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