Family ties can strangle the nation's freedom
Family ties can strangle the nation's freedom
By Wati Abdulgani-Knapp
JAKARTA (JP): Asians are usually great pretenders. It is more
important for them to put on a united front in public despite the
reality there are things that they do not like in their own
families.
To voice a different opinion with parents and siblings is
considered inappropriate for Asians, a phenomenon evident in the
People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) during the rule of former
president Soeharto.
Because so many members of the MPR were related to the powers
that be -- wives, children, brothers, etc. -- the family value
was practiced and no public criticism was allowed.
The acronym ABS (Asal Bapak Senang, or "as long as it pleases
father") is familiar among Indonesians. But, typically as Asians,
they only dare to make jokes behind the backs of those targeted.
Is it because they are born cowards or part of a cultural value?
Or is it because without ABS they will lose their important
position?
More importantly, however, is that the level and standard of
the education system needs major reform. Practical education is
important and the lip-service of too formal training, such as
that always preached by the Soeharto regime, is nonsense.
During the Soeharto administration, nobody dared complain when
government institutions were prodded to send their staff to the
education and training school of Maya Rumantir, a singer and
close friend of Soeharto's son Hutomo Mandala Putra.
The training of banking staff, especially those of state
banks, was mostly done by the so-called "bozos", borrowing the
term of some foreign articles on Indonesian bankers today. These
banks mostly looked for outside trainers related to the Soeharto
family.
No wonder now that the majority of Indonesian companies and
banks have become the laughing stock in the international
financial community when everybody starts finger pointing. In
reality, some of foreign banks and multinationals are also not
clean from hypocrisy and double standards. Some foreign companies
also took advantage of their association with the Soeharto family
to obtain the most profitable benefits.
So who is to blame now that their investments are falling
apart?
Many believe that Soeharto, the country's second president,
intentionally acted like Louis XV of France, the syndrome of
Apres moi, le deluge ("After me, the deluge"). To avoid such a
dangerous probability in the future, Indonesians must speak out
and must not accept without argument the truth and value imposed
or interpreted by those in power.
Then again, ask a banker: "Was it more important and therefore
worth it at the time to have a picture taken with Titi Prabowo (a
daughter of Soeharto) when she was donating her jewelry, instead
of giving the courtesy to listen to the findings of the branches
about their performances under your leadership?"
Most likely his answer would be: "Yes, because that was the
way of life to save your job and position at that time."
Hopefully, Indonesians will see things in a different light
nowadays if they want to survive as a nation in the next
millennium.
The writer is managing director of PT IMMACON.