Maybe Pfizer can rise to the occasion

Maybe Pfizer can rise to the occasion

JAKARTA (JP): To be honest, I'm no longer concerned about when
the IMF, the World Bank, CGI or all the rich countries in the
world will have enough confidence in our government that they
start disbursing their money to bail us out of our current mess.

I think those institutions and donor countries can just keep
on delaying the delivery of their promises for the time being. I
don't think we need their money, at least for now, because, as I
see it, we now have a much more pressing need than just money.

The only people that we should turn to for help at the moment,
in my opinion, are the people who work in the labs at Pfizer, a
U.S. based pharmaceutical company that not so long ago made
headlines in the mass media. They are the ones that may have
something that can save the future of our country.

You see, last March this company received the green light from
the Food and Drug Administration that allowed them to market
Viagra. This blue pill immediately swept men from all walks of
life off their feet. Instantly, men all over the world craved
Viagra. Even Malaysian men are reportedly not deterred by its
high price: US$10 each.

Interestingly, although dozens of deaths have been reported as
related to its use since its introduction in March, people still
take it. In fact, a lot of men have vowed that, if they should
die, they'd die gladly as long as they die on Viagra. This really
demonstrates how effective -- and coveted -- the hot pill is.

What does it do that makes it so overwhelmingly popular?
Technically speaking, Viagra adds a certain chemical called
sildenafile citrate into the blood so that a man's erection does
not immediately subside after he climaxes. All right, now the
question should naturally be, why in the world do we need a pill
like this to save the future of our nation?

To answer this question, let's turn back one or two pages and
go back to our very recent history. Let's look back at how our
very recent struggle for reform started. You know, after years of
foreplay, suddenly the reform impetus started to build up very
rapidly. The reform movement was picking up momentum before we
realized it was really happening. Suddenly all things impossible
happened: Students were able to congregate on their campuses and
organize rallies -- something that had hitherto been completely
out of the question. Suddenly the legislative building compound
became widely accessible to constituents. Suddenly calls for
president Soeharto to resign came out of the most unlikely
mouths.

Things were happening more and more quickly, and the dizzying
pace kept increasing. Until the climax, which was reached on the
morning of May 21.

And there were shouts, there were cries of joy. There were
feelings of ecstasy. There were fresh hopes...

Unfortunately, as quickly as it reached its peak, the
Indonesian reform struggle of 1998 seemed to deflate like a
punctured balloon. Just two months after the orgasm, it was once
again life as usual.

We started to hear again bizarre statements from the people up
there. Once again we began hearing arguments that defy common
logic and official statements that simply benumb our
intelligence. And once again we helplessly see the emergence of
more and more senseless regulations that simply make the current
burden even heavier for the common people.

The cost of public services, most notably postal and
telecommunications services, have soared -- totally ignoring the
dire state of our people. Suddenly, it is deja vu all over again.

That is why what we need now is a type of Viagra that can help
us keep the thrust of the reform struggle as strong as it was at
the time the powerful master was ejaculated from the throne. What
we need is a Viagra that can continue to propel reform, lead our
leaders and make them look harder at the real problems that we
are facing.

Without this type of Viagra, the reform hysteria will be over
long before the objectives are reached.

It's my hope that scientists at Pfizer can quickly come up
with a Viagra-like formula that will enable us to keep the reform
ball rolling. Otherwise, the deaths, the sufferings and the
humiliations of the reform victims will simply disappear into
thin air.

Their unspeakable agonies will simply be buried in our
history. That is, if any history of Indonesia is going to be
relevant after all.

Hello there, Pfizer. Can you help Indonesia?

-- Zatni Arbi