No racism

No racism

I'm not a racist, my niece is even married a nice Chinese man.
While at Sancta Ursula Boarding School (1949-1955), most of my
friends were nonindigenous. For five years, my two sons rented an
apartment with two Chinese boys from Singapore while they all
studied at the University of Hawaii, Honolulu, and until now they
are still best friends.

But I agree with William Soerjadjaja (RCTI, June 23, 1998),
who called on nonindigenous Indonesians to do some introspection.
Because their behavior and attitude toward indigenous Indonesians
makes them unsympathetic and unwanted here and elsewhere in the
world (including the state of Queensland, Australia. I travel
quite often to Australia and got some input and some personal
experience).

The other day there was a fashion show in one of the hotels in
Jakarta, and wives of former ambassadors were among the VIP
guests and had a table reserved close to the catwalk but their
long table was taken by a group of nonindigenous Indonesians and
the ladies were put in the back seats. Knowing their table was
occupied, they objected to the hotel staff. But the nonindigenous
kept their seats in an arrogant manner.

Indeed William was right in calling for introspection.
Looting, burning, rape, murder, etc., are criminal acts, and the
culprits must be put on trial and punished.

So let's all of us introspect, and together rebuild our
crumbled economy. Let's prepare the future for the generations to
come and create a world of understanding, tolerance and love, so
that we can live in harmony irrespective of race, ethnicity or
religion.

NANNY DJALI A

Jakarta