A sense of urgency needed

Two news items did not make front page headlines in local media late last week because they could not compete with other big news items, such as the seemingly erratic police hunt for the suspects in the Bali blasts, the not-so-surprising Republican sweep of the U.S. midterm elections, and the ensuing UN Security Council's tough resolution on Iraq.

One news item confirmed the continuing decline of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Indonesia. Total FDI approvals dropped by 11 percent for the first nine months of this year compared to the same period of last year. Worse still, domestic investment approvals plunged even further by about 70 percent during the same period.

The other news item suggested the high probability of yet another two million jobless people -- added to the currently estimated 38 million unemployed workers in the country -- as a result of the Oct. 12 terrorist strike in Bali. In Bali alone, unemployment may rise by 600,000.

"We are predicting the worst," said Coordinating Minister for Social Welfare Jusuf Kalla.

Both missed prominent places in the local media assumingly not because they are less important than other news, nor because they will not negatively affect the already hard life of the reading society of this country.

The decline of FDI approvals as announced by Investment Coordinating Board(BKPM) chairman Theo F. Toemion should concern all of us.

First, because it accounts for the period before the Bali carnage of Oct. 12, meaning the worst is yet to come.

Second, the figures announced cover only the approvals of FDI, not the implementation of investments that presumably will be less promising.

Third, it compounds the adverse impacts of last year's decline in FDI approvals, which was already down by more than 41.5 percent from the previous year.

The increase of unemployment by a couple of million as conveyed by Jusuf Kalla after last week's Cabinet meeting certainly is pertinent to the plight of this impoverished nation, which has been muddling through multidimensional crises for the last five years with no light appearing at the end of the tunnel. Forty million jobless people in this country easily translates to about 100 million, maybe more, mouths in dire need of the very basic necessities of life.

Even before the Bali carnage, the socioeconomic conditions of this country had been adversely affected by lingering social unrest, labor disputes and a lack of confidence in the legal system, as pointed out by Theo F. Thumion. After Oct. 12, it become much worse, not only because tourism, which is very much dependent on Bali and accounts for a large chunk of the nation's foreign exchange income, is immediately hurt badly, but also because most developed countries are suddenly treating this country as a leper, a pariah nation that can be terrorized with impunity.

Moreover, almost a month after the Bali carnage, the national tragedy has not turned the country into a cohesive nation harnessing all available resources to tackle the seemingly insurmountable challenges. On the contrary, it is more like business as usual. As if the grave situation we are facing will eventually disappear by itself. Worse still, it is as if those 100 million hungry mouths are not there if we don't look at them.

What else does this nation need to rouse a sense of urgency?