X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.3 PL11]
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Sun, 11 Oct 1992 15:04:35 EDT
From:         "(Erwin Brisbanuharto)" <ebrisban@CS.MTU.EDU>
Subject: Re: Response on ET
              Wirosoetisno" at Oct 9, 92 6:55 pm

Djoko:
>    But Erwin, it seems to me that most people who argue for the current
> Indonesian government's policy do _not_ know the problem. I certainly
> was not aware of the problem while I was in Indonesia [ I wonder
> why ... :-) ], and I think most Indonesians were once in the same
> position.

Salam kenal untuk bung Djoko...

Djoko,
I feel sorry if you did not know the problem while you were in Indonesia.
From the mass media you could actually sense for what's going on
in Indonesia although it wouldn't be saying "HEY WE HAVE A PROBLEM HERE."
However, you are not alone. Not too many Americans know their own
problems. Not too many Japanese know their past acts.. etc.

Here, we have been fed a lot ET news by ETAN and _you_know_who_.
Do you think we should believe and swallow the news???

Last night, I just talked about ET to one of my friends after our local
permias meeting. He said that there is no such a big gap (as big as we
both had imagined) between East Timorese and non East Timorese in ET.
That's not an interesting story, is it??? The interesting part
is that he knew the story from his aunt who IS a sister at one of
the Churches in East Timor. That makes the whole story a lot different.
I was really surprised to hear the story last night.

Certainly, we in SEASIA-L have been fed up with news written by
western journalists. The news are mostly based on their misbeliefs
about Indonesia, filled with dictatorship and brutalism; just like
what they think about other third world countries.
When good news come along in SEASIA-L, _you_know_who_ who posted
the news on SEASIA-L said:
> This Antara story, written with
> obvious venom and plainly propagandistic, is much more representative
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> of Indonesian views ....
(please see SEASIA-L LOG9203, on Subject: Indonesia Hardens on Timor)

Afterall, Mr Alan Nairn of New Yorker who was in Dili on Nov 12 and
has been telling the incident had been critized before by Noam Chomsky
for his "forgeting" to tell the real story and the people behind Gramajo's
mass murderers. Now, did he forget something in Santa Cruz incident?
Did he tell the truth, nothing but the truth?

> Unfortunately, some of our fellows still refuse to acknowledge
> this problem --- and you can't solve a problem by denying that it exists.

We don't deny the existence, do we?

> > But don't tell me how to do that.
>
>    I don't think Max and others were telling you what to do or how
> [ correct me if I'm wrong ], they just want to make others aware of
> what's happening in Timor Timur [ East Timor ] and to put pressure
                                                     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> on Indonesian government to end its occupation.
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Exactly what they tell us to do, eh???
Just like Phil Collins and his Genesis say:
"Do it what I say, don't do it what I do"

If they want us to do something, give us an example.
We don't have too much money to solve it by trial-and-error,
we do whatever developed countries succesfully did because
we want to be developed, don't we??? ...;-)

Salam,
Erwin