Indonesia’s most influential newsweekly TEMPO this week features Indonesia-Malaysia relations as its cover story with the headline Unneighbourly Relations.The magazine’s cover story, headlinedTrying Times in Chow Kit questions Rela’s treatment of Indonesian workers. There is also a story, The Lion’s Den which featured Rela and and an interview with Rela chieftian Dato Zaidon Asmuni with the headline – feel the arrogance – Indonesians Don’t Know Our Power. There’s also a story of Indonesian worker Suryani Tas who is waiting to deliver a child conceived after her rape by a Rela member. Ironically, she’s naming her child Mahathir.
Unspun thinks that TEMPO is on sale in Malaysia. Am too busy now but will upload scanned copies of the relevant articles later for those who cannot hold of a copy. It is important for Malaysians to read what others think of Rela and Malaysia from a media that is not controlled by the government.
When will Malaysia ever learn that you shouldn’t engage in a pissing contest with a neighbor 10 times your population?
Here’s an extract of TEMPO’s editorial on Indonesia-Malaysia relations:
“After the recent uproar over the treatment of our domestic workers and other Indonesian visitors, perhaps we need to re-examine the relationship. In the past, relation reached a level where the expression “member of the same family” was frequently, and we think appropriately, bandied about. But lately there are problems between our two societies that should not be present in a civilized world.
There are two main concerns. Firstly, Malaysia’s rcent behavior could stem from an excessive feeling of inferiority. It could also be an example of the “newly rich syndrome” where people forget their roots and their history and feel they can act arbitarily. The best way to deal wih either of these is for both sides to sit down and speak heart-to-heart, honestly and politely and – most importantly – with open minds.”
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Unspun 
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