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.