'Ideas must not threaten stability'
'Ideas must not threaten stability'
By Rikza Abdullah
NEW YORK (JP): President Soeharto asserted that Indonesia
welcomes new ideas but will reject any views, however good they
are, which may affect stability in the country.
Speaking at a dinner meeting at the Grand Hyatt hotel here
Wednesday evening, Soeharto said Indonesia has long recognized
that development requires public participation and that
development entails democracy.
"We believe that progress needs new ideas and knowledge to
make political processes dynamic. That is why we do welcome new
ideas," he told the meeting held to commemorate the 40th
anniversary of the Asia Society, a leading institution dedicated
to fostering understanding of Asia and communications between
Americans and peoples of Asia and the Pacific.
The meeting, which also presented Philippine President Fidel
V. Ramos as a speaker, was attended by almost 800 participants,
including Tajikistan President Emomali Rakhmonov, former U.S.
secretary of state Henry Kissinger, the foreign ministers of
Thailand, Vietnam and Australia and more than 50 ambassadors
representing Asian countries.
"However, it should be clearly understood that we will not
accept ideas which we consider inconsistent with our values and
our sense of nationhood," Soeharto said.
"Consequently, we reject any efforts, however noble they may
seem, that are designed to inject into our society any influence
or factor which we consider contrary to our society's interests."
He explained that Indonesia's economy grew by an annual
average of 8.3 percent between 1989 and 1994 and is expected to
continue expanding by 7.1 percent in the coming four years.
The country's per capita income rose from US$70 in 1969 to
$920 in 1994 and is expected to increase to $1,280 by 1999, while
the number of people living below the poverty line decreased from
60 percent of the total population in 1969 to around 14 percent
in 1993, he said.
Soeharto said regional and international stability is also
essential to sustain growth and development.
"As a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN), we have long recognized that security cannot be gained
solely through increased expenditures for defense. Security is,
in fact, primarily contingent on economic and social progress,"
he added.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, with a total population of about
420 million people.
The President said he was heartened that Cambodia had signed
the ASEAN Treaty of Amity and Cooperation.
"We now look forward to years of closer economic cooperation
with Cambodia and its eventual acceptance into ASEAN as a full
member in the not-too-distant time," he said.
By the end of this decade, he said, all 10 Southeast Asian
countries are expected to have become full members of ASEAN,
thereby boosting the economic and social development in the
region, he added.
Soeharto said ASEAN appreciates the United States policies of
helping enhance stability and security in the Southeast Asian
region.
Before attending the dinner meeting, Soeharto received a
courtesy call from a committee for the construction of an
Indonesian Moslems' mosque in Queens, New York.
The committee's chairman, Prang Sukirman, said that Indonesian
Moslems in New York have bought a two-story warehouse in Queens
for $385,000 and redesigned it to become a mosque with a capacity
of 600 prayers.
Minister of Religion Tarmizi Taher is expected to inaugurate
the mosque on Nov. 5 with the presence of Indonesian Ambassador
to the United States Arifin Siregar, Sukirman said.
He said the mosque will be equipped with various facilities,
including a multi-purpose hall, recreation room, library,
classrooms and kitchen, the construction of which will not be
completed until 1998.