Two Americans still feel safe and at home in Yogyakarta

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

While governments around the world are issuing warnings to their citizens to get out of Indonesia and warning them of terrorist threats in some places including Yogyakarta, at least two foreigners have decided to stay put.

The two Americans are Shannon Stancil -- a volunteer presently assigned at the Indonesian Islamic University's legal aid and consultation institute (LKBH UII), and Sydney Snyder, an English lecturer at Gadjah Mada University's School of Letters.

Stancil of Florida, who works for non-governmental organization Volunteer in Asia (VIA) and is assigned to help improving the English competence of the institute's members of staff, said she did not want to go home. Stancil has been working at the institute since 1 Sept. and her contract is for a two-year period.

"I don't know how I will feel in two years, but at present I very much enjoy living here. I've never felt so welcome in my life as I feel now," she told journalists at the university's headquarters on Tuesday.

She said, however, she did not think it was necessarily wrong for a government to issue a warning, but it would depend on Americans or other foreign citizens living in Indonesia to decide for themselves whether they felt safe or not here.

Her family and friends, she added, initially expressed concern over her decision to stay but they finally understood after she explained she felt quite safe in Yogyakarta.

"I also have friends who said they were glad that I wanted to stay and did not want to go home. And they feel that I'm doing the right thing and that what we need to do now is to strengthen the relationship between the U.S. and Indonesia," Stancil said.

She went on further saying that the U.S. government was wrong to accuse Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir of involvement in the Bali bombings at this point. She said it was a bad idea to accuse anyone (of committing a terrorist act) without evidence. Instead, it would only worsen the relationship between the U.S. government and Indonesia.

"The U.S. Constitution grants a presumption of innocence but it does not seem that my government is remembering that," Stancil said.

Sydney Snyder of Gadjah Mada University said she refused to leave Yogyakarta and her students here, although the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta had called her twice and requested her to go home.

"I was shocked initially on hearing the request. But how can I go home? My friends are here. My job is here. My students are here. My boyfriend is here. My life is here. How can I just leave all these," Snyder told a packed audience while speaking at a dialog held at the campus of economic science college STIEKers on Jl. Parangtritis last week.

Snyder said she could not understand why the U.S. government asked her to leave the country and that she got very angry because her government was trying to make her a kind of a political pawn.

"They (the U.S. government) want to turn my life upside down merely because they want the Indonesian government to be more serious in dealing with terrorism. I refuse to be made a political pawn. I don't want to ... I don't want to," she said to the loud applause from the audience.

However, she admitted she was actually afraid but not because she lived in Indonesia or in Yogyakarta, but more because there were many angry people in the world and they wanted everybody to know they were very angry.

"I'm afraid because there are unseen wars. I'm afraid because my president thinks that violence is more effective than dialog. In today's world, we have stopped conducting dialogs. What we want to see is just two different parties. Me or you. Them and us. We are good and they are bad."

Besides, she had a good reason to stay.

"Why am I still here? It's because at this particular time it is important for us to discuss this global situation. We have to stop humiliating and blaming others. It's useless. It's a waste of time. Everyone knows that terrorism is not good. Everyone knows that the U.S. government's policies are not good. But there is no need to point fingers and blame others. We have to start dialogs and discussions."