operating System (like DOS) and runs on its own.
Windows on the other hand is an operating environment and needs
DOS (or OS/2) to run. IBM has even released something called
"OS/2 for Windows" which is outselling the regular OS/2. We don't
see Microsoft selling something called "Windows for OS/2", nor
will we. The next release of Windows (code name Chicago) will not
require DOS to run and perhaps that is the version of Windows
that Mr. Scharf should compare to OS/2.

It is like the battle between Apple hardware and IBM hardware;
the die-hard Macintosh fans (my own brother is one) insist the
Apple is much better. And you know what? They are right. Now ask
them about market share and they mumble something about 10-15
percent and dropping. Apple is even going to start selling
Windows software and will soon make their new machines capable of
running Windows.

I note that Mr. Scharf has threatened to feature the
capabilities of OS/2 in a future article. I would like him to
address some of these points. Even better why doesn't The Jakarta
Post arrange a "point, counter-point" discussion, through their
articles, between Mr. Scharf as the champion of OS/2 and Mr. Arbi
as the Windows advocate. That would make for interesting reading.

JOHN R. FENTON

Jakarta

A matter of money

From Prospek

Public minibus accidents which have killed and maimed the
passengers have occurred many times, but it has not made the
minibus drivers stop driving carelessly in the streets.

To discipline the careless drivers, the Land and
Transportation Control Agency (DLLAJR) has taken a strict measure
by revoking the business license of any minibus' owner whose
drivers have been shown to be driving irresponsibly. I hope that
the measure is not simply a smokescreen.

I think there are some factors which are responsible for their
careless driving.

First, there are inexperienced drivers who have no
qualifications to operate a bus. These drivers get their jobs by
making payoffs to authorized drivers in order to get a spot on a
driving schedule. Because there is a definite time schedule for
each company, it is possible that four inexperienced drivers will
drive the same route in one day.

Also, because of the time limitations, there is ruthless
competition between the unauthorized drivers to collect money so
they can make their payments to authorized drivers.

According to a reliable source, anyone who drives a minibus
must also pay a fixed sum of money (Rp 400,000,-) to the minibus
owner every day!

SOEDI BARKAH

Jakarta

HIV virus
unknown?

The article entitled AIDS is behavioral, multifactorial
disease (The Jakarta Post, March 28, 1994) caught my attention
right away. It was very interesting to read another point of view
regarding how this disease kills its hosts. It was stated that to
some researchers, the exact cause of AIDS is still unknown. HIV
may be one of them, but since HIV itself actually kills 'only'
some 10,000 cells, whereas the human body replenishes much more
cells than this, it is yet unclear how HIV could do all the
damage found in terminal AIDS patients.

Some investigators have argued that a co-factor might be
involved, while others speculate that the AIDS virus may become
more pathogenic as it replicates inside the infected hosts.
However, I should point out that some investigators came up with
a hypothesis that since HIV is a retrovirus, it lacks the
mechanisms to correct errors that occur when its genetic material
is being duplicated (Science, vol. 254 p.963-969).

This means that every time the virus makes a copy of itself
there will be, on average, at least one genetic "mistake"
incorporated in the new virus. Therefore, in a person who
recently has been infected with the virus, his/her body will
harbor a large population of closely related, but not identical,
viruses. At first, the body's immune system will recognize most
members of this population of viruses, which makes them under the
control of the immune system, but pretty soon some mutants will
evade the immune response. As these mutants grow, the body has to
respond to these new forms. Ultimately, the sheer number of
different viruses to which the immune system must respond becomes
overwhelming and the immune system collapses.

I should point out that this hypothesis has only been tested
on two patients who have tested positively for HIV. A larger
sample is therefore needed to test the accuracy of this
hypothesis.

DAMI BUCHORI

Jakarta

Indocement
and pollution

From Jayakarta

For years, production waste from cement factory PT Indocement
has polluted its surrounding areas.

The ashes from the cement factory have spread out and engulfed
the roofs of villagers' houses in Gunung Putri, Cagak, Wanaherang
and Citereup.

Although the villagers there have repeatedly complained to the
government, they have yet to be appeased, despite the fact that
the villagers clearly suffer from the polluted air generated by
PT Indocement's factory.

I hope that the government surveys the case and that the
powers that be of PT Indocement recognize the people's suffering.

TEGUH SUYONO

Bogor, West Java

Correction:

//French// - 16 pts Cent. Bold l/c

Correction: In the April 2, 1994 issue in the letter entitled
Teaching of French, we inadvertently printed foie grass (in the
second paragraph) instead of foie gras, La colonisation (in the
fourth paragraph) instead of La decolonisation, and language
vehiculaire (in the fourth and fifth paragraphs) instead of
langage vehiculaire. We apologize for the errors and any
inconvenience they may have caused.

--Editor