---------------------------------------------------------- FREE for JOIN Indonesia Daily News Online via EMAIL: go to: http://www.indo-news.com/subscribe.html - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - Please Visit Our Sponsor http://www.indo-news.com/cgi-bin/ads1 ---------------------------------------------------------- SUPANGKAT'T COLUMN: WHO WOULD BE THE BOSS OF THE INDONESIAN FOREIGN POLI CY? Indonesian foreign policy under the new order of Suharto and his lackey Ali Ala- tas as its brain is the greatest failure in our history of 54 years as an independent nation, shepherding us into "pariah nation" a la Serbia and Rwanda being condemned by the international community for attrocit- ies committed in East Timor for 24 years climaxing in 1999. The economy is disastrous under the new order or Suharto. Indonesia is practical- ly the richest nation in natural resources and manpower altogether in the whole world. Now we are as poor as or might be even poorer than Bangladesh. Our poverty is evenmore heartbreaking because it coincides with the balooning up of our population in spite of the growth failure declared succes by Suharto and was cowned by the United Nations Population Fund. Right now we have approximately 100 milion poor - probably even destitute - that is about half of the total population, about 10 million incurable hunger oedema. Malnutrition? It is the territory Angels fear to tread. Because most Indonesians are not so nutrition concious, except for doctors and a bunch of elite who could pay the best and most expensive physicians. High glucose in rice, etc. high satur- ated cooking oil, high animal fat and other so-called radical elements in our food are contributing to diabetes, high colesterol and triglycerides causing all kinds of sicknesses, diseases and illnesses. Besides, good nutritioned food is too expensive, too unaffordable even by the middle class which are so few. That is the story about the worsening economy. We are heading towards a worsening foreign policy situation where the United Nations Security Council and the Human Rights Division are focussing their hawk-like sharp eyes to the past and the suspected future attrocities as well. It is almost an unanswerable question as to who would be really qualified to fill this ungrateful job. First he must be a free market oriented as not to jeopardize the Western capital who would finance our bungled economy of 220 million people, Second, he must not be a suspect in the eyes of the Western powers who don't like to be pushed around by using a bandwagon as the likes of the Nonaligned, the Group of 15, irrelevant and obsolete as it had been. The most ideal new Foreign Minister is the one who would be able to put us back on track as a respectable nation in the United Nations and in the Western world, practically the hands who is feeding us. Last but not least, he should be able to rid of the debilitating mental blocs and give us back our self-condifence as a nation with conscience. New York, October 7, 1999. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 7 Oct 1999 jam 18:00:49 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
