Racial discrimination

I almost choked on my nasi goreng (fried rice) when I read in The Jakarta Post letters section (On racism, July 29, 1995) that my words "It has never been this writer's intention to draw attention to his family and his person" had somehow metamorphose into" ...Mr. Gulliver and his family" during the newspaper's production process! Oh, well...

What prompts me to write once more is to point out the recent hypocrisy by Western writers who rail against perceived racism directed towards them as a group.

Earlier this year, a reader from New Zealand wrote to "Your Letters" and made some profoundly scathing remarks about the Maoris in his country. Among others, he stated that "Eighty percent of (Maoris) are too lazy to work."

Not a single Western reader of The Jakarta Post felt the need to refute or protest that view. Not a word!

Some weeks later, an alert The Jakarta Post journalist, in a feature article on race relations in New Zealand, mentioned the letter that denigrated Maoris and suggested that perhaps such attitudes contributed to racial problems there.

Last June, I poked some fun at certain Westerners and the questionable perceptions they had. My letter drew irate responses from several readers, including a touchy Dutchman in Bekasi who seemed accustomed to lecturing Indonesians. Only one Italian wrote to say he found nothing offensive about my letter.

An overweening sense of racial self-importance and lack of concern for other ethnic groups is racial discrimination in itself.

FARID BASKORO

Jakarta