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Letter: Send skillful workers only

I think it is better to have a friend than an enemy

The Jakarta Post

Tue, September 7, 2010 Published on Sep. 7, 2010 Published on 2010-09-07T09:49:25+07:00

I

think it is better to have a friend than an enemy. A war is out of the question. The people have suffered so much from natural and manmade disasters. However, we have to discuss matters on an equal level. Our President should have called the Malaysian Ambassador, in the first place, to demand an explanation of the incident, or even invited the Malaysian Foreign Minister to his office. In fact, he should have done that in other cases too, like with the terrorists from Malaysia.

Now that demonstrations have been staged at the Malaysian Embassy, we need him to act as our leader, show his people that he deserves their respect and support at this difficult time, just as president Sukarno did during the confrontation with Malaysia in his era. He should tell his people that demonstrations are all right, but they should be carried out in a dignified manner.

Sending uneducated and unskilled people to work abroad is like legalizing human trafficking. People abroad will regard all Indonesians as pariahs.

Rosiana Budiman
Bogor, West Java