Children and diversity

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Wed, 09/05/2007 2:19 PM | Opinion

Sept. 3, p.2

Author Dr. Lie says that people in Indonesia are divided along ethnic, religious and class lines.

Perhaps I am an optimist. If religious teachings were about the beliefs of different religions to show their common ground rather than why one religion is superior to another, there would be greater acceptance of diversity.

And if history was taught to show the contributions of all ethnic groups to the culture of a nation, there would be greater acceptance of various ethnic groups.

This applies to my own country, the U.S., as well.

JOYCE ANTILA PHIPPS
Plalinfield, U.S.
joyceantila@yahoo.com

Nowadays, religion, ethnicity and class have become important and global issues and have become more popular. This follows the tendency of global change, where people, in one case, feel that religion, ethnicity and class have divided people.

In the other case, still more people maintain the existence of those three things. Now we need multiculturalism to link the people. Most people believe that the multicultural doctrine will be able to build peace in the world.

But it seems that multiculturalism will not be able to guarantee peace because we know that more nations keep maintaining their own cultures. They still believe that their cultures are perfect.

This is one example. What are the religions like? Religious values are needed to raise awareness in building relationships. I believe that all the people in our country or in the world could learn from each religion properly.

Build a good understanding and appreciate each other and there will be no problems when children are divided by ethnicity, religion or class. All are diverse. The question is how to unite them in their diversity. This is the thing that we should think about.

TABRANI YUNIS
Banda Aceh, tabrani_y@yahoo.com

Fighting with the neighbors

Sept. 1, p.3

I understand how Indonesians feel about this. However, you can not say that we're not really taking care of your people here in Malaysia.

Recently, an Indonesian maid killed a baby because of abuse and other problems. We Malaysians kept this news in the country, even though we were really angry about it. But we knew that this person would be punished.

I'm not sure what would happen if Malaysians could show anger like your people did in Indonesia. I really appreciated that your people really helped Malaysia build our nations together.

If you can get a statistics about the crimes committed by Indonesian people here, I'm sure you would realize that we are not really bad people.

In fact, we talk in the same language. Indonesians here are treated more nicely than migrants from other countries.

Anyway, I hope our relationship will never end.

SYAH
Kuala Lumpur, syah_hins@yahoo.com

As a Malaysian, I have worked and lived in Jakarta, and of course I like it here but I have to be proud that I was educated in Malaysia.

Indonesians are peace-loving people and a handful are troublesome and emotional. Why the big hoo-hah when thousands are happy working in Malaysia?

My maid from Lampung has been with us for more than eight years. She is like family to us and has never been mistreated.

Here I question the karate referee -- as a member of a sporting delegation, why on earth was he on the street at 2 a.m. when he is supposed to be in bed -- where is the discipline than?

If he claims that he wants to eat, the hotel has a coffee house and it is the right of any police officer to stop any suspicious looking character any where in the world at weird hours.

DZUL
Johor Baru, Malaysia
contact_dz@hotmail.com

UI's lecturers

I had always believed that the University of Indonesia was an excellent university with a good reputation. Therefore I was saddened to learn that lecturers frequently turn up late or not at all because they are busy with their outside interests.

The students, who have paid a lot of money for their education, are getting a very poor deal.

I have come to realize that very little in Indonesia is done honestly and fairly. It's a shame. It really is a shame. Would the rector of U.I. care to comment -- because if he doesn't care, who does?

David John Cosslett
Jakarta, dcosslett@ialf.edu

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