One camp extolled virtues of their candidate’s leadership, despite the unaddressed current account deficit and our lagging far behind in matters of major substance — including the very quality of our people. The other camp stood in stark denial of the number of steps being taken to redress historical inequalities, highlighting instead the indebtedness incurred and the improper sequence of placing roads ahead of people.

Now is the time for us to leave such acrimony behind — no point in debating right and wrong, let us instead focus on initiating the healing process. The wounding during the protracted campaign is apparent, and magnanimity displayed, inter alia, by the President inviting leaders of the other camp to nominate candidates with merit for executive positions, would be a step in the right direction.

However, more deeply seated wounding has been with us for so long that it has become normal. The extractive institutions bequeathed by centuries of feudalism and colonialism have proven successful in reinventing themselves, driving us further apart.

Thus, the incoming administration needs to acknowledge wounds inflicted during previous regimes and enlist the elite across all walks of life in beginning a sustained process of “social healing”, wherein the dynamic tension between truth, justice, peace and mercy principles hold central place. Injustice that is still being perpetuated should necessarily top the list.

This is the corruption and collusion, aided and abetted by politicians. More than that, this is the dominant paradigm that has generated values and norms that condone Lamborghinis and Rolls-Royces parading amid persistent poverty without any pangs of conscience. It should not come as a surprise that radicalism and terrorism have found fertile breeding ground in the wounding by glaring inequality and ostentatious display.

The marginalization of indigenous peoples is another deep-seated wounding reinforced by successive administrations. Through not recognizing their belief systems and not respecting their land rights, we have relegated them to second-class citizenship.

The much-touted Industrial Revolution 4.0 will undoubtedly inflict severe wounding and exacerbate the sense of helplessness prevalent among such disadvantaged groups and the ill-equipped youth at large.

Major healing could be affected by replacing growth, which has been fragmentizing with development that promises everyone a place in the sun. In the past, presidents have recognized the wounds and wounding, but invariably opted to avoid confronting both the raving McCarthyites who label any attempt to restore social justice as being pro-Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), which has long been defunct, and the master politicos and conglomerates colluding to preserve the status-quo.

Let us hope that the current President possesses the moral courage not to turn away but actually stand up to any and all factions preventing social healing.

Initiated now, and carefully nurtured by competent and caring senior officials and politicians under the personal leadership of this President and his successors. such a process of social healing might see us as a nation at peace with itself on the threshold of the republic’s centenary.

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The writer is cofounder of The Foundation for International Human Rights Reporting Standards (FIHRRST), an international association dedicated to the respect, protection and fulfilment of human rights. The views expressed are his own.

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