On teachers

Your Oct. 19 story on Indonesian teachers losing steam was a steamed up one. Too sweeping and without substance, it read like a trumped-up private complaint. But it was characteristic work of its author, Pak Arbi. Pak Arbi would seem hard on Indonesians, unless you think he is lampooning them.

Here are a few choice morsels. To the ever-carping Pak Arbi Indonesian drivers never stay in the lane; nor do they zig-zag. Instead they keep scattering helter-skelter on the road, driving Pak Arbi nuts. Lift users are also a despicable bunch. They don't get in and out of lifts. They scramble, unscramble and create turbulence and melee. They feign haste, but really want to step on your toes. He is also angry at people who troop non-stop through swing doors. They are blissfully oblivious to the courtesy-king, Pak Arbi, who holds the door ajar. He will not let the door go and, since no other well-bred person will take over the mantle of doorman, Pak Arbi is left to stew.

He concedes that Indonesian women dress well. They do so not to allure but to con -- an exotic way for them to pass time -- or to jump queues.

Now in his latest belch, running short of safe subjects, he has emptied a full tank of bile on Indonesian teachers. We all know that teachers work in woeful circumstances, and are a neglected but expected-to-be-noble lot. They deserve sympathy, respect and consideration, not a vicious lashing, as if they are the scourge of society.

It is hard to comprehend how The Jakarta Post, striving for balance and good order, printed such an outrageously one-sided story which seems to have been cooked up between a hot-shot daughter and her credulous, ballistic pop, known to The Jakarta Post readers through his stories printed in the Post for taking a pitiless view of human foibles.

Readers look for objectivity, maturity and a glimpse of humor, all heightened by a subtle softness gently wafting through.

G.S. EDWIN

Jakarta