Nation told to make reform work to end anarchy

Kasparman Piliang, The Jakarta Post, Padang, West Sumatra

Noted social observer Ignas Kleden blamed on Monday "mental pressure" for the rampant violence and anarchy within Indonesian society.

"This is certainly not the nation's culture, but they are a reflection of the release of a feeling of frustration in society," Ignas told participants of the National Congress on Culture, currently being held in Bukittingi, in the West Sumatra capital of Padang.

Ignas was presenting a paper titled "Integration and Disintegration" in the Fifth National Congress on Culture, which was attended by some 750 noted community leaders nationwide.

He went on to say that people are currently frustrated by the fact that a just and prosperous society is still not visible in Indonesian society, although the reform movement had been going on for five years.

"The failure to materialize the new hopes has triggered excessive responses from society and ended up in anarchy," he said.

In order to end the violence and anarchy, Ignas suggested that the nation badly needed leaders which the people could look up to.

He said that the leaders could be role models, making them credible and highly respected by the people.

The credibility and trust would thus give the leaders the opportunity to create a more civilized and just society in the country, he added.

Meanwhile, another speaker in the Congress Prof. Mubyarto called on the nation to get rid of the capitalist economic system which he claimed had exploited people.

The capitalist system has ignored the poor, because the system allows the haves to only care for their own needs and neglect the poor, he said.

He said that the capitalist system fed on greed, thereby increasing the gap between the haves and the have nots in the country. "The solution should be a genuine Indonesian system that can spur economic growth, but at the same time give attention to the fate of the poor," he said, while presenting a paper titled "Questioning the Neoliberal Economy."

He offered "the Pancasila Economy" as a solution.

He said that this economic system did not adopt the liberal economy, but it adopted cultural values that had been nurtured by Indonesian society for hundreds of years.

Among those values that have prevailed is gotong-royong (mutual self-help).

"The principle has been there for years. Why we don't adopt it for the betterment of our society?," said Mubyarto, a professor with the Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada University.

Mubyarto hoped that the Pancasila Economy would be able to bring together all the economic potential in Indonesia, to lift the country out of the current economic crisis.

Ignas and Mubyarto, who presented their papers in the first session of the National Congress, were two among 80 speakers slated to address the five-day congress, that began on Sunday.

The congress is the fifth national congress on culture.

National Congress on Culture ================================================================= No Year Place ================================================================= 1. 1948 Magelang, Central Java 2. 1951 Bandung, West Java 3. 1954 Surakarta, Central Java 4. 1991 Jakarta 5. 2003 Bukittingi, West Sumatra ================================================================= Source: The Jakarta Post