National leaders united to save country from collapse

National leaders united to save country from collapse

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta

Over 100 key national figures, including state officials from the
New Order administration, called on the nation to take necessary
measures to "save" the country, which they said was on the brink
of collapse.

They said the commemoration of National Awakening Day, on May
20, was the right moment to begin rebuilding.

"The nation is at risk of ceasing to exist as a result of
prolonged economic and constitutional crises, the decline of
citizen's morality and the loss of a sense of security," Lt. Gen
(ret.) Sjaiful Sulun said while reading a joint statement which
marked the commemoration held by the Greater Indonesia Congress
here on Thursday.

Also participating in the event were former vice president Try
Sutrisno, former defense minister Gen. (ret.) Edy Sudrajat,
elderly statesman Roeslan Abdulgani, senior economist Frans Seda,
media mogul Surya Paloh and Muslim scholar Nurcholish Madjid.

The joint statement also pointed out that to overcome the
myriad of problems, people had to do their utmost without the
help or interference of foreign countries.

Earlier in his speech, Nurcholish said the country's problems
stemmed from its leaders' tendency to enrich themselves. He also
said that most leaders seemed to think that the country existed
only to serve their personal goals instead of the other way
around.

"Our founding fathers have foreseen this country being a
welfare state that would guarantee the well-being of its
citizens. However, in the last 40 years the country has been
ruled by leaders who acted like monarchs," Nurcholish said.

Nurcholish said such practices had almost ruined Indonesia as
a country and has created many chronic problems.

Worse still, the current leaders failed to take the necessary
measures to cope with the problems, Nurcholish said.

"They only seem to be merely getting rid of the symptoms that
go with the problems," he explained.

He added that National Awakening Day was the most fitting
moment to redefine Indonesia as a modern nation-state which would
strive for justice, democracy and freedom.

Former women's empowerment minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa,
said in her speech that the country risked losing its
independence as most of its valuable assets had been sold in the
current privatization drive.

"The government said that it was carried out for the country's
interests, but we know very well that it was not," she stated.

She argued that the privatization program was carried out to
satisfy a few at the expense of millions of others, therefore it
had to be put on hold.

National Awakening Day commemorates the time when the first
modern organization, Boedi Oetomo, was founded by a group of
medical students in Java on May, 20, 1908.

Although it never grew into a political organization, it,
however, marked the beginning of the building process that
eventually led to a cohesive nation -- mostly in solidarity
against Dutch colonization.

It was the first organization which was aware of the need for
Javanese to cooperate with the rest of the vast archipelago's
ethnic groups who felt oppressed under the colonial government.

The movement would eventually lead to the country's freedom
movement, which culminated in the Aug. 17, 1945 declaration of
independence by Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta.