Independence Day

In a few days (four to be exact), Indonesia will celebrate its 62nd independence day. First, I would like to congratulate my nation happy birthday. Second, I wish that our nation will be prosperous and united. Third, I would like to review some major problems that are still waiting to be resolved although we have been an independent nation for a while now. For some of you who doesn't have a well understanding about Indonesia, let me give you a brief lesson about our country. Indonesia is an archipelaga with around 17,500 islands. About 60% of those islands are uninhibited. With many natural resources such as oil, gold, silver, gas etc. found all over Indonesia, it is supposed to be a wealthy and prosperous country. But the fact is contradicted with the prediction. The development in Indonesia is well behind its neighboring country like Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand. You can see it from the currency exchange, Singapore dollar, Malaysian Ringgit, Thai's Baht is more expensive than Indonesian Rupiah. Singapore got their independence long after Indonesia (in 1967 I think), the size of its country is probably the same like Bali, yet it has achieved so many. How can this happened? Well, I can not answer that and I will leave it to our government to review our problem and act based on it. I just hope that the government and the people's representatives will leave their political interests behind then cooperate and make this country their number one and most important issue. A lot of improvements have to be done. Here is a list of problem which I think needs attention:

• Politics: We need to resolved a few issues relating to separatism. A few weeks back there was an incident in Maluku when president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono attended the 14th National Family Day at Merdeka field, Ambon. Twenty five men were performing Cakalele dance which is a war dance in front of the president. They also hoisted the RMS (Republik Maluku Selatan) flag. This incident really upset the president.
• Economics: There are still many people who lived in poverty. Recent incident reported from Papua. At least 55 villagers from Yahokimo, Papua were dead because of starvation. Papua is a province that has many resources such as gold and silver, thus it should make them a wealthy province, yet it doesn't. In this case I remember an advertisement: "Tanya ken apa?".
• Public Transport: There are many recent incidents including air, land and sea transport. An aircraft has been reported missing when it was flying from Surabaya to Manado. 96 passengers were reported missing and it has not been found since it disappeared on 1st of January, 2007. Because of that and many other incidents, Europe has put a ban for any aircraft that fly from Indonesia. As for sea transport, it is all the same. I have lost count of how many ships that have been missing or drowned in Indonesian sea. And at last land transport: the latest incident involving KA Gumarang which was derailed 4 kilometers from Gubug station, Grobogan, Central Java.
  
  This was not the case of human error or anything, but it was a case of criminal. Someone has removed part of the track, can you believe it?
• Environmental: You must have heard that there is a mud flow in Sidoarjo, East Java. It was started almost a year ago as a result of gas exploration conducted by PT. Lapindo Brantas. It is still flowing muds up until now and there is nothing that anyone can do including the government.
  
  There are also cases of forest fires. Most of the cases happened because of the dry weather, but a lot of them caused by land exploration. People just set fires in the forest so they can use it for housing or agriculture.

Well, those are probably the biggest challenges that our government is facing right now, at least according to me. But who knows maybe the government has other ideas. Anyone want to add another possible issue to my list?