No Need to be Indonesian Citizen to Respect The Country

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B.D.K. Saldin, one of the Sri Lankan Malays, invited in the flag raising ceremony to commemorate Indonesian Independence day at the Indonesian embassy compound in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Aug.17, 2011, is Indonesian native

COLOMBO,  - The flag raising ceremony to commemorate the 66th Indonesia's Independence day was held at the Indonesian Embassy's compound in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday. The ceremony chaired by Indonesian ambassador to Sri Lanka, Djafar Husein, was attended by the staff of embassy as well as their families and Sri Lankan Malays, some of them are native Indonesians.
In his speech, Djafar stated the importance of Sri Lanka and Indonesia's diplomatic relations established in 1952. According to him, Indonesia as the third biggest democratic country in the world learned that economic and political development of Sri Lanka has grown rapidly since the end of Sri Lankan civil war in May 2009.
The ambassador added that Indonesia was struggling for achieving the target of being the tenth biggest economy in the world in the next 2 decades. Djafar Husein also stated the ceremony could be used as a moment to improve better diplomatic relations between the two countries.
A Sri Lankan Malay, BDK Saldin (83), who is Indonesian native and attended the ceremony expressed his impression of joining it. "It always reminds me of my real place of origin," said the 83 year-old grandfather of two sons and two grandchildren.
"I come from Batavia (the old name of Jakarta)," answered him when asked by Kompas.com on his place of origin.
Saldin admitted of not knowing exactly who his ancestors expelled by Dutch colonialists from Javanese island to Sri Lanka in 1790 were. However, the former staff of the Indonesian embassy in Colombo from 1954-1960 claimed of being always proud of becoming Indonesian native eventhough he is a Sri Lankan citizen.