Usage of the decimal sign

I was interested in your correspondent Agnes Sawir's comments on the use of the decimal sign in Indonesia.

Indonesia is a sovereign country with over 200 million citizens, the fourth most-populous in the world. As such it has many practices and institutions that are unique, many coming from the country's long and turbulent history. Every day, as an expatriate privileged to stay in Indonesia, I come across some new (to me) custom that intrigues me.

So why should Indonesia even consider changing the manner in which it uses the decimal sign? We do not insist on all countries using English as their national language, or the US dollar as their currency just because these are the main language and currency of the modern world.

Even the computer software available today struggles with these matters -- try and find a simple accounting package that can handle several currencies for example. Better that the electronic media arrange its software to cope with the matter than ask a nation to mend its ways.

DAVID TUCKER

Bogor, West Java