This is a comment on an article titled "A friendly chat with Geert Wilders," (The Jakarta Post, May 15).

Thank you very much for your very kind article. I certainly don't mind speaking to you directly. We Dutch like all kinds of intimacies. I am very happy to hear that you like our football, our tulips and maybe even our well-known modesty. I also want to make it clear that I don't have anything against you Muslims.

In fact I often eat in your Indonesian restaurants and order rijsttafel with sate, babi panggang, bakmi, nasi, those crunchy things and of course a glass of Heineken to wash it all down with.

And some of my best friends are Muslims and are very good people, although, sadly, they are all dead.

I also like Muslim tourists visiting our lovely Holland to see the canals of Amsterdam and world famous red-light district, where a lot of your compatriots are employed. It's even better if the Muslim tourists are rich and spend a lot of money on miniature clogs or other useless things.

But last time I was in Bukittinggi I had an odd experience. There was a very friendly guide (so friendly I even thought that he fancied me, being such an attractive guy of course) who showed me the clock tower and the nice fort and torture chamber etc. But the next time I met him he was a little less friendly, so I asked him "what's the matter mas (brother)?" He said that he noticed that I speak Indonesian - yes it is so easy, full of Dutch words like sate and nasi etc.

It must be that we invented that language. He said that my skill made him worried that I might want to stay longer and take away his job as a guide. I was surprised and said that we the Dutch stayed in that country before and everything was much better then. The islanders could even beat the Galapagos islands for the world cup qualification thanks to the famous Dutch coach. So I thought he would be happy if we wanted to come back. He apologized and said that he thought that the Dutch were extremely nice people, always ready for a practical joke, but that they had tried to force their will on the islanders and didn't adapt well to eating sambal and the other funny customs that you guys have.

So, after years of reflection over this experience, I eventually came to the conclusion that I think you should also adapt to Holland when living there and be able to gulp down a raw herring.

In your country you can forbid those ugly British tourists from wearing bikinis and shorts when they visit those Muslim temples north of the Sanur Hyatt, as far as I am concerned. We gladly gave you your independence after all. So isn't that a good deal? We all decide who can stay and under which conditions. Like that we can all be good friends and I would be happy to meet you face to face next time you come to Schiphol and tell you more about the great things we achieved here like the invention of the windmill and speculation on the price of tulip bulbs.

Geert B. Wilders

Schiphol, the Netherlands

Popular

To my horror, it’s just a movie!

RI, Australia strengthen partnership on taxing crypto assets

Pentagon chief congratulates Prabowo on being elected President