T

he following letters are comments on The Jakarta Post'€™s story titled Fadli praises Soeharto on Page 4 on Jan. 28, 2016:

There are no leaders like Sukarno-Hatta

There is no leader like Soeharto

There is no leader like BJ Habibie

There is no leader like Gus Dur

There is no leader like SBY

They are leaders of their own time and they have served their country well and they deserve to be called heroes. It doesn'€™t matter how hard you fight for what you believe in. It doesn'€™t matter how hard you protest during demonstrations on the street. It doesn'€™t matter how loud you screamed '€œDown with Soeharto!'€ It doesn'€™t matter how the course had been changed.

But the truth is Indonesia is still struggling just like Indonesia during Soeharto or Sukarno. You may judge Soeharto, but there is nothing you can do to discredit what he had done well to build this country!

Without Soeharto the cost might have been even higher! People talk out of their ignorance but the smiling general was not just praised and awarded by the UN for the literacy of his people, he was also the one who stopped the region from becoming communized by communist movements across the region.

Without Soeharto, communist Indonesia might already have annihilated Australia with the help of China and the USSR by now. To be honest, I love most of the elite in this country when it comes to the unity and sovereignty of Indonesia.

At least I notice most of them will be united when Indonesia is threatened by foreign powers.

Jalasveva
Jakarta

Referring to '€œthreatened by foreign powers'€, do you mean the foreign powers that have just paid for a new high-speed train? What sort of foreign power is going to assault 17,000 islands these days?

If all you can conjure up is nonsensical vainglorious military triumphalism for Indonesia, you are one sad bunny.

And even if some nefarious nation with designs on Indonesia'€™s nasi goreng or batik were to attempt an invasion, it would have to have a vast maritime fleet, to be followed by a vast land-based army.

The Indonesian Military and politicians would likely be no fighting match for a hostile superpower attack, but would likely be aided by the very difficult nature of the terrain of the archipelago. Besides, I can imagine, just between ourselves, that being taken over by the Chinese might be an improvement, but that is likely blasphemy.

So, citing unlikely military scenarios to boost your nationalism in an English language newspaper is counterproductive to say the least.

Maurice gold
Jakarta