Hi friends:

We in Calgary are very surprise with the overwhelming support, both spiritual and in action, from Internet friends regarding the human right issues of victims in the current indonesian riots. To begin with, let us introduce ourselves a bit. I am a Malaysia-chinese studying at the

Univ of Calgary and Paul Cheng is a hong kong immigrant who has been in Canada from about 10 yrs. We are also working together with some other friends from hong kong. We do not formally has a group. A little bit more details, Calgary is located in the western Canada right next to the Rocky mountain. There is also not as much chinese in Calgary as in Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal.

Initially, there are 2 plans we were thinking to implement in order to help victims in the country. 1st is to put a full-page ad in a major indonesian newspaper, such as the Kompas, the Replubika, or the Jakarta Post; and 2nd is to initiate a petition letter campaign to the western govn't with as many signatures as possible. It seems like putting a full-page ad in indonesia is more time-urging at this moment, given that new Prez Habibie is a little bit more democratic and less hard-liner than Suharto. However, we run into 2 problems. First, none of us know indonesian language (except for myself that knows little bit of Malays)

and secondly, none of us has much knowledge about the environment and connection in the

country. We have tried the Calgary Indonesian Community but their responses to us are more than disappointing. Luckily we have offeres of help from you all which are very encouraging to us. Especially people in ICC (Indonesian Chinese Community) who can easily solve the 2 main problems. We therefore hope that people in ICC, if possible, are able to take on the main tasks in composing the ad in Indonesian Language and also making connection inside indonesia for this plan to come true. Please let us know what you ppl in ICC think, thank you. However, we are willing to support the project financially. We have put together US1000 (courtest of Paul) for this ad campaign. We are not sure if this would be enough for putting a full-page ad in indo. Shall we need more money, we hope that Huaren.org, INDO CHAOS and other concerned groups would place a fund raising notice in their respective web pages.

As for the contents of the ad, our thoughts are that we wish to point out all the good sides of racial harmonic without attacking the indo-govn't by any mean. The points that we would like to address in the ad can be as the following:

1. Riots in the past 30 years (especially those anti-chinese riots) has been a major disaster for the govnt's efforts in promoting their international image. Indo has been the leader in the 3rd world (Non-alliance Movement??) and is the largest "Islamic" country in population. Those riots, and if any in the future, would have big negative impact for Indonesia to continue its leadership.

2. This past riot has shown that foreign investors and tourists would be scared away in a very efficient manner. The govn';t in Taipei has been reviewing their "Go-South" economic policy; the western govn't has been advising their fellow investors to slow down or pull back

investment in Indonesia; all as a result of the riot. With the current financial turnmoil in the region, foreign investment is vital to the recovery of the economic. Scaring them away would prolong the financial crisis and the all Indonesian people would be suffered. For example,

when a foreign investor saw in TV the burning of shops, would he still be interested to put his investment in Indonesia? Every shop was burnt is equivalent to the loss of hundreds of jobs because it scare away the foreign investors and tourists! Who suffer the most? The Indonesian people, not the shop owners!

3. Re-constructing the country after messes left by the current riot requires people of all races in indonesian working hand-in-hand. It would be wise for the govn't to ensure the life, property, and human rights of all nations in indonesia in order for them to work without

worry in re-constructing the country.

4. Ask the Indonesian government to create an independent committee for promoting racial harmony. Prez. Habibie should appoint a dignitary to head this committee. The task of the committee is to study ways to improve racial harmony and promote a better image worldwide (or to repair the international image damaged by the recent riots).

I am sure there are more suitable points. We urge all of you, especially those who are from Indonesia and know its environment, to give input to the above suggestions. Thank you very much for your time and effort in helping. Working together can make things come true,

that's our believes.

Keong (keong@ensu.ucalgary.ca).