T

he persecution and harassment of the Ahmadiyah and other religious minorities in Indonesia have not yet been addressed and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has put this problem on the back burner. The Myanmar government is not doing anything to resolve the problems facing the Muslim Rohingya.

Indonesia and Myanmar should learn from Vietnam. The Vietnamese government has not alienated any ethnic tribe in the country, and a good example of this comes from its treatment of the ethnic Hmong mountain tribes.

According to the English-language newspaper Vietnam News (Dec. 16) this ethnic nomadic tribe with their slash and burn agricultural techniques, have now settled in homes built for them by the government in mountainous regions in an effort to stop their agricultural techniques from destroying rainforests. The government has also allocated farmlands for each family.

Infrastructure was put into place enabling these people to easily reach nearby villages for their shopping. The military helped to improve their agricultural skills and now the Hmong tribes live peacefully, working hard on their farmlands. They are not suffering from hunger and malnutrition anymore. They are also allowed to practice their own religion i.e. Shamanism and worshipping the spirits of their ancestors.

Indonesia and Myanmar should follow the example of Vietnam. Although 85 percent of the population in Vietnam are Mahayana Buddhists, almost 10 percent are Christians (Roman Catholics, Protestants and Russian orthodox) with the rest either Muslim, Hindu, Cao Dai or Hoa Hao. No religious discrimination is allowed by the government and no religious unrest exists.

Each religious group is allowed to practice their own beliefs.

Lynna van der Zee-Oehmke
Hanoi, Vietnam