Stability and progress

Stability and progress

In a speech during the opening of the national conference of Pepabri -- the Indonesian Veterans Association -- President Soeharto stressed the importance of stability and security and asked that veterans and members of the Armed Forces continue to guard the national stability in general, the social security and order in particular.

It is indeed paradoxical that it is precisely due to the development and the change that has taken place -- that it is due to the tremendous dynamism that is at present pervading every aspect of life, that an awareness of the need for stability, for security and for the prevalence of a sense of assurance is essential, more than ever before.

However, the objective which we must all strive to achieve is the maintenance of a stability and security of an increasingly solid quality, that is founded more and more on insight and responsibility and less and less on fear of punishment and forceful coercion.

The roots, the pillars and the infrastructure of the stability that comes in the wake of economic development must be made to grow deeper, stronger and more rooted among the people. The people's responsibility and participation must become wider and more active.

At a certain point of development economic deregulation will not be optimally functional unless it is accompanied by political deregulation. The form of such political deregulation should be first of all a shift in the role of the government bureaucracy from direct intervention to policy formulation and general control.

-- Kompas, Jakarta