Between hope and fear

At least three major events await Indonesians in the coming year -- the general election, the general session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) and the formation of a new government. Given the condition which the nation is in at the moment, the general election will constitute a critical point. Our ability to cross it will greatly help to determine the nation's future and solve the problems we are at present facing, whether political, economic, legal or cultural.

Why? Because the problems which our nation has to confront at the moment are just too huge and complex to be solved by either the current government or by any public figure individually, however great his or her influence.

Because of this, our hopes are mixed with apprehension as we prepare to enter the New Year. We worry that we might not have the necessary wisdom and thus cause this nation to drift ever further away from the reform path towards building a transparent, democratic, just and prosperous civil society.

However, our hopes far surpass our fears because we have already come to a point of no return where there is no other choice left but to build such a society or our bad experiences of the recent past will recur in the future.

-- Bisnis Indonesia, Jakarta