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