I’m writing to congratulate Jemma on the ethnicity issue of Inside Indonesia. It’s one of the best and most interesting I’ve ever read, with an excellent range of topics and writings. The emphasis on diverse ethnic identities and the proposed topic for further debate — ‘Will regional autonomy erode Indonesian nationalism?’ — leaves the reader with a sense that centrifugal forces may now be on the brink of outweighing the centripetal force of nationalism that has helped hold the country together since 1945 or 1950. I’m still rather sceptical about that, although I don’t know how we can best measure the strength of the two pulls. The current strength of nationalism as the glue also needs to be shown as a background to the new manifestations of ethnic identity. I suspect that recent manifestations of Chinese ethnic self-consciousness probably don’t represent a centrifugal drift in the way that, for instance, Riau ethnicity does, or Maluku.

Jamie Mackie
22 April 2004

Eye opener

Hello. I am amazed by your magazine’s reports about Indonesia. I was looking up Indonesian newspapers until I stumbled upon the website. I realised Indonesia has changed since my family and I left the country around 1990. Recently I have become an American citizen and I want to look back on my Chinese-Indonesian background. I’m very grateful that your magazine has opened my eyes to the improvements in Indonesia. Hopefully, one day I can come back and see how much things have changed and visit the rest of my relatives in Bandung. Thank you and keep reporting about Indonesia’s culture.

Meryl
6 February 2004

Perfect timing

I’d like to say ‘Many thanks!’ for the new Inside Indonesia, which arrived with perfect timing! I work as a year 12 teacher and this month the students are studying a unit that discussed Chinese ethnics. A lack of books and other sources had meant that we’d had to cancel our plans before issue no. 78 arrived. Several articles in English about Malays, (‘Remembering today’ and ‘How to be Chinese’) were very interesting. Anggiet Aiefianto’s translation of Chang-yau Hoon’s article (‘Kebangkitan Bahasa dan Budaya Cina’, The Rise of Chinese Language and Culture) was an interesting read and easy for the English-speaking students to understand.

Finian Augustin
21 April 2004

Be part of the solution

Just like to drop you a line and tell you how much I’ve enjoyed reading some of your back issues and articles on the web, especially the article entitled ‘From jungkies to jihad’ (II no. 75, July–September 2003).

I’ve always believed that if you’re not part of the solution, then you truly are part of the problem. Laine Berman touched on the solution within this article; have you any others of a similar vein that you could direct me to?

I’m back in Melbourne after living in Palembang, and have found time to catch up on some reading. I only wish I could have got a hold of your magazine on those boring nights in Sumatra when I was craving for something interesting and challenging to read that was written in English!

Well done, keep up the good work.

Paul Jawa
18 April 2004