Salon.com > Jeff Pulice

Letter from Jakarta: After the sky falls

Thu, 11 Jun 1998 19:00:00 +0000

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- June 10: In my last two letters I wrote about the chaos and terror that took over Jakarta -- and especially the expatriate community in Jakarta -- for a few weeks last month. There are more stories, much worse stories, to tell -- but I'm not ready to write that letter yet. In the meantime, even as these stories circulate, a kind of giddy euphoria has also overtaken life here, when what seemed impossible, inconceivable, just a few months ago is suddenly reality. The two twist, coexist, in weird ways -- as they do in the thoughts that follow.

What happens when 80 percent of your fellow expatriates leave screaming, when the majority of shopping centers are irrevocably gone, when everything you trust and distrust is thrown into the air to flutter down like feathers?

1.) Skilled professionals become harder to find

Letter from Jakarta: Part 2

Fri, 29 May 1998 19:00:00 +0000

JAKARTA, INDONESIA -- May 22: Today, after the triple shock waves of A) Suharto's resigning, B) Habibie's taking over and C) my finding out that roughly 80 percent of the Americans here have left, it is decided that a party for visiting journalists and other hardy souls would be nice. My idea to call it "The Party for People Who Didn't Run Screaming for The Exits" is quickly and mercilessly ignored. While I might sound a bit flippant, please know that my ethnic-Chinese wife and I both agree that she should not go into downtown with me.

Stories have been coming in about what happened to my friends. It might have looked bad on CNN -- but imagine this: You're a French citizen, living here for seven years. You find yourself trapped in a burning shopping complex, surrounded by flames and looters, none of whom are smiling at you. At home, your Indonesian-Chinese wife and your two children are standing by the phone, praying with a friend, as they hear the neighborhood runners shouting out the location of the looting and burning.

"It's at the school three blocks over! They're breaking the windows!"

Letter from Jakarta

Fri, 22 May 1998 19:00:00 +0000

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- May 20: "The American Embassy advises all American citizens to avoid nonessential travel to Indonesia at this time. American citizens are urged to leave Indonesia."

I bang the top of the monitor with my fist. I knew that the rise in fuel and food prices would drive people into the streets. I knew that there might be some looting and that maybe my Chinese/Sudanese/Dutch wife and her family might need to stay off the streets for a few days.

But now I am being asked to leave. Seven years of teaching, of making friends from every circle of Indonesian society -- would I run?

My cell phone, both land lines and my e-mail are flying with messages. My friends and family here are desperate for information -- what's burning? Who's been hurt? Where is safe? My U.S. friends and family are simply sticking to one message: "Get out. Get out now!"

Paul, my best friend here, calls, worried.

"Uh, buddy, how would you feel about me coming out and staying with you a few days?"

CNN says the roads are blocked, Singapore's Straits Times says looters are pulling non-Indonesians from their cars. My house is big and easy to defend with high walls and guards, but Paul is all the way across the city.