Horrified at

Horrified at
Indonesia's face

From Kompas

We are horrified to see the face of Indonesia today. On one
side you have the silent majority -- they earn a decent living,
exercise tolerance, speak politely and uphold morality. On the
other side, you have the concentrated minority with a penchant
for mass mobilization (small in number but armed), protest
rallies to condemn certain people, character assassination and
ultra-sectarianism.

Indonesia is about 10 times bigger than Malaysia. Malaysia has
overcome its crisis so we should use it as a model to get out of
our own crisis.

Then observe the silent majority. They are not familiar with
such terms as democracy, reform, the New Order or human rights.
They can only earn a living to support their families and send
their children to school. Sometimes they hope that the prices of
daily commodities will not further increase and at other times
they wish they could return to the Soeharto era, which was
relatively better than the present situation. Let's now seek
Volume Two of the Soeharto era. We need a leader like Soeharto
but must do away with the corruption, collusion, nepotism and
militarism of his days. A mite of "white" authoritarianism is
necessary for Indonesia today. Or, perhaps, we must "import"
Mahathir Mohammad to this country. Dr. Sjahrir is right: "It's an
economic emergency."

L. INAWATI

Temanggung, Central Java