Oriental violence?

Oriental violence?

I am deeply disturbed by the article which appeared on Feb. 7
(p. 18) entitled Islam in Madura and the tradition of violence.

In it Adbur Rozaki revives tired stereotypes of sickle-
wielding Madurese led by thugs under the eyes of approving Muslim
clerics. The inclusion of a figure depicting a Madurese
brandishing a sickle over an unarmed man is particularly
regrettable. Although Madurese have been rather on the receiving
end of untold violence these past few years, and violent crime
statistics show no appreciable difference between Madura and the
rest of Indonesia, the rare but highly publicized acts of carok
seem forever to capture the imagination of Indonesians, much like
tales of Malay amok gripped British colonialists. Is this
Orientalism ala Java? In any case the article is not peace
journalism.

GLENN SMITH, Jakarta