Between hope and fear

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