Sense of crisis lacking

Sense of crisis lacking

From Bisnis Indonesia

It is not quite wrong if a certain party suggested that the government and the House of Representatives have not fully shown a sense of crisis.

First, this lack of sense of crisis is evident in the government's plan to allocate a gift of a house (or palace?) worth Rp 26,500 billion to former president Soeharto. Second, the government also plans to issue interest-free credit of Rp 40 million to House members to purchase a car.

If the government were sensitive enough in these times of difficulties, even though there is a law which rules the presentation of a gift to a former president, the government should cancel the idea and should not include it in the 1998/1999 state budget.

Regarding the car credit facility, would it not be more appropriate and strategic for the credit to be extended to small businesses and cooperatives, or newly emerging entrepreneurs, so that employment opportunities are made available for the jobless.

What lessons do we get from the above conditions? The answer is clear: the "New Order mentality" still firmly persists in the two institutions in which Golkar's influence is indisputably dominant. So it is not surprising if the government finds it extremely hard to gain the market's confidence.

AMIR KARAMOY

Jakarta