Rita A. Widiadana, Denpasar – Indonesia will soon become "the backyard" nation among Asian countries if it fails to combat serious corruption and a lousy work ethic, says noted Muslim scholar Nurcholish Madjid.
Speaking at the annual meeting of Muhammadiyah here, Nurcholish said Indonesia was already lagging behind other countries in finance, education, science, culture but most importantly in morality and mentality. "We should be ashamed to be known as 'lazy and poor people.' Indonesia will always be at the rear end and looked down on by others. It is strange that most Indonesians, especially those in power and politics, are reluctant to lead simple and modest lives. We are a bankrupt country, why should we behave as if we are a rich people?" said the rector of Paramadina University.
He said that during the meeting of the Consultative Group of Indonesia (CGI), Indonesian officials, who were actually begging for more money and increased debt, drove shiny Mercedes Benz while those from donor countries took subway trains.
Such behavior was the legacy of the nation's feudalistic, paternalistic and snobbish culture which grew like a plant on fertile land and was as deeply entrenched among the authorities and the people now as it was during the New Order regime, he said.
"All government officials act like kings who should be adored and served by their subordinates," he told a visibly shocked audience of 300 top executives of Muhammadiyah, a social and cultural organization.
Other speakers at the meeting included Jacob Oetama of the daily newspaper Kompas and historian Taufik Abdullah. People's Consultative Assembly speaker Amien Rais was scheduled to speak but failed to appear. The meeting finishes Sunday.
"Corruption, collusion and nepotism," Nurcholish said, "has become our culture. It is very hard to change the existing corruption culture which has been embodied in our lives for more than four decades. Indonesia is a really sick and immature nation which urgently needs enlightenment," Nurcholish said.
He urged Muhammadiyah to provide role models and to stand at the forefront of a religious, social and cultural movement. Nurcholish said that in l998 Indonesia had already entered "an enlightened period" with the emergence of reform movement, an era he likened the 15th century European Renaissance.
"No other period in the history of the nation offered such an opportunity for the emergence of civil liberties as the reform era which was marked by the fall of Soeharto and his New Order regime," he said.
The current reform era, he said, was a golden opportunity to implement the best actions and thoughts on how to build a modern state in contrast to the authoritarian and feudalistic regime of the New Order era. "But, after almost four years, people see no significant changes. Everything remains the same, if anything, with more messy and chaotic conditions in terms of social, economic and politics," he said.
The people and politicians were now looking to President Megawati Soekarnoputri, he said. "Any president who is unable to meet people's high expectations will risk his or her position," he said.
Nurcholish, however, admitted that the reform movement had resulted in public euphoria and uncontrolled freedom among the people at all levels. This is very logical, he said, many of them have acted like "wild horses" because they had never had the opportunity to speak their minds and to express their feelings freely.
"Freedom is a blessing for our nation. Therefore, don't ever try to close the door of civil liberties for the sake of maintaining power and the nation's security," he said.