Letter: On the `crazy fracas'

I refer to an opinion article titled "Battling for shared cultures," (The Jakarta Post, Oct. 14). This is the first time I read this article in Malaysia from the Internet.

First of all I would like to express a horrible surprise as to what has happened to the people in Indonesia following the advertisement shown through Discovery Channel.

It was explained to the Indonesian government that the promo piece was not produced or financed by the Malaysian government, which stressed it had nothing to do with it. The 20 minutes or so of the Bali-originated dance (I don't even know how to spell or pronounce it correctly let alone steal or claim it ours) was produced (intentionally or not?) by an independent non-Malaysian body of the channel located not in Malaysia but in Singapore, which is well known as an economic and political "rival" of Malaysia.

So much heat was generated by Indonesians in recent weeks and it seems this heat has also reached Malaysia. I still wonder who will benefits if there any from this crazy fracas, or who will suffer? Are these two countries are going to war sooner or later? Will it be a Malaysian who gets killed in Indonesia first?

Of course what happens in Indonesia involving Malaysia's pride, such as burning its flag or chasing its citizens around Jakarta, will be responded by Malaysia in the same magnitude after reaching its boiling point.

A leader of a Malay-based self-defense (pencak silat) group with thousands of followers in Malaysia has already declared his readiness to defend the country if attacked by foreigners.

It seems what the Malaysian (and probably Indonesian) government has done to ease the tension is not enough in the eyes of fellow Indonesians, but it would be appropriate to ask what else they can do if the source of heat was not from the Malaysian people or government?

Mohd Azam Abdul Rahman
Kuala Lumpur