Danger of disintegration

Danger of disintegration

Speaking at a meeting of the Association of Indonesian Moslem
Intellectuals on Saturday, the State Minister of National
Development Planning/Chairman of the Indonesian National Planning
Board, Ginandjar Kartasasmita, warned that the factor that
endangered the nation's stability and unity the most, at present,
was no longer problems such as religion and ethnicity, but rather
economic and social disparity.

Ginandjar said that if only a small section of our society
enjoyed the benefits of progress, while the greater part remained
left behind, the danger of disintegration would be greater than
at the time when all Indonesians were poor, however advanced our
nation may be.

We would like to underline this view, because the danger of
disintegration--which we have always tended to see as stemming
from our ethnic, religious or other age-old aspects of
diversity--actually stems from economic and social disparities.
By adopting an egalitarian strategy, that attacks the roots of
those disparities, we are confident that our national diversity
can actually be transformed into a force that can help us to
accomplish our development efforts successfully.

-- Suara Karya, Jakarta