Friday, January 18, 2008

Soeharto, My Dear Former President, Get Well Soon.



I don't want to debate whether Soeharto is right or wrong. The answer is obvious, he is dead wrong. Tens of billions of dollar of corruption. Needless to say, that's a HUGE amount of money for a country whose per-capita income is less than US$2000 per year.

And everytime people ask me in chinese and I can't understand it, they will say "You are a chinese right? How come you can't speak chinese?" I want to shout "Don't blame me, blame my former president!"

And thanks to him, we students have to memorize hundreds of pages of history lesson.... which is nothing but fiction.

And the list goes on...

BUT.

If someone ask me who is the best among Indonesian presidents... I will undoubtedly answer... Soeharto. He had the vision to build Indonesia (Well, not all his plans were successful, but whose plan is perfect anyway...). Last time everytime I went to Jakarta after one year never went there, I always saw it to have something different. Be it new building, or better road.

Our education was one of the best in the region. We even sent our teachers to Malaysia to teach. Now, my younger brother goes to Malaysia to study.

Our economy was satisfying. 1 US$ = 2000 rupiah. Now, 1 US$ = 9000 rupiah. After Soeharto stepped down, many Indonesian students who studied overseas went back to Indo because their parents could no longer afford the living cost there.

My standing is clear. No leader is perfect. JFK is not. LKY is not. So what's the purpose of speaking evil to a president whose health condition is in a very critical stage... Let's trust our Court to make decision on his past mistakes, and let anyone who is sinless throw the stone first. No matter how big his mistakes are, he is our former president for 32 years, and he deserves a respect, a big one.

My dear former president, get well soon.

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