Let peace reign, so we can start work

Let peace reign, so we can start work

Christmas, followed by Idul Fitri early in the new year,
should remind adversaries among us in this year full of
bickering, that both bring the message of peace, writes political
analyst J. Soedjati Djiwandono.

JAKARTA (JP): Christmas for the Christians as well as Idul
Fitri for the Muslims -- both bring the message of peace, peace
among men, peace with one another. In the Christian faith, an
angel proclaiming "glory to God in the highest, and peace among
men" announced the birth of Christ.

Christmas is a time of goodwill and Idul Fitri is preceded by
a period of penance and repentance, fasting and abstinence, for
God's forgiveness, for sharing life with other fellow men and
women by caring for the poor and the needy. Then one can have
peace with oneself. At the end of it all, at Idul Fitri, we
forgive one another. Then we can have peace with one another. And
only then can we have peace with God the Almighty and the
Merciful.

This is a special Christmas for the Christians, the last in
the present century, the last in the second millennium, as we are
about to enter into the New Year, the new century, the third
millennium. And it will be a special Idul Fitri, still some two
weeks off, as it will be the first in the new century, the first
in the third millennium, if at least in the international
calendar. Thus the message of peace is peace for all men in the
new century, the new, third millennium.

What is in store, for us individually and as a nation? The
issue of predestination -- I am not sure I believe in it --
aside, what is going to happen to us in the future will largely
depend on what we do about it now. One's life or destiny, at
least in part, is our own doing, our own creation.

Soon we will have passed the end of the 20th century, the end
but the worst part of the second millennium. It has been marked
by the most atrocious and most frequent of wars, the most brutal
forms of violence, among nations as well as among groups within
nations. It has gone through the most frequent and most
frightening natural disasters in more countries than ever before.
All of these have resulted in the loss of more human lives than
ever before and in the most abject human suffering.

As part and parcel of the global phenomenon, Indonesia is by
no means an exception. At the end of the century, to top it all,
we have suffered from the most dreadfully debilitating crises,
practically in all facets of our national life.

As a result, we desperately need peace, security and social
stability. Accompanied by serious efforts in consistently
upholding the rule of law, this will be the basis for the
restoration of our credibility as a nation, which would be the
primary requirement for our economic recovery. In turn, it would
be a means of promoting justice, a determinant factor in our
efforts of preventing national disintegration, and thus of
promoting national unity and the integrity of our state.

Surely, it would be too much to expect our new government,
barely three months old, to do anything with a high degree of
success. The challenges we face right now would be tough for any
government, let alone this government of so many compromises,
resulting in a lack of co-ordination and in certain cases a lack
of competence.

Whatever the case, the euphoria of having the most
democratically elected government ever, at least by our standards
and in the context of our fundamentally defective Constitution,
of having the Abdurrahman-Megawati duet that succeeded in
avoiding further conflicts in the aftermath of all the election
processes that would have resulted in the disintegration of our
nation and society, should be over by now. This is time for real
work and realistic and concrete action by all of us.

It is now time to support the new government, not by
continuing to praise, and not only by contributing ideas, but
also by open and honest critical views. The national leadership
should stop what looks like continued attempts at repaying its
indebtedness to many circles by tossing out further political
spoils and patronage. It should stop confusing people by a
conundrum of enigmatic remarks and statements, however amusing
some of them may sound at times.

There should be a clear order of priorities, not in terms of
timing, for various problems need to be dealt with simultaneously
and with well thought-out planning, but in terms of emphasis. And
not only the executive branch, but also the other branches of
government, and indeed, all of us, in our own ways, in the
overall process of learning for reform, must get on with the job.

If we want peace, then we all must make conscious efforts to
promote peace. We should liberate ourselves from hatred,
vengeance, and prejudice. We should refuse to be provoked by
anyone to resort to violence. This should be a commitment on the
part of the whole nation in muddling through the next century,
the first of the third millennium.