Religious sentiments and Economic Problems

Again, a religious issue is used to divert people’s attention from our real problem. Now, it’s a short movie produced by a Dutch politician about Islam. Several groups protested and the government has asked all internet service providers to block all websites and blogs that contain the movie.

We must remind all parties that our country is now in the middle of a serious situation. Currently, we are facing economic pressures from almost every sectors of the economy. In the monetary sector, our currency rate and stocks indices plummeted. The situation in the real sector is also worrying. The medium and large businesses are now in a position of ‘wait and see’ because of macro-economic uncertainties and government indecisiveness. The situation among the small businesses is even worse. Now, every day we hear and read the news about various small businesses must stop their operation or go into bankruptcy due to skyrocketed input prices.

We have never been in a situation as difficult as now since the economic crisis in 1997. And, what does the government do? They seem to have lack of breakthroughs to avoid us to go deeper into this vicious cycle. The top executives also do not respond appropriately. What we know is President Yudhoyono just launched his second album that consists of his own-composed ten songs.

It’s the economy! That is our current real problem.