A prosperous New Year expected

The year 2009 was fairly tumultuous, with plenty of natural disasters, scandal after scandal, and other bad news.

But this did not prevent Indonesians across the country from celebrating New Year's Eve - also despite recently having lost two of the nations finest figures, former president Abdurrahman Wahid who passed away Wednesday, and senior economist Frans Seda who passed away Thursday.

While some flocked to various tourism destinations to celebrate, others congregated in houses of worship to thank God for the passing year and to pray for a more successful year ahead.

For the majority of Indonesians, 2010 will be a year of prolonged economic hardship and a lack of access to various basic services such as education, health and sanitation.

However, 2009 was not a purely bad year since much progress was made by the country.

In April, Indonesians went to polling stations to elect legislative representatives, and then in July they voted again to select a president.

While there was plenty of friction here and there, the general elections ran relatively smoothly allaying previous fears that they would be grounds for horizontal conflicts between supporters of various candidates.

The horns have been trumpeted, and rockets have been sent skyward to welcome the new year.

As the first sunrise of 2010 emerged, there were hopes 2010 would see Indonesia become a more prosperous state. - JP