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