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)