Why are letters censored?

On June 19, 1996, I mailed a letter to Mr. and Mrs. Sri Bintang Pamungkas, whose address is Jl. Merapi D-1, Komplek Bukit Permai, Cibubur, Jakarta Timur 13724.

According to a very reliable source, my letter was censored by a powerful institution. The source could reproduce the content of my letter clearly and in a great detail, because he received a copy of the letter from that particular institution. This means that copies of my letter have been widely distributed to the public without my permission.

It also means that the institution has violated the law and the right for confidentiality of private letters, and also violated basic human rights, as done in totalitarian, communist countries. The postal services have also in this case violated the law because they gave my letter to the particular institution to be censored. In fact, post offices should keep letters confidential.

I am deeply saddened and furious at this act of censorship. How could such a dirty, vulgar, and immoral action take place in a Pancasila democratic country? Human rights have been undermined and law principles ignored: power remains above everything. The people has become a mere object in the hands of the power holder.

It is ironical that after 50 years of independence, people are losing their freedom. During the Dutch colonial time, privacy of correspondence was guaranteed by law. Personal letters were never censored. Our own people are more cruel than the Dutch colonialists.

I read in a newspaper that in the United States President Bill Clinton asked the FBI to submit some personal letters. The FBI categorically refused to hand over the letters to the President because personal documents must be kept confidential. Exactly the opposite is taking place in this country. The aforementioned institution, with the help of the postal service, censors personal letters and lets third parties know the content of the letters without permission of the writers. This act deserves to be condemned. Have we become a totalitarian country? Without reference to the existing laws, I hope the above mentioned institution and the postal service to stop immediately censoring personal letters, including letters to Sri Bintang.

SUHARSONO HADIKUSUMO

Jakarta