Political arguments an insult?

I would like to respond to Mr. Leonard Jones' comment An insult to politicians (The Jakarta Post, May 23, 1999) on my letter Megawati's silence (the Post, May 19, 1999). After reading my letter very carefully again, I cannot find that I used a "strident and abrasive tone". Nor can I understand how Mr. Jones can conclude from my statement that candidates for political office in Germany need to provide voters with their political visions, ideas and programs, that I find it necessary to "verbally abuse and insult politicians"?

I cannot see either why he interprets my pleading for an exchange of political arguments between presidential hopefuls as a call for "strong-arm measures", which I do also consider as "uncivilized", be it in Indonesia, Germany or elsewhere. The more do I deplore those "strong-arm measures" which recently lead to the deaths of campaigners who could obviously not respect each other's political opinions.

The tendency to resort to violence rather than to exchange political arguments is certainly due to the fact that the New Order government deprived the majority of the Indonesian electorate of a democratic political education. This does also explain why some political leaders, like Megawati, can draw on the support of the masses without having to provide convincing political arguments.

To Mr. Jones I must say, with all due respect, that I find it somewhat abrasive to charge that those presidential hopefuls who have participated in public debates "only demonstrated the size of their egos". I rather think that they should be praised for their courage to stand to their political convictions in public, something which they did hardly have any opportunity to practice during the last 32 years.

HILDE MAY

Jakarta