Corrupt officials ruin Indonesia

Corrupt officials ruin Indonesia

From Kompas

After reading an article entitled Bung Hatta and the story of Bally Shoes, I felt sad, annoyed, regretful and frustrated. If 90 percent of our officials were like Bung Hatta and all foreign debts had been used for building hydro-electric dams along waterways across the country, we would be thriving and prosperous now. The electricity rate would be low if we utilized hydro- electric power generating plants, and used waste water for irrigation. Then there would be no more barren lands and Indonesia would be a successful agrarian country.

Indonesia is inferior to Thailand, a small country that exports rice and fruit, and that can barter its rice for CN235 airplanes. But, unfortunately, there are probably less than 10 percent of Indonesian officials that are like Bung Hatta while the remaining 90 percent have a corrupt attitude. If this is the case, what should we do then? We have a big population but we also have vast forest areas that have been denuded so that flooding is now a common problem in Jakarta. I imagine whether grandparents will say to their grandchildren as follows: "Indonesia was once thriving and prosperous but now it is just a vast deserted wasteland."

EDI JUWONO

Jakarta