Nobody wants a revolution

No doubt many people overseas, when they read about Indonesia, believe that this nation is headed toward a "violent upheaval". Let us lay aside the sensationalist headlines for a while and take a realistic look at our present situation.

Not a single Indonesian I know about, in or out of the government, believes that the answer to our country's problems is through a bloody revolution. The university students presently holding on-campus demonstrations are pressing for reforms and change, but not to the point of leaving Indonesia in ruins.

Few Indonesians want to -- and I believe never will -- emulate the volatile, violence-prone extremists in such global flashpoints as the Middle East, Sri Lanka or Northern Ireland.

Megawati Soekarnoputri, generally known as the "opposition leader", has gone on record as saying her late father, former president Sukarno, would never forgive her if any action of hers resulted in Indonesia's dismemberment.

The other prominent critic of the government, Amien Rais, is more a reformist than a radical. Former environment minister Emil Salim is likewise a benign personality, even with his insistence that changes must take place.

Relatively isolated riots, independent of one another, can indeed make headlines, but they have not been on a truly nationwide scale. What happens in impoverished towns in East Java can only marginally have a ripple effect on fishing villages in the Moluccas. Indonesia is not the size of a Manhattan borough in New York City.

I would like to remind readers of the Beatles song Revolution. Although John Lennon in some ways sympathized with the Irish Republican Army, he also stated clearly in that tune: "But when you talk about destruction/Don't you know that you can count me out."

I tend to believe the vast majority of Indonesians feel the same way.

FARID BASKORO

Jakarta