Awakening day reaches new heights

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Sun, 05/21/2006 12:58 PM

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta, Bandung

Carpe diem might well describe the way National Awakening Day was observed Saturday, with various groups using the moment to highlight various causes great effect.

A band of seasoned politicians gathered at an historic building in Central Jakarta, Gedung Joeang '45, to announce their dissatisfaction with the government's granting of the management of the country's rich natural resources to foreign companies.

Former People's Consultative Assembly speaker Amien Rais used the event to lash out at the government, saying it had acted ""awkwardly"" by letting foreign companies reap most of the profits.

""This meeting aims to urge the government to renegotiate its working contracts with these private (foreign) firms like many other countries have done,"" Amien was quoted as saying by detik.com.

Well-known faces, including former economic minister Kwik Kian Gie, cultural observer Emha Ainun Najib, activist Egi Sudjana and several lawmakers, were among the participants.

Economist Kwik Kian Gie slammed the government's decision to grant the management of the Cepu oil block to U.S.-based ExxonMobil Corp. rather than handing it to state-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina.

""President Susilo is too lame in facing pressure from foreign interests, especially in facing U.S. government pressure,"" he said. ""If he had decided that Cepu could be managed by ourselves, the profits would be huge and could benefit our people.""

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was invited to attend the gathering but could not make it as he was taking part in a 10-K run with over 50,000 participants in Bandung.

""I couldn't possibly disappoint over 50,000 of my brothers in Bandung,"" he said after the run, playing down his decision not to attend the gathering.

He was invited to join the run four months ago while Amien's invitation arrived only on Friday.

National Awakening Day was also used by a newly formed political party, the Reform Democratic Party (PDP), to announce its readiness to compete in the 2009 election.

Roy B.B. Janis, senior leader of the party, the members of which are dissatisfied elements of former president Megawati Soekarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), vowed the party would never leave the poor behind.

""Those who once joined the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, we now invite them to join our party,"" he said, after opening the party's headquarters in Sisingamangaraja, South Jakarta.

The day was marked by protests in other parts of the country, such as in Bandung, where an angry youth activists dispersed a meeting of some 80 women they accused of being former members of the defunct Indonesia Communist Party.

In East Java, some observed the day by holding simple flag-hoisting ceremonies, donating blood and cleaning up the cemetery of Wage Rudolf Soepratman, who composed the country's national anthem Indonesia Raya (Indonesia the Great).

The moment was also used by the Riau provincial administration to distribute free land certificates to some 10,000 poor families across the province.

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