Army begins campaign to save the nation

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Army launched on Tuesday a major public awareness campaign with a moral appeal to the people to save the nation, which it claims is on the brink of disintegration.

The Army distributed posters depicting four children of different ethnic backgrounds, with a caption that reads mau dibawa kemana kami (where are you taking us?), and a sub-caption selamatkan masa depan kami (save our future).

Army chief of staff Gen. Endriartono Sutarto introduced the campaign during a gathering with media leaders at the Army headquarters in Jakarta on Tuesday.

"The life of this nation has been colored by social tensions and conflicts at every level. Tensions among the political elite have been followed by horizontal conflicts at the grassroots level. This is undermining the prosperity of the nation and the integrity of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia," the Army said in a statement.

Children of different ethnic backgrounds were used in the poster campaign because "they are the nation's future who are still innocent and untainted from political interests," it said.

"The Army appeals to every component of the nation to return to the spirit of reform, so that a democratic and prosperous society can be achieved intact within the unitary state."

Since the reformation era, the Army has been stripped of most of its responsibility and authority to oversee internal security, now largely the job of the National Police.

As part of the reformation process, the military has also retreated from the political arena which it dominated for more than three decades until the downfall of strongman president Soeharto in 1998.

"The Army feels it is dutibound to try to ease the social tensions and conflicts ... by using persuasive means," it said.