The nation could perish, Megawati warns

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia as a nation could perish if people keep undermining national unity and cohesion, President Megawati Soekarnoputri said on Sunday.

Virtually every group in society today is fighting for its own interests at the expense of the national interests. This has led to violent and often bloody conflicts between groups, regions, villages, ethnic groups and even religious communities, Megawati said in her speech to commemorate Youth Pledge Day.

"If we allow this to continue, you can be sure that we as a nation will soon perish," she said in the ceremony attended by thousands of youths in Cibubur camping ground, East Jakarta.

The gathering was held to mark the anniversary of the historic pledge to build one independent nation by young people from various parts of the archipelago on Oct. 28, 1928, when Indonesia was still a Dutch colony.

The Youth Pledge -- One Nation, One Language, One Country: Indonesia -- was a major turning point in the country's independence struggle that culminated in the declaration of independence 17 years later.

One of the youths who took part at the historic meeting was Sukarno, who proclaimed independence on Aug. 1945 and became Indonesia's first president. Sukarno is Megawati's father.

Megawati warned of the possibility of Indonesia becoming the Balkans of the East, of reopening the possibility of the people being exploited once again by foreign forces as in the past.

"We have been taught by our own history that our unity would be undermined if we have leaders of questionable honesty and integrity," she said.

Present at the ceremony were Vice President Hamzah Haz as well as a number of Cabinet ministers.

The Megawati administration, which marks its first 100 days on Wednesday, has been widely criticized for its lack of sense of crisis and its failure to even send signals that the economy was improving after four years of economic crisis.

In her speech, Megawati acknowledged that Indonesia was economically far better off in 1997, the year before the economic crisis hit and also the last year of the Soeharto regime.

"Today, we rarely encounter optimism in our society. All comments are pessimistic, including about the state of affairs of our nation.

"But we must not surrender to this situation. We have to honestly admit that we have regressed before renewing our resolve to work together to get out of the present crisis.

She cited the break down of law and order as one of the chief excesses of the reformation movement that started in 1998.

"That feeling of security -- something which everyone in this country naturally craves for -- seems to have disappeared," she said, adding that many foreign companies were now preparing to flee Indonesia because of this feeling of insecurity.

Megawati blamed the decades of rampant corruption, collusion and nepotism (KKN) for the present state of affairs, reaching the point where "some of us have come to accept it as part of our culture."

"We have to break this cycle of KKN.

"KKN is nothing but theft and those who are indulge in it, whatever position or rank they hold, are thieves.

"We have to stop this looting of state assets. We have to bring the corruptors before the court of law to account for their crime," she said.

Although disillusioned at the excesses of the reforms, she cited various advances that Indonesia had made in the last three years, including building a more democratic country and respect for people's basic human rights.

The reformation could succeed if everyone started by reforming their thinking, their morals and mentality, "because that is where everything starts," she said.