ABRI officer says openness cause of Indonesia's dilemma

ABRI officer says openness cause of Indonesia's dilemma

JAKARTA (JP): The openness that Indonesia is pursuing is
creating a dilemma as the society is not entirely ready for it, a
senior military official said yesterday.

"On the one hand, the government has encouraged responsible
openness, but on the other hand, the members of society are not
yet ready for it," said Maj. Gen. Hari Sabarno, an assistant to
the head of the Social and Political Affairs at the Armed Forces
(ABRI).

Speaking on behalf of ABRI Commander Gen. Feisal Tanjung at a
teachers' congress, Hari noted that certain groups of people are
still demanding greater openness without considering others'
interests.

"As a consequence, we are frequently finding provocative news
reports in various publications. Such reports can endanger
national unity," Hari said at the fourth day of the 17th congress
of the All Indonesian Teachers Union (PGRI).

He added that if not well managed, openness could be like a
boomerang.

The general called on teachers to prepare students to
understand the responsible openness now being pursued by the
government.

"This is one of the challenges facing teachers in enhancing
the quality of Indonesian manpower, so they will be able to
translate and accept openness in a professional manner," Hari
told some 11,000 teachers from all over the country.

Besides the openness issue, Hari also listed other challenges
that must be addressed by the congress.

Ideology

He noted that certain people are now questioning Pancasila as
the nation's ideology as well as way of life, although there has
been a national consensus to accept Pancasila as the sole basic
principle. "In questioning Pancasila, they mask themselves with
scientific research."

Then there are also people who criticize the government in the
name of democracy "as if there is no democracy at all in
Indonesia." These people, he said, are mostly those who received
basic education on liberal democracy, which is actually not
suitable for Indonesia.

"We have experiences on liberal, parliamentary as well as
guided democracies, but none are suitable for us until we feel
comfortable with the Pancasila democracy," he said.

However, references about the Pancasila democracy are very
few, and therefore PGRI is challenged to provide books on it so
students will have a clear and unified perception of the
democracy based on Pancasila.

Another challenge for teachers is the current economic
practices which have deviated from the principle of the familial
spirit as stipulated in Article 33 of the Constitution.

"This is because we cannot free ourselves from the mechanism
of a global market economy. This is another challenge for PGRI to
make its economics teachers write textbooks on Indonesia's
economic philosophy," Hari said. (11)