"They used the water from the fire station to wash the blood from the streets," 49-year-old Saiful Hadi said as he gazed at the fire station building in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, 25 years after the bloody event took place.

Saiful was a victim of the 1984 Tanjung Priok tragedy. The death toll has not been clearly established until today, but some residents claimed there were as many as 400 people either killed or missing.

Your comments:
The Tanjung Priok case is one of the many brutalities of the Soeharto regime.

The regime legalized mass killing in the name of Pancasila, unity and integrity of the country.

It is irritating that whenever clashes break out between the military and civilians, the winner is usually the military. Where is the law? The law belongs to the military. It is not fair.

I do realize that today is different from the past. But the faults, the mistakes should be made clear. Where is justice?

Until now people still condemn the policies of the past. For the re-elected President, please erase one by one the brutal memories of the past. Please.

Ardiyanos
Jakarta

Letter: Don't abuse our friendship--Sept. 7, p. 20

Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia are often considered the same. We are the same color, our languages don't differ that much and we eat the same food. Indonesia can be said to be the root of both Malaysia's and Singapore's cultures.

It's true that Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia used to be the same; however, that was long before the colonization of our countries.

Your comments:
It is not that Malaysians cannot use Indonesian culture; they can, as long as they acknowledge it comes from Indonesia, and not claim that it is homegrown by Malaysians. In Indonesia, we also have Dutch culture here and there in our lives, but we always acknowledge that it is Dutch culture, not ours, which as it so happens has been incorporated heavily by our late colonial rulers. How would the Dutch feel if we suddenly claimed poffertjes as ours?

Francesca
Singapore

I am all for your opinion. Why so critical about the dance, clothes and songs? I was told my country's "Negaraku" was written by an Indonesian. OK, fair if it's true. Then why do the Indonesians sing "Indonesia Raya"? Why do Indonesians not promote highly the Pendet? Poor management by the government! Batik? Come on, it is just a name given to the type of dress. Malaysians use Bahasa Malay, which is almost similar to Bahasa Indonesia. We should call it other name. You know what? China should "Ganyang Singapore" for using the cheongsam as their national dress.

Shariff
Kuala Lumpur

Shariff, I don't get your point about why Indonesians sing "Indonesia Raya". Unless Malaysian composed this song and we claimed it as ours since day zero and excluded you in the history of the making of the song, you can complain and mock it. Your narrow-minded Malay mind-set cannot differentiate between Pendet and Zapin in your state of Johor, with "Negaraku" as your national anthem.

If batik is just a name for a dress, why doesn't your king just wear T-shirts at public events? Obviously you as Malay have no deep attachment to batik since it is not a big part of your culture anyway. (I know Malaysia has its own designs of batik, the colorful ones, but, I just feel it has no elegant aristocratic feel to it). China won't "ganyang Singapore", because Singapore has informed people that the cheongsam is from China, and Singaporeans are mostly Chinese.

Toni Alfian
Jakarta

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