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.