President warns of looming national disintegration threat

JAKARTA (JP): President B.J. Habibie called on seminar participants on Tuesday to help the government ward off the looming threat of national disintegration.

The President said the country's economic chaos had weakened people's patriotism and damaged their trust in the government.

He acknowledged that national unity was in danger of unraveling if the government failed to quickly strengthen the economy.

"What must be studied is how to maintain ... the spirit of unity and cohesion among people in facing destructive and disintegrative thoughts and actions," Habibie said while opening a three-day seminar on "nationalism toward a New Indonesia" at the State Palace.

Before delivering a four-page official speech, the President made a 75-minute off-the-cuff speech, which he described as an introduction.

"I want to draw your attention to the fact that we are racing against time," he noted.

Habibie said the government should readjust its stance over people's demands in economic and political issues.

National unity and integrity are the country's strengths that could bring it out of crisis, he said.

Striving to create a "new Indonesia" is not in any way a campaign to negate the ideals and national objectives stipulated in the state ideology Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution.

"A new Indonesia would be a civil society in which people's sovereignty is reflected in many aspects of the nation's life, where the supremacy of the legal system and regulations are the only legitimate power, not individual leaders."

The government and the people are now racing against time to fight the crisis, Habibie said.

"The number of our people losing jobs and sinking below the poverty line is increasing.

"Meanwhile, crime rates in many regions are increasing, some (criminal acts) even are targeted at potential means of production and distribution," he said.

After the opening, the seminar moved to the National Resilience Institute (Lemhanas).

One of the speakers, National Awakening Party (PKB) chairman Matori Abdul Djalil, suggested that a balanced and fair distribution of power, authority and economic control between the central government and regional administrations should top the government's development priorities.

"Otherwise, it's very possible that demands for the establishment of separate federal states will increase," Matori told the seminar.

"The fall of the former Soviet Union and Eastern European countries, as well as unsolved ethnic conflicts in African countries, India and Sri Lanka are evidence of how difficult it is to maintain a united nation," he said. (imn/prb)