Some expect too much from openness: Feisal

Some expect too much from openness: Feisal

SEMARANG (JP): The greater political openness allowed by the
government since the late 1980s has encouraged some Indonesians
to call for unlimited freedom, Armed Forces (ABRI) Chief Gen.
Feisal Tanjung said yesterday.

"They don't really care about the impact of their demands on
national stability. Some of them have even gone as far as
suggesting that the presence of ABRI in the House of
Representatives is obstructing democracy," Feisal said.

The general made the remarks in an address to a gathering of
members of the executive board of the Pentecost Church of
Indonesia in Semarang, Central Java.

On Sunday, President Soeharto, who is a retired Army general,
defended the political role played by ABRI in Indonesia and said
that the military could exercise even greater political power if
it wanted to.

Last week the House of Representatives endorsed a government
bill to the effect that the number of House's seats allocated to
the military be reduced from the current 100 to 75, as of 1997.

Feisal said there were some people in Indonesia who adhered to
the principles liberal democracy and opposed any political power
being given to the military.

Those people, he said, wanted complete freedom to express
their opinions without any regard to the norms and ethics that
exist in society.

"We shouldn't be surprised to find that those people would
even badmouth their own government without the least feeling of
guilt," Feisal said, adding that some of the people in question
would not even hesitate to claim that they spoke on behalf of the
people.

"We have to observe such tendencies with wisdom, because we do
want change in this country, but we want the kind of change that
does not alter the identity and nationalistic traits of our
people," he said.

Feisal later told reporters that he observed an increasing
trend among some people in this country to use Western liberal
standards in assessing the political situation in this country.

He cited as an example the ongoing debate about whether or
not the government should abolish the policy of requiring people
to obtain a permit to hold any gathering of more than five
people.

"You can't use liberal yardsticks in looking at this issue.
This is a state based on Pancasila," he said.

Indonesia was a state based on law, he said. "If we want to
establish discipline, then we have to abide by the law."

Gen. Feisal urged the Pentecost Church leaders to play a
greater role in containing the negative effects of the
globalization process on the national culture.

He said religion in Indonesia had not yet played its role as a
filter against the intrusion of foreign values into the country
as a result of the rapid process of globalization. (har/emb)