UNDP medal for Soeharto

President Soeharto received yesterday another international honor for his meritorious deeds for the nation. He was awarded a medal of honor from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) for reducing the number of poor people in this country.

UNDP administrator James Speth said the award recognized Soeharto's and Indonesia's "outstanding accomplishment in and commitment to the significant reduction and continued eradication of poverty". He said Indonesia had made poverty eradication "an overriding theme of national development efforts."

As Indonesians we are proud that Soeharto is the only president of a developing country to achieve such tremendous recognition. He has received many awards. To mention just a few, in 1985 the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, presented him with a special FAO Medal in recognition of his personal involvement in agricultural development, which with the success of his government policies and the hard work of tens of millions of Indonesian farmers, had taken the country from being a considerable rice-importer to being an exporter of the staple food.

In 1991 the World Health Organization presented him a Health for All Medal for his contribution toward realizing the goal of health for all by the year 2000.

However, Speth warned yesterday that major social problems could erupt if the fruits of growth were not shared. "Unless there is growth, there will never be improved prosperity," he said. "The absence of equitable distribution may become the seed of social unrest that will lead to social upheaval and disintegration."

Soeharto recognizes that decades of hard work have gone into saving Indonesians from the "abyss of poverty." The fight against poverty "is the great challenge of man and mankind at the end of this century," he said. But, he believes that this country will be able to overcome the poverty problem before the end of the seventh National Development Program in the year 2004.

This expectation can cause a sense of optimism in relation to material welfare, while at the same time lead to pessimism because in many developing countries economic development drives have been carried out at the cost of political development. Such thinking has emerged as the republic reaches 52 years of age and with many people believing that besides the abolition of the social gap they also need more basic freedoms and equal justice under law.

However, this sense of pessimism can be soothed if we read President Soeharto's promise in a speech at the end of last year which stated that he would encourage openness and democracy this year. His promise is significant because economic development without social and political justice could lead the nation to chaos.

Last year this country witnessed economic growth at 7.8 percent and the approval of 810 new domestic investment projects which were worth Rp 100.7 trillion (US$42 billion) and had 959 foreign investment projects worth $29.9 billion. However, the nation was also hit by rioting, incited by various ugly reasons, unprecedented in the latest two decades.

But as a nation we are optimistic that we have learned from these tragic experiences. Today, especially after the UNDP Medal presentation, we sincerely hope for the President's good health. May he continue to rule this country and receive not only medals in the economic domain but also in recognition of his personal role to make Indonesia one of the largest economic democracies.