Indonesia has many potential leaders: Roeslan
Indonesia has many potential leaders: Roeslan
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia, with a population of over 195
million, has a large base of potential leaders, and thus should
not be dependent on one figurehead alone.
Roeslan Abdulgani said here on Saturday that the country
should not fear the future, because its large population and
revolutionary history provides fertile ground for the birth of
leaders.
Responding to questions from the press after speaking at a
seminar, Roeslan dispelled fears that the eventual succession of
the national leadership would not go smoothly.
The 81-year-old former minister of foreign affairs also
maintained that people should not focus on a person so much that
it leads to obsession and a cult of personality.
"Don't attribute the nation's leadership to just one person,"
remarked Roeslan, who in the 1950s and 1960s held various
governmental posts including vice-chairman of the Supreme
Advisory Council and deputy prime minister.
The issue of a successor to President Soeharto has been a
recurring topic with the approach of next year's election.
Soeharto, who has held six consecutive presidential terms,
last week said that he has never personally sought reelection and
that it has always been the prerogative of the People's
Consultative Assembly (MPR) to select a president.
When asked by journalists, Roeslan declined to directly
comment on Soeharto's statement, but underlined the fact that
Soeharto said the selection was up to MPR.
"I really don't want to comment about it...But what's clear is
that the nation's leadership is not limited to just one person.
Indonesia has many capable potential leaders," he said.
Roeslan was among the two main speakers at a seminar organized
by the Indonesian Democratic Party to commemorate its
anniversary, celebrated yesterday.
The seminar was organized under the theme "Pancasila,
Individualism and Globalization." The other speaker was economic
analyst Christianto Wibisono.
Without elaborating, Roeslan remarked that there were groups
in society with an interest in maintaining the status quo who
were directly opposed to those demanding changes as the country
heads into the 1997 elections.
Meanwhile, Christianto, while speaking on the socioeconomic
aspects of the seminar's theme, also noted the need for
Indonesian society to move away from paternalistic tendencies in
many facets of life.
"Indonesia must undergo a cultural transformation, changing
its irrational, feudalistic and primitive way of thought, which
lauds paternalism and premodern etatism," he said
He remarked that Indonesia must free its political system from
being held "hostage" by certain individualists who abuse their
authority for personal, family or group interests. (mds)