PKS ran out of creative ideas. We should learn from Obama’s campaign.
TANTO
Jakarta
Why is it hard to admit it was much better during Soeharto’s time. A lower unemployment rate, burgeoning economy, higher education rate, lower crime rate, strong military and there was nationalistic pride and also respect from neighboring countries.
Every subsequent president has eroded all those values and has been selling pieces of Indonesia to the highest bidder.
Sure, there was blatant corruption during the time under Soeharto, but at least things got done. People got fed, houses got built, children got education, roads got built, projects were completed for the better of the country and we didn’t have hardline Muslims doing what they feel like in the name of Allah.
Yes, Soeharto has many sins, but his accomplishments for this country are also many, so his accomplishments should be praised. He was a hero, he had to do what he did in order to give all of us the opportunity to complain about him now.
If individuals hate the past that built who we are now, then they should stop using their computers, stop using electricity, stop using clean water, stop wearing modern clothing created through mass production, stop using paper, pens, pencils, eating in restaurants, and stop enjoying all the modern comforts we enjoy and take for granted today.
DAVID K.
Jakarta
I think it’s obvious why we don’t want to name him a hero. Heroes are models for the younger generation to exemplify, and I don’t think that one of most corrupt men ever should be a model for anyone.
Okay, no court has confirmed he was corrupt, but it is everybody’s secret that he had been conducting fraudulent practices — so much so that he somewhat made them part of Indonesian culture.
I agree he indeed did a lot of things for the nation, but that’s clearly not enough to make him a hero, with such a bad reputation.
Naming him a hero or teacher of the nation is like conveying messages to the younger generation (perhaps the older, too?) that it’s OK to be corrupt, as long as you do something for the nation.
BENZ
Jakarta
Bombers’ bodies -- Nov. 09, Online
So now the murder of two hundred tourists has been avenged by the murder of three of the people responsible. When will we ever learn that one murder can not be compensated by another?
Apart from playing into the terrorist’s hands by making “martyrs” of them, what makes us think that killing them will achieve anything?
Why not let them spend the rest of their miserable lives rotting away on a prison island somewhere? By killing them we show that we are no better than they are. Murder is always wrong, be it sanctioned by terrorist ideology or by an elected government.
ALEX LESTER
Denpasar
| 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|