From: andrean@cs.utexas.edu (Andre A. Nurwono)
Newsgroups: alt.culture.indonesia
Subject: Re: Personal views on East Timor
Date: 17 Nov 1992 03:04:42 -0600
Organization: CS Dept, University of Texas at Austin
Distribution: alt
NNTP-Posting-Host: langtry.cs.utexas.edu


>
>Only eighteen years ago, Portugal was also accused (with justice) of
>colonialism, oppression, abuse of human rights, etc, and it was
>painful for our national pride. But we did get ride of the fascist
>regime, and now we are a Free country.
>
>I hope that will be the case in Indonesia: sooner or later, the
>Indonesian peoples will trow away the net of corruption and
>oppression that hangs over yours Archipelago for too long, and
>respect the independence of its small neighbor, E. Timor, and
>the differences of the peoples that make your big country.
>

First of all let me say that I am not in any way affiliated with
the government and am not trying to express 'loyalty to a regime'.

First of all, I want to express that all along the flame wars were
all about either premise disagreements, factual disagreements,
and even irrelevant historical disagreements, which got us nowhere.

-------------------------------------------------------------
First, at least I want to clear out the premise disagreement.
-------------------------------------------------------------

1) Terminology
What surprises and saddens me the most when the first postings of ET came out
is that our government gets the blame and insult for everything.

(The following sentences are not meant to be a 'loyalty expression',
but rather a fact that most Indonesians consider the government as.
If you think you can make us topple our own government, think again !
We don't hate it as much as you do. :)

What has been considered insults were :
	- calling the government a facist regime
	- calling the government Suharto's regime
	- calling the government dictatorial and oppressive
These are all untrue to your average Indonesian. (again my opinion only)
It sounds highly
exaggerated simply because we feel we do not live in that kind of
terror and chaos. In fact, I assume that most posters here have
a better economic status, which only suggests that we live quite
happily, and do not feel that the government is facist, dictatorial
and even opressive. In fact, most of us agree that the government
has made it possible significant progress on how we live.

What you refer to as such horrible characteristics of the government
simply does not apply to most of Indonesia.
All of the achievements of your so-called 'Suharto's Regime'
is all forgotten just to pinpoint an unfortunate tragedy that
happened in ET last year. You want to throw away 25 years
of hard work just for 1 lousy mistake.

Our view (my opinion only) is that the government is not in any
way :
	1. Dictatorial
	2. Facist
	3. Oppressive
	4. Imperialist
	5. Communist
	6. Non-democratic
So *please* stop calling the Indonesian government those things, and stop
degrading our government all the time.
These words are extreme, and you and I are well aware that extremists
will always fight.

What I agree on is that some officials are still corrupt.
But then what country doesn't have corruption, especially a developing one ?
Does the term 'friendship connections' mean anything ?
And loyalty to your friends most of the time exceeds
loyalty to 'the law book'. Thats become a part of the culture, I suppose,
and that is what is different from the US.
Personally I'm glad we're not worshipping the law as the US is,
justice can be flexible depending on the situation; the philosophy is
that 'the law serves us', not 'we are servants of the law'.
One example is the Malaysian government's strict law code makes
it impossible to deport people carrying drugs. They always face
the death sentence. Once an Indonesian was arrested, but the
government is helpless against the justice system, so he cannot
be deported, no way of preventing another death just because
of a few letters on paper.
Although beaureaucracy and corruption have disappeared from at least
my face, it still happens, simply because of the lower economic
status of most government workers and public servants.
But now much measures have been taken to eliminate corruption,
wanted renegade money swindlers are broadcast on public television
requesting their arrest, which can take quite a portion of the time,
I tell you.

---------------------------------------
Ok, so here's the more important stuff.
Second, some factual disagreements :
---------------------------------------

1) Diversity

Tolerance is highly promoted and is very valuable in Ind.
It's not just SIMPLE 'respect', is the whole concept
of living together, integrating, and helping each other.

You said respect the differences of people that make our big country.
Respect is simply not enough. We are not planning on conservatively
preserving our lives to ourselves, but in fact, we have to introduce
a new way of living, that is, co-existing with each other over all
the different and hundreds of cultures in Indonesia.

And the government's plans is way beyond promoting 'respect'.
We are promoting tolerance and 'integration', which you seem
to object to.

2) Integration

Integration means co-existing and living with one another as
one people. You see it as destroying a people and oppressing
factions. No way. We see it as the only way this country can survive.
The only way the whole world can prevent wars, blah, blah, etc.

Integration IS possible, and I don't see it happening anywhere
else in the world. This is what Indonesia is unique in, and
must be taken into consideration if you mention 'Timor People'.


I will leave any conclusions up to you.
I simply don't have time to continue this article :)

Best regards,
	Andre N.
-- 
Andre Nurwono               | "Ho, haha, guard, turn, dodge, parry, spin, ha,
andrean@cs.utexas.edu       |  thrust... (BOINNNG!)"  - Daffy Duck
Newsgroups: alt.culture.indonesia