Jakarta – Two leading scholars have blasted government officials for "burying their heads in the sand" and living in denial when faced with crises.

Sociologist Loekman Soetrisno of Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta and Abdurrahman Wahid of the Moslem organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) said the habit failed to solve problems.

"Such an attitude does not bode well for us as a nation," Loekman told The Jakarta Post yesterday.

Loekman cited as an example the way some officials treat the monetary crisis.

"We had been claiming that the fundamentals of our economy were strong when in fact they were not," he said. "This habit of denial is demonstrated not just by officials but by us as a nation. "

Abdurrahman, better known as Gus Dur, said officials refused to face up to reality and even tended to cover it up.

"This is a mistake and it does not solve any problems wrought by the present crisis," he was quoted by Antara as saying in an address to hundreds of people joining the Friday prayer at Takhobbar Mosque in Surabaya, East Java.

"When facing a crisis, we behave like an ostrich . . . we pretend there's no problem ... we bury our heads in the sand."

The food crisis affecting many areas of Indonesia is another problem that has been dismissed by government officials, he said.

Abdurrahman fell short of naming officials or famine-stricken areas, but it has been reported that almost 700 people have died of drought-related illnesses and food shortage in Irian Jaya, while tens of thousands of others face the same threat in Maluku.

Both men argued that, on occasions, local officials in the affected areas had also denied there was a problem. Some of them claimed that their districts did not suffer from food shortages and supply was in abundance, but people became sick or died because they could not afford to buy food.

A number of countries, including the United States. Japan, Australia, Germany and Norway have been sending relief to drought-stricken areas in Irian Jaya.

According to Abdurrahman some government officials in areas suffering from food shortages were baffled by the crisis and have been unable to cope. "But it was a very strange thing when they stopped the incoming foreign relief ... it's as if they were too scared to have people discover that there had been famine in their areas," he was quoted by Antara as saying.

He pointed out that officials should, instead, use common sense and investigate what had caused the food crisis. He named forest fires and the prolonged dry season as being among the causes. "When facing that kind of problem, we must not pretend that we know everything when in fact we're confused. We need to work together to face the crisis," Abdurrahman said.

During his address, he also called on Moslems – who make up 87 percent of the total population of 200 million – across the country not to panic in the face of possible food crisis in the next few months.

The imminent threat of food shortage must be overcome together with "a strong will, patience and diligence" as taught in Islam, he said.

Abdurrahman suggested that one of the measures to cope with the crisis was for people with surplus food to share it with those in need.