Indonesia

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31247, 20 December 1966, Page 20

Indonesia

Sir, —“P.J.A.” says conditions at the moment are “very bad financially” in Indonesia. Since 1948 they have always been bad and they will always be, under Communists or imperialists, unless the mentality of the Indonesians changes, which is not very likely. There is no unity. People from the different islands hate each other and

racial and religious differences make it even worse. The average Indonesian does not mind what political party is in power as long as he gets his handful of rice every day. He is a peaceful, happy man whose world is his family and his kampong. He bets a little; he enjoys the simple pleasures in his immediate surroundings. Rouse him? How? Has “P.J.A.” ever thought about that? —Yours, etc., ALMOST WAS ONE. December 19, 1966.

Sir, —“P.J.A.” seems to have some of his facts wrong. Reports from that troubled country of Indonesia indicate the Indonesians themselves, without foreign help, quashed the attempted Communist take-over bid for power. It may well be correct that 300,000 lives have been lost, but does “P.J.A.” know that a death-list containing over 5,000,000 names of people who were to be purged when Aidit and his henchmen came to power was found in a Communist headquarters after the failure of the coup? In this respect it would have been the story of China all over again, as approximately 10,000,000 died when the Communist regime was established there. It has also been claimed that 23,000,000 were exterminated by Stalin between 1938 and 1953. If this is so then communism will surely gain an infamous place in history as the greatest mass murderers of humanity the world has ever seen, Adolf Hitler included.— Yours, etc., ROB ROY. December 19, 1966.