Multidimensional chaos

Having read the message "A letter of appeal from Canada" published in your paper on Oct. 7, 1998, I cannot help but respond to the letter. First, I sort of wonder why the letter was published in an English-language newspaper such as The Jakarta Post in the first place instead of an Indonesian-language newspaper like Kompas for instance. It gives me the impression that the message is more aimed at international readership rather than Indonesians. As a person who is extremely tormented by shame about the mid-May riots, the letter has made me feel even worse. In this relation I might as well give my response.

My general impression of the letter is that the authors have a fairly good understanding of the situation in Indonesia. However, I conclude that there are a few things they failed to notice which I may touch on.

The riots were not a 100 percent racial (anti-Chinese) issue. Racism constitutes only one aspect of the multidimensional chaos in Indonesia. Through the days after the May 13 to May 15 riots, the residents in my community, indigenous people and ethnic Chinese alike, stood hand in hand to protect our neighborhood against attacks by looters. (Some of my Chinese neighbors were afraid to come out, but that was understandable).

Fortunately, the block I live on was not in one of the attacked zones. The rioters may have come from the extremely poor and poorly educated people living in the slums. Being an indigenous Indonesian is no guarantee of being spared by looters. Shouting "We are natives!" is only a desperate effort which might help to minimize the probability of attack. So, it was more social unrest than racial war.

The root of the Indonesian crisis is not Asia's financial crisis as was mentioned in the open letter. Asia's monetary crisis was only a trigger. The real culprit, for Indonesia, is foreign debt which comprises government debt and private debt.

As for the rapes that occurred during the riots, government and private bodies have formed a fact-finding commission, which has found it difficult to get evidence of the rapes because the victims or their families are ashamed to come out into the open and speak up, or at least provide information.

Whatever the reason, racism or no racism, taking the law into one's own hands is not what most Indonesians believe to be justifiable. A Chinese reveals to me that, given that the Chinese refer to themselves as "We" -- they never use the word "they" to refer to Indonesians, as they are themselves Indonesians. "They" are definitely the "rioters."

SETIAWAN SALMIN

Jakarta