Repeated warnings

Three statements, made by three different sources on the same day, Thursday, deserve our attention. During a seminar, the statement was made that in order to become one of the world's new industrial giants by the year 2020 Indonesia needs a good and clean government, a comprehensive policy, and a 9 percent to 10 percent industrial growth rate in manufacturing.

The second statement was made by economic guru Sumitro Djojohadikusumo. He said that to shed our dependence on foreign loans the government must eliminate the economic distortions and increase efficiency in the use of our national savings.

The third statement came from Prof. Dr. Anwar Nasution, a financial expert recently appointed professor of the economics of development at the University of Indonesia's School of Economics. He said the sluggishness of our deregulation efforts and the occurrence of errors in the phasing of those efforts have caused complications in the form of, among other things, a heating up of the economy and the emergence of businessmen who are increasingly immune to those deregulation efforts.

This week, this republic will be 50 years old. As we celebrate the 50th year of our independence, we must not only look back on the past, but also ahead so that we will recognize that the challenges that lie before us are immense. Unless all those problems are tackled, we are afraid that our future economy will show a degree of effectiveness that gives little reason for joy.

-- Bisnis Indonesia, Jakarta