Observers raise fears of national disintegration

Observers raise fears of national disintegration

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Disintegration is the biggest threat
currently facing Indonesia, according to sociologist Loekman
Soetrisno.

The Gadjah Mada University professor and director of its
Center for Research on Rural and Regional Development told The
Jakarta Post earlier this week that poorly planned development
policies had robbed many groups in society of their ancestral
territory. The resulting strain made people prone to violence.

The situation has been aggravated further by various flaws in
society, including corruption so widespread the country could be
called a "vampire state," Loekman said.

In separate interviews, Moslem scholar Ahmad Syafii Maarif and
military analyst Yahya Muhaimin seconded Loekman's opinion. They
also discussed the unrest that has rocked the country for the
past few months, as well as the political climate as the nation
prepares for the May 29 general election.

"The biggest threat is disintegration," Loekman said. "Unless
we take affirmative action to help isolated ethnic groups such as
those in Irian Jaya or Kalimantan, I'm afraid the possibility of
disintegration is great.

"The unrest in Sanggau Ledo, West kalimantan, that claimed
five lives is an example. It was actually a clash over living
space between the native Dayak tribesmen and the migrant
Madurese. Because the Dayaks are predominately Christian and the
migrants mostly Moslem, the resulting violence was also sectarian
in nature.

"Can you imagine how much smaller the ethnic group's living
space would become once multinational corporations enter the
region?" he said, referring to planned foreign contractors'
involvement in the Busang gold mine in East Kalimantan.

He blamed the situation on, among other things, "the absence
of thinkers with long-term vision. What we have are only those
who think of development policies over shorter terms such as five
years."

Yahya Muhaimin, who is also dean of Gadjah Mada University's
School of Social and Political Sciences, said Indonesia's biggest
threat is the growing social and economic disparity. "The country
is definitely getting more prosperous. The rich are getting
richer and the poor are becoming less poor, but the speed of
their respective prosperity growth differs markedly.

He said the government and other leaders in society need to
handle the question of growing disparity with social, cultural
and economic approaches. "We can't handle (unrest caused by
social disparity) with physical and military approaches alone,"
he said.

Syafii identified the major threat to Indonesia as the deficit
of people with adequate skills to ensure the country survives the
cutthroat competition of the coming free trade era. He also named
a number of other, equally dire, threats; the depletion of
natural resources such as forests, the absence of good role
models in society, poor law enforcement and rampant corruption
and collusion.

"Our conglomerates, for instance, are good at exploiting
situations through collusion with officials. But because of this
all-consuming characteristic, they are ill-equipped to face
competition from, say, South Korean or American businesses," he
said.

The deputy chairman of the 28 million-strong Muhammadiyah
Moslem organization also blamed what he described as "political
satiety." "The situation should be fixed in a constitutional way.
For instance, there should be a limitation on the number of
presidential terms one person can run for," he said.

Loekman said Indonesia could avert the possible catastrophe of
national disintegration by establishing a clean government. "The
vampire state has to be replaced by one marked with clean
governance," he said, adding that the rampant corrupt practices
should be fought against in a "cultural revolution."

"We can't go on like this," he said.

He suggested that the government also makes sure that "real
decentralization" takes place so that regional administrations
can function independently. (swe)