Indonesia in danger of collapsing: Lemhannas

Indonesia in danger of collapsing: Lemhannas

JAKARTA (JP): National Resilience Institute (Lemhannas), a
think tank institution that conducts in-depth studies on national
resilience, warned on Wednesday that Indonesia could collapse if
no actions were taken to defuse the prolonged economic and
political instability.

"We see several indications of a nation in the process of
collapsing: the economic crisis entangling the nation remains
unabated, political elites blaming each other and disharmony
among the people has become common," Lt. Gen. Johny J.
Lumintang, Lemhannas governor, told a hearing of the House of
Representatives's Commission I for defense, security and foreign
affairs.

Johny said that theoretically, the breakup of a nation was
triggered by prolonged economic crisis, political instability,
national disintegration, demoralization of soldiers and
international intervention.

"So, the nation's disintegration is coming close to reality
unless a national consolidation and necessary repairs are made.
The national resilience has reached an alarming level," he said.

The new reform era, Johny said, has, to some extent, weakened
the nation's resilience as political elite and their supporters
are trapped in a euphoria which apparently has gone uncontrolled.

According to him, the situation of the nation's poor had a lot
to do with the choice of a security approach instead of a social
welfare approach in national resilience development in the past.

"To be consistent with the national resilience concept, the
defense and security development should be balanced with the
socioeconomic and sociopolitical development. It's useless to
develop a strong defense and security system to maintain
political stability if the people are plagued by an economic
crisis" he said.

Johny said Lemhannas has carried out regular education and
training programs to prepare national leader cadre and has
conducted in-depth studies on major problems the nation is
facing.

Lemhannas has regularly carried out short and long courses for
government and military officials and senior executives from the
private sector in its mission to improve their horizons in
various fields, he said.

"Lemhannas has also organized a series of seminars and
workshops, the results of which have been presented to the
government to help it solve major problems confronting the
nation," he said. The topics are varied, including reformulation
of the state format, national identity, regional autonomy and
settlement to conflicts among political elite in several regions.

Asked about solutions offered by Lemhannas to help solve the
disintegration threat, Johny said the government and the
legislature should focus on making regulations which are intended
to free the nation from the economic crisis.

Concerning the conflict among political elites, he said
national leaders should leave their own interests behind and sit
down together to seek solutions to all problems plaguing the
nation.

He said that in facing the disharmony, national consolidation
was needed to prevent the reform euphoria from trespassing the
law.

"The political elite should hold dialogs to uphold legal
certainty and to avoid anarchistic actions among their respective
supporters," he said.

He said a law was also needed to enable security personnel to
take strict measures against actions and movements threatening
national integration. (rms)