Methodist laywoman faces threats during Indonesian riots
5/28/1998 News media contact: Linda Bloom · (646) 369-3759 · New York NOTE: This is a sidebar to UMNS #325. by United Methodist News Service A prominent Methodist laywoman in Indonesia was among the ethnic Chinese population threatened there during recent rioting in Jakarta.
Maimunah Natasha, a member of the World Methodist Council executive committee, lives in the Pluit section of Jakarta, a largely Chinese residential area. She owns a scrap metal business, which includes two steel fabrication plants, one in Jakarta and one just outside the city.
The Rev. Ken M. Johnson and his wife Evelyn of Lake Junaluska, N.C., were houseguests of Natasha when the riots began on May 12. They had arrived April 2 as volunteers to serve at Emmanuel Methodist Church, a nine-year-old English-speaking congregation.
"Even before we went, we were aware that the government had permitted demonstrations on campus but did not permit demonstrations off-campus," said Johnson, who had served another congregation in Indonesia in 1995. But after six students were killed on campus, either by police or the military, "it really got out of control."
As the students took to the streets, they were joined by rioters angry about high prices for food, fuel and other items in a deteriorating economy. Much of the anger was directed at the ethnic Chinese population because of their economic success and wealth. Hundreds of Chinese-owned shops, banks, restaurants, homes and cars were looted and burned.
Johnson pointed out to United Methodist News Service, as he said he did in a faxed letter to President Clinton, that the second- and third-generation Chinese in Indonesia "should be commended for their contributions to the nation, not stoned and burned and punished."
Natasha's house unexpectedly gained extra security after her daughter, Lily, notified authorities about possible looters at the Mega Mall across the street. Three truckloads of soldiers were dispatched. "While they were there to guard Mega Mall (owned by one of President Suharto's daughters), the proximity of the military was actually of benefit to us," Johnson said.
The Johnson's "hunkered down" at the house until their return to the United States on May 17. In a May 20 e-mail, Natasha reported to them that she had driven through the "post-war city" after church services that Sunday. She found an "uncountable" number of shops and buildings destroyed or burned to the ground.
"I would say Jakarta is no more as it was," Natasha wrote as she prepared to leave for a trip to Malaysia. "People are leaving this country. The airport was packed all the time. Thousands of people were waiting for available flights."
# # #
|
Back : News Archives 1998 Main
|
Korean News
