On Prudential Assurance

I refer to the editorial Our legal black hole in The Jakarta Post's April 29 issue.

When I was growing up in Britain, the Prudential Assurance Co, affectionately known as "the Pru", was more of a public institution than a commercial enterprise. The familiar figure of "the man from the Pru" with his briefcase visiting policyholders' homes to collect their premiums did far more than that. To these families, often quite far down on the social scale, he was a friend, especially when it came to making a claim often at a time of tragedy.

Doubtless things have changed a lot now, but one will surely not have, and that is the integrity and financial strength of the Prudential Assurance Company, wherever it operates.

That such an icon should be insulted by a bunch of jumped-up nobodies and further harassed by a fifth-rate so-called lawyer on the make would be funny if it wasn't tragic.

"The Pru" will not suffer. Indonesia will.

CHRISTOPHER R. McRAE Jakarta