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)