Presidential candidates

The Youth Pledge of 1928, which was honored throughout Indonesia last week, called for One Nation, One Country, One Language: Indonesia. Masli Arman's letter, published on Youth Pledge Day, deviates from the pledge. Unfortunately, he takes the bigoted, jingoistic line of Minister A.M. Saefuddin by questioning Megawati's candidacy on religious grounds. This is disappointing coming from an Indonesian intellectual, which Masli clearly is.

Masli's statement that "to expect a non-Moslem to be the next president of Indonesia is... unrealistic" echoes the beliefs of many in America in 1928, though the majority religion there was Protestantism instead of Islam. In America in the year of the Indonesian Youth Pledge, bigoted opponents of governor Al Smith, the Democratic nominee for the presidency, who happened to be a Catholic, were successful in defeating him because of his Catholicism; (Catholics are a small minority in America). Instead, they elected Herbert Hoover! Not until 1960 did Americans discard such bigotry, when they elected John Kennedy, another Catholic, to the presidency.

We should hope that Indonesians will follow the precepts of the Youth Pledge, treating each of their fellow citizens as an individual, no matter what his or her religion or ethnicity or island of origin.

What we all need to learn, Indonesians, Americans, and all other citizens of this earth, is to judge our fellows on their individual merits, not on the basis of the religious or ethnic groups to which they happen to belong. Any attack on Megawati should be on the basis of her political talents (as Pak Masli ably did in his letter), not on how or where she worships.

WILLIS W. JOURDIN JR.

Yogyakarta