Welcome guests
Welcome guests
If there are welcome guests after the nation has celebrated
the end of the fasting month of Ramadhan and the New Year, they
must be coming from neighboring Singapore, led by Prime Minister
Goh Chok Tong, and accompanied by almost one hundred businessmen.
The Prime Minister and his entourage arrived here on Jan. 13,
2000.
The businessmen have come here to help revitalize the economy
through new investments, economic cooperation or financial aid
packages. It seems that Gus Dur's magic has worked in convincing
foreign interests that Indonesia is safe. After all, this country
is as vast as the continent of Europe, from London to Moscow, and
what happens in its small remote corners like Aceh, Maluku or
Papua does not reflect the general condition, as some press
reports may suggest.
The general hope among the common people, many among them are
still looking for better employment opportunities, is that with
each new foreign investment, the number of people in employment
should increase. Whether Goh Chok Tong's mission can help to
improve the economy in the immediate future is doubtful. But it
dramatizes the fact that international confidence in Indonesian
economic planners has returned and Indonesian entrepreneurs
should respond positively by indulging themselves less in
unlawful and immoral practices.
Perhaps the stability of the Indonesian currency at about Rp
7,000 per dollar has contributed to the general optimism among
prospective investors. Prices and supplies of basic commodities
withstood the New Year/Idul Fitri storms, which is to the credit
of the newly elected administration.
It has been a daring move, nevertheless, by the government to
propose a salary hike for civil servants and the military and
police when the social fabric is just recovering and
"provocateurs" can show up anytime, anywhere and on the basis of
just about anything.
The Singaporeans probably know too well that Indonesia's
economic recovery is in trustworthy hands. Hopefully, other
missions, if necessary from outer space, will also come to
demonstrate support and confidence, with yet greater commitment
to help cure not only Indonesia's financial and material
illnesses but, and probably more importantly, the cure must also
be directed at the moral decadence of the people.
GANDHI SUKARDI
Jakarta