On discrimination

On discrimination

I refer to the letter from Sunarto Prawirosujanto entitled
Proud to be an Indonesian (The Jakarta Post, Nov. 5) saying that
"Yuki, of Chinese descent, should move to another country where
there is no discrimination". Then she will be moving endlessly
because in the real world, there is not a single country that is
totally free from discrimination.

Regardless of who practices discrimination, it should not
serve as an excuse for one to approve of its practice. Wouldn't
it be unfair to Yuki if she herself didn't practice discrimination
but, on the other hand, was discriminated against simply because
others like her (Chinese Indonesians) practice discrimination?

Let's not point our fingers at others and balm our consciences
by saying that it's all right to do this because others are doing
it as well.

To make a difference, why don't we start by not practicing
discrimination ourselves? After all, we were all born and raised
in Indonesia, thus we are Indonesians, regardless of our race,
language or religion.

EVY LUCIANA
Jakarta