'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.