'Colonial mentality' behind deportation

BY SEAN HEALY

The only one of the 32 foreign nationals detained after the June 8 raid on the Jakarta solidarity conference to be singled out for official deportation from Indonesia was Farooq Tariq, the general secretary of the Labour Party Pakistan.

Tariq returned home to Lahore on June 14 to a warm welcome from family, friends and supporters.

There he told journalists that "the decision to deport me shows the colonial mentality of the Indonesian bureaucracy. The discriminatory decision against me has put my life ... in danger."

He believes that the decision to deport him, while all the other foreign nationals were free to go, was because "police authorities ... put a lot of pressure on the immigration authorities to do something to save [face] ... [and] give police some credibility".

The formal grounds was that he had "violated" the terms of his tourist visa. Police claimed that such visas do not allow their holders to attend conferences. All the other foreign nationals had short stay passes issued on entry; such passes are not available to Pakistani nationals.

Tariq's passport was stamped that he had been deported.

From GLW issue 452