No More

No More Foreigners!

From Warta Kota

When he met Indonesian defense minister Matori Abdul Djalil in Singapore, U.S. deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz asked the Indonesian government to allow foreign monitoring agencies in to Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam province.

The Indonesian government must ignore this request because Indonesia is capable of taking care of its own internal affairs. The U.S. ignored the entire world in its illegal invasion of Iraq recently.

Now that the U.S. finds it hard to take care of Iraq's post- invasion affairs, it is trying to get access to Aceh. If the U.S. and other countries wish to give donations, they can do so by sending the money to our capable government agencies instead of sending aid directly to the Acehnese. There are many examples of ulterior motives behind what appears to be a charitable act.

Indonesia must not be afraid of any threat that may arise because of its refusal to meet the U.S. request. Remember that when our first president, Sukarno, resisted capitalist countries and established the New Emerging Forces, Indonesia did not collapse. Then during the Soeharto era, the U.S. put an embargo on the sale of military equipment to Indonesia. So why should we be afraid of the U.S.?

Once again, the Indonesian government should simply ignore the request made by the U.S. and those other foreigners who want to send their monitors to Aceh. Remember that these countries must have their own cleverly hidden ulterior motives behind their seemingly kind gesture.

KAMIL WIJAYA Tangerang, Banten