Be a free nation

The many repetitive strategic blunders (IMF dealing, forest fires, failed economic interventions, inconsistent policies and actions regarding prices and taxes, etc.) that our government has made in dealing with our current developmental crisis demonstrate that our government institutions and the leaders are really confused. The lack of clear thinking and planning has caused our development to steer away from its course.

The current crisis is the result of our government's failure to anticipate problems associated with globalization and to predict people responses to inconsistent governmental policies. Excessive dependency on financial and technological assistance offered (at high prices) by the West as well as those Western- oriented governmental technocrats has cost us dearly.

In essence, we are not prepared to compete economically. We never developed our own tools to utilize our abundant natural resources and human resources. We are addicted to borrowing money to finance our thirst for intoxicating and addictive goods (dollars, cellular phones, cars, credit cards, luxurious hotels, synthetic drugs and materials, designer clothes, sophisticated electronic devices, etc.) which are essential for living. Slowly but surely our society has been transformed into a nation of consumeristic people.

The lure of easily obtainable foreign loans (as a tricky tool to make us dependent upon their products and goods) has caused us to be pushed into a financial abyss. There does not seem to be a way out. Now, we are being dictated to by foreign institutions and nationals how to operate our own government. We even need to get the permission of IMF to either increase or lower oil prices (our own oil from our own soil), electricity (our own electricity from our own natural resources but purchased from foreign companies through monopolized cartels operated by politically connected figures), as if we were not an independent nation. The government did not even ask the permission to increase the prices from the House of Representatives.

Now that the blood of Indonesian people has been spilled, the time has come for all of us to get rid of our greed and addiction to material things. The only solution to our current crisis is to immediately stop our dependency on foreign money and loans and unessential technological assistance. Many countries (including Iraq, Iran, some African countries, Brunei and Malaysia) have been able to manage to survive during this difficult era by simply relying upon themselves and their allies.

Have we forgotten our mission because of the lure of money and material things? Now is the time to move and unite ourselves to become a completely free and mature nation.

K. PRIBADI

Cimahi, West Java