Root of disintegration

Root of disintegration

From Media Indonesia

It is the right of all people to defend their country and ensure that their nation and culture remain glorious. The Indonesian people proved this in 1945 when they drove away the Dutch colonial power, and in early 1950s when they sent back to China migrant Chinese who refused to speak Indonesian and adopt the Indonesian culture. Ethnic Chinese adopting the Indonesian culture remain here and many of them have brought glory to the nation in the international arena.

We may not be aware that another ethnic group is in the same situation: the Papuans in Irian Jaya.

Until today the Indonesian government, the House of Representatives and the Supreme Court have yet to give recognition to the rights of ethnic groups. This recognition must be incorporated into law, because in the absence of legal protection small ethnic groups living in vast areas in Kalimantan and Irian Jaya can only be a minority in their homelands. Or perhaps, they may someday become extinct.

The threat of national disintegration must not be dealt with by massacring members of the so-called gangs who disturb security, like GAM, GPK, GPM, the militant people in the Moluccas, West Kalimantan and in other regions, but by respecting their ethnic rights.

SARKAT DANIMIHARJA

Bogor, West Java