'Social inequality should be contained'

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Defense and Security Edi Sudradjat said yesterday that social inequality should be contained to "a tolerable limit" so that it does not cause unrest.

In a written speech delivered by the minister's secretary- general Sugeng Subroto at a ceremony marking the end of an Institute of National Resilience (Lemhannas) short course, Edi Sudradjat said that it was impossible to eliminate social inequality because people's abilities and opportunities differed.

"But we have to contain inequality to a tolerable limit. We don't want to see inequality grow into unrest," the minister said.

"Strong people should be more tolerant and avoid exclusivism, while the feeble should control their emotions in order not to be trapped by frustration which will only cause more trouble," he said.

The Institute of National Resilience is a military think tank.

The Institute's vice governor Juwono Sudarsono seconded Edi's statement. "As long as there is inequality, there will be violence. Hungry people tend to be violent. Our task now is to nourish the hungry people," said the former dean of the University of Indonesia's School of Social and Political Sciences.

Edi suggested the Institute's graduates use ethics and morality as their guide to wade through the negative side-effects of national development.

"Sometimes moral values are ignored in our progress. Morality should be the mainstay of our development," he said.

Edi's statement also said the concept of "national stability" should not be restricted to security. The country needs a type of stability which accommodates change.

Change, however, should not take place in "the basic national (political) system" because this would create chaos, he said.

Juwono agreed, saying changes could be made without dismantling the whole system.

The short course was the sixth of its kind held by the institute. Its participants were mostly high-ranking military officers. Non-military participants were from government offices.

Awards for the best students at this year's course went to Maj. Gen. A.M. Hendropriyono and Lutfi Ibrahim from the office of the State Minister of Agrarian Affairs. Hendropriyono is the chief of the Armed Forces (ABRI) Education and Training Center. In 1994, he was the head of the Jakarta regional military command. (06)