On expatriates

On expatriates

I would like to reply to a letter published on Feb. 17
concerning expatriates. The person who wrote the letter thinks
that the expatriate community in Indonesia is to be blamed for
the present bad economic situation.

I would like to say that: 1) the estimated amount of US$3
billion for the expatriates is not a huge amount for a country;
2) expatriates' salaries come from the Indonesian government and
the private sector; 3) if companies couldn't afford to pay the
expatriates they could have easily got rid of them some time ago.
But, of course, back then, nobody thought about the current bad
economic crisis.

It is obvious that there is more than one cause to the problem
and certainly the least responsible are the expatriates. After
all, expatriates are here because there is a need for them and
Indonesia benefits from the technology and skills brought into
the country.

ROSA

Jakarta