National pride not everything

National pride not everything

I was deeply impressed by Devi Asmarani's distinction between
Nationalism and irrational thinking in The Jakarta Post of Sept.
18, 1999, and would like to use this as an opportunity to comment
on the flag burning incident. I feel highly qualified to do this
because I come from a country that has seen its flag burned many
times, sometimes by its very own citizens.

The twisted sense at perspective that causes some Indonesians
to react more strongly to the burning of their flag than to the
rape of East Timor is not exclusive to Indonesia. A few
mainstream politicians (including George Bush) tried to ban flag
burning in the U.S. They either forgot, or did not care, about
the role that this offensive (though relatively nonviolent) form
at protest played in bringing our boys home from Vietnam. Whether
Americans burning American flags should be regarded as an
unpatriotic shame for being American, or as a patriotic concern
over bad policy, is beside the point.

Flag burning gets attention, and even though it is not among
the more constructive forms of criticism, its shock value never
gets old. It serves to wake up Americans to the dark side of its
role in the world. I hope, like in America, this incident teaches
some of the more open-minded Indonesians that some things are
more sacred than national pride.

ANTONIO CHAVES

Hyattsville, Maryland

USA