Soeharto tells nation to unite

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto appealed to the nation again yesterday to be firmly united and work shoulder to shoulder to face the current currency turmoil.

The President warned that the monetary crisis would not be conducive toward smooth national development.

But he said the government would not hesitate to take all necessary measures to find the best way out of the financial upheaval.

"Let us take a lesson from this bitter temptation to enable us to continue our national development process," Soeharto said at a ceremony marking the opening of the fifth congress of the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) alumnis at the State Palace.

ITB is one of the country's most prestigious state institutes. Eleven ministers from the current 40-strong member cabinet graduated from ITB.

"Let us boost our national efficiency... because only with such strength are we able to enter a more free and open world trade and economy," Soeharto said.

At a separate ceremony yesterday, Soeharto also challenged Indonesians to prove themselves as true nationalists and stick to the state ideology Pancasila despite the hard times.

"It is very easy to claim ourselves as strong Pancasilaists in a happy and calm situation. But in this time of difficultly, we must be able to prove how loyal we are to Pancasila values," Soeharto said at the opening of a national workshop on the socialization and promotion of Pancasila at the Jakarta Convention Center.

During his return flight from Medina, Saudi Arabia, Saturday, Soeharto said people should not lose hope and trust the government to find the best way out of the monetary crisis.

The President admitted that the government had yet to find a solution to the crisis.

Indonesia is one of the countries worst hit by the currency crisis among members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Indonesia had to seek financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after the rupiah sharply depreciated against the U.S. dollar.

The rupiah has lost 40 percent of its value since July.

IMF provided a US$23 billion rescue package in October to medicate the ailing economy. Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei and Japan bilaterally also extended billions of dollars in standby loans to supplement the IMF package.

"We need to take various well-planned and cautious measures to strengthen our national economic resilience," Soeharto said yesterday.

The economic crisis is also threatening bankruptcy of labor- intensive industries like textile and footwear sectors, automotive and spareparts industries, and has caused a decline in the sale of electronic goods.

Chief of the Central Bureau of Statistics, Sugito, warned Monday that the country's inflation rate could break the double digit barrier.

He said inflation from January to October this year was already 7.36 percent, compared to only 5.35 percent at the same time last year.

"I hope there will be an extra effort to curb inflation this month because the month-to-month inflation rate for September, October and November was already high," Sugito said. (prb)

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