Gen. Wiranto warns over threat to unity
Gen. Wiranto warns over threat to unity
By Imanuddin
PALEMBANG, South Sumatra (JP): Minister of Defense/Armed
Forces Commander Gen. Wiranto warned yesterday that the country
faced a serious threat of disintegration due to a lack of
patriotism and national defense awareness.
Addressing the opening ceremony of a plenary meeting of the
18th Armed Forces Consolidation Program here, Wiranto said the
increasing instances of recent social unrest were an indicator of
weakening patriotism in the country.
"Our people are still easily provoked by certain individuals
or groups who have the intention of destroying national unity and
solidarity," he said.
Also present at yesterday's ceremony were Army Chief of Staff
Gen. Subagyo Hadisiswoyo, Navy Chief of Staff Adm. Arief
Kushariadi, Air Force Chief of Staff Marshall Sutria Tubagus and
National Police Chief Gen. Dibyo Widodo.
The Armed Forces chief said he believed that the country's
patriotism could be strengthened if people became involved in
activities aimed at improving public welfare.
Wiranto said the national struggle for independence indicated
that unity and solidarity were the key elements to national
survival.
He pointed to the lessons of Indonesia's history in which it
had so many times been faced with crisis and near break-up but
always managed to prevail with a strong sense of patriotism.
He called on the public to play an active role in mass social
care programs, such as the Armed Forces Consolidation Program.
"The benefits of the Armed Forces Consolidation Program is not
for us (ABRI members), but for all people," he said.
Wiranto said this year's consolidation program would include
efforts to help establish the country's self-sufficiency in food
commodities.
"We still need to import a large amount of rice, soybeans,
wheat flour and corn," he said. "And we spend a lot of our
foreign exchange reserves for importing those goods."
He said the program was expected to reduce the country's
dependence on foreign food products.
Wiranto also pointed out that unused land or new plantations
should be cultivated to increase domestic food output.
"Currently, there are 100,000 hectares of unused land
available for the project," he said.
He called on owners of unused land to open up their plots to
cultivation.
"ABRI will guarantee that the land will be automatically
returned to the owners once the program is over," he said.
He said the consolidation program could help minimize
increasing crime rates now blamed on the monetary crisis by
employing local residents and recently unemployed workers.
"The local residents and unemployed workers will be paid," he
said.
He said the program's scheme was better than hiring people and
unemployed workers just to clean Jakarta's Ciliwung River.
"It'll probably be more beneficial than cleaning the Ciliwung
River, which is difficult to clean anyway," he said. (imn)