Tolerance

Tolerance

I lived in Indonesia in the 1980s and visit the country as
often as personal finances allow. I write this in Jakarta after a
wonderful trip through Central and East Java, seeing sights both
exciting and humbling. The fact that we could make the trip at
all is thanks to the great progress made in Indonesia's societal
organization. Our last visit 18 months ago had me housebound for
most of the time as enraged sections of society fought each
other, buildings burned and many died through mindless violence.

So now Indonesia doesn't make the headlines in the Western
press as it did a year or two ago. So I am delighted to be able
to visit people and places both remembered and completely new to
me. So other outside observers and those who love this country
from afar begin to feel the return of hope. Progress indeed.

One sight, more than anything else seen on our trip to Java
turned back the tides of hope: people with cardboard boxes at
traffic lights on the streets of Yogyakarta and Bandung,
collecting money for the jihad in Maluku.

Of course these people do not represent any significant
constituency of Indonesian society. Of course tolerance of
minority views is a part of every civilized society. But surely
tolerance has its limits. We cannot tolerate the support of
unlawful violence. Imagine extremist Protestants collecting money
on the pavements of Oxford Street, London, to help put snipers'
bullets into Catholics in Northern Ireland. Imagine the Klu Klux
Klan rattling tins on Fifth Avenue, New York, for gasoline and
matches to use on a few black gentlemen churches. If these people
belong anywhere, it is either in hiding from the forces of
justice, or behind bars.

TIM RIGLEY

Wiltshire, UK