From: hsiahaan@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
Newsgroups: alt.culture.indonesia
Subject: Re: solution for ET: to Mr Crespo
Date: 20 Nov 92 17:40:51 CST
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services

Mr Crespo, trying to answer your questions:
1. there is an election day once every 5 years. indonesian citizens older than
17 years can participate. however, we do not elect a president, instead we
choose a party which we think will represent our voice the best. then selected
people from each party (the number depends on the percentage of voice each
party obtained) will be in the parliement. in a province, the same process
apply when the DPRD members are selected. 
2. i think governor is apponted by president with approval from both the
national house of representatives and the local parliement of which the
governeor will govern. governor and his province's DPRD have to work together
if want to make local laws/regualtions/plans/decisions.DPRD can call for a spe-
cial meeting if it feels that governor has done something wrong. it even can 
propose to president to change the governor given majority want it so.
3. each indonesian can freely express his/her ideas/opinions. however, he/she
must be responsible of his/her expression if something happens due to it. this
is what is called 'responsible freedom'. most of westerners do not agree with
this since they say this limit the freedom of expression. i personally do not
think so. the westerners so-called 'freedom of expressions' i think is the
culprit of such thing as KKK, pornography, gun-ownership, and many other things
which are/can be dangerous. indonesian beleives in freedom of expression which
will not bother/hurt/obstruct other's rights/individual. i think this is
because indonesia consists of people of different cultures (many diffrent
cultures !) and religions. to express one's ideas about something, it is better 
not to do it by demonstration which can lead to public unrest. it is better to
express it through the 'correct' way, i.e by telling the local DPRD what you
feel/think. this is one thing that i think ETers should learn, because their
demonstrations appropriately attract police/ABRI since they potentially can be
dangerous, especially in place like ET where rebels are still around spreading
their propaganda. and confrontations such as happened in St. Cruz could again
happen (hopefully not).
4. you ask 'after 17 years, ETers are still against the integration', which 
ETers ? if it is the rebels you mean, of course they dont want the integration.
i think other 'normal' ETers and indonesian citizens are for the integration. 
i dont know why there are still rebels in ET. i've heard that indonesian 
government has offered them to surrender peacefully. i think these rebels still
dont trust indonesian government and its intentions for better ET. 
5. young demonstrators (who you think are the proof that ETers are genuinely
against the integration), on contrary,i think are the proof of effective propa-
ganda by the rebels. these youngsters are not stable, they dont even mature.
they are the one who could provoke the confrontation with non-demonstrators and
police/troops during the demonstrations. they would believe what the rebels say
about indonesian government due to their lack of knowledge about it. they think
that these rebels are their leaders without realizing that they have become the
tools by these rebels.

about your concern that why ET is still isolated from foreign reproters ? i
want to show you a closest example : Bush is defeated by Clinton because the
press wants it so. how ? since US victory in persian gulf, which gives Bush a
good chance to be re-elected, press (which has moved to liberal left wing) has 
campaigned against him by telling the public how bad the economy of US is. they
do give the facts about US economy struggle, but they do not tell about the
other facts, about other positive things done by the Bush administration. the
same thing we dont want in ET. once ET is open for foreign reporters, we dont
want them to go to the forests and make contact with the rebels.then, they will
go out and tell them how the rebels feel about indoensian government and how
bad these rebels (who are also ETers) are being treated by indonesian
government. they will do this very often making every readers/listeners believe
on what they are telling. and if poeple ask them whether they tell them the
truth, they will answer: YES!. oh yes they tell the truth. but that is not the
only truth they see in ET. they do not tell everything, especially how hard
indonesian government tries to develop ET. they do not report how many schools
/roads are developed during those 17 years. they only report those like the St 
Cruz massacre.do you know why after the acquittal of the 4 LAPDs beating R King
in the first trial there is a riot in LA? yes,it is because press makes people 
believe what they see : police beat a civilian. they do not elaborate further 
how this happened/why. they just show the video over and over again. 
so, in short, (sorry, u might be boring by now ;-) ) indonesian governement do 
not want foreign reproters in ET yet until they are really sure the intention 
of these reporters, which is should be: report the whole truth,not the truths 
that only these reporters want to.    

i am personally bothered by some portuguese who said that they heard bad things
about indoensian government from other indoensians. if they listened to these
'indonesians' and believe them, why wouldn't they listen to 'other indoensians'
who say positive things about indoensia ? i think they've put double standard,
dont you ? like the LA rioters, they believe in one side of (maybe, maybe not) 
'truth', but do not want to listen to the other side.

thank you (for your patience reading this ? :-) 

H Siahaan
NB. what i am postings are solely my opinions. they will/should/can not be
    used as representing of other indonesian's.