President warns of looming national disintegration threat
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)