Yesterday I have a chat with my friend. He is Colombian, and we talked about
Che Guevara. In the International point of view, we saw that Che Guevara is a revolutionist, a great man that do a lot of great things. But for him, Che Guevara is a rebel, a killer(he killed a lot of people there), or even a terrorist(he even stated out that his lecturer said that Che Guevara is the biggest terrorist in South America). Well, that is really new to me.. but, yeah I accepted his point of view. Because I know he is the one who is really experienced it and learned about it from both aspect. From their government point of view, and from international point of view. While I just read from Wikipedia. So my knowledge is really narrowed and un-balanced.
These things also reminded me about the conflict in Timor Leste. When i was a kid, in an elementary school, I learn about that conflict.. And of course our textbook that we use there in school are made by Indonesian government. So when I learn about the Timor Leste, I saw that Indonesian government are very kind and generous towards them. I read that before Indonesian government came, Timor Leste is the last nation in 1970's that still suffer from colonialism. And then our government came there, and liberate and develop the region. I think that time i agree with the term "liberate", because I saw that there's nothing there before we came. The land is not good enough to grow crops, there's no irrigation system, the people mostly are uneducated(the literacy rate is just 7%), other infrastructure there are also undeveloped.
After Indonesian government came, we give a huge amount of money to build roads, schools, hospitals, irrigation system, and give fund for local people to study in Surabaya or Jakarta, but we receive nothing from them. We don't gain profit, because there's no important commodities that came from that region. There's no important natural resources that can be sold. Simply by that time, I just said that Timor Leste is suffered, and then we rescue and help them.
Only after the internet era came, I can learn by myself from a lot of other international sources that, in the International world, our image as a nation is drop because of
this. They never use the terms "liberate". They said that Indonesia is "invading" Timor Leste. And by the process of invation, we killed a lot of local people, we use guns, and bomber plane to take control of the region. Hundred thousands of people are died in this process. And so, right now my point of view about Timor Leste and Indonesian government is changed. I agree that Indonesian government is indeed invading Timor Leste. But still, if we're looking from Indonesian Government point of view, they will still think that they're doing the good thing there also. And that's what makes the majority of Indonesian think: that we're doing the right thing there.
If it's the truth that we're so kind to them, so why d'they want to leave us??Well, the main lesson that I can get from the story is that, if we want to know the truth, we can't just rely on one source of information. We have to
see from each point-of-view. And then, we can make a judgement. If we just know from one side, then we don't have rights to decide where is the one who is right or wrong. Because it's the nature of human to said that their selves are the most right, the most knowledgeable, and wise. etc.
