Susilo orders better family values
Susilo orders better family values
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has called on Indonesian
families to continue implementing family planning to help improve
the quality of life of Indonesians.
Addressing the National Family Day gathering at the Monas park
on Sunday, the President said that the central government and
local administrations would reinvigorate the family planning
program, which has weakened over the past several years.
Susilo, the first directly elected president of the world's
fourth-most populous nation, where some 16.4 percent of the
country's over 220 million people live on under US$1 a day, said
that family planning was one of the ways that could be used to
develop quality families, and is seen as a key factor in creating
a strong nation.
Former authoritarian president Soeharto was credited by many
for his success in enforcing tough birth control measures in a
bid to limit population growth. But since his downfall in 1998,
many people, particularly in provincial region, abandoned the
family planning program, while at the same time local
administrations were focussing on ways to generate more revenue
to help finance their greater autonomy.
"Do not have big families with a lot of children if you cannot
afford it," said Susilo.
"Quality (families) will create respect for our nation so we
will have honor and pride in interacting with other nations,"
said Susilo, who wants to see a respected and confident Indonesia
among the international community.
The president argued that a country will become poorer if
population increases at a high rate.
"Without birth control, our efforts to boost economic
development will be useless. Should it happens, our next
generation will live in a worse condition. It will be the fault
of our generation," Susilo said.
He said that the country's huge population would only be
beneficial if they were quality people. Otherwise, they would
only be a social and economic burden to the country.
Susilo cited a report of the UNDP that ranked the development
index of Indonesian human resources poorly, ranking 117 out of
177 countries.
The president also called on Indonesian families to stay away
from negative foreign cultures "that may harm the true spirit of
Indonesian families and the nation".
He referred to the practice of people living together out of
wedlock, which he says is a violation of religious and legal
values.
"Let us maintain the principle and values of Indonesian
families forever. We do not have to copy the lifestyles of
foreign nations that are not in line with the spirit and the
personality of our nation," Susilo said.
He said that the true spirit of Indonesian families is
religiosity.
The combination of staying away from such negative foreign
values and implementing family planning will eventually improve
the quality of Indonesian families.