Seeking victory for the nation

Seeking victory for the nation

The way how to end our cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been debated over the last few days.

Even the People's Consultative Assembly has decided that the cooperation should come to an end by December this year.

Now is the right time for Indonesia to 'graduate' from IMF after having been under the mercy of the organization for five years.

Our need to graduate from IMF is good for our maturity as a nation because we have to learn how to manage and how to discipline ourselves toward independence.

Leaving behind our cooperation with IMF is deemed to be the best way to measure our economic recovery, to know whether the improvement in our macro-economy is the result of external factor or internal one.

Some people said our macro-ecomonic recovery is because of external factor such as the IMF, while some other said it is because of our good economic management.

However, such a controversy will become obvious when we stop our cooperation with IMF.

But in fact, ending the cooperation does not mean that we have to get out of IMF. We will remain member of the IMF but we do not want to be under a special supervision from that organization.

It is natural that every nation has its own right to be independent in managing its own economy and in upholding its sovereignty.

Thus, whatever the way to end our cooperation with IMF, whether it is the 'post program monitoring' or the payment of the loan in cash, it won't be a loss or victory of certain group or individual.

We just want to warn that we have to go hand-in-hand in seeking the victory for the whole nation, instead of making our business with IMF an endless issue.

-- Kompas, Jakarta