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Threats to nation 'are numerous'

Modern issues of national unity now fast rivalling ethnic and religious factors
Threats to nation 'are numerous'
Reverend Eben Nuban Timo speaks of dangers of corruption and legal mafia at the forum
Published: August 25, 2011 07:24 AM GMT
Updated: August 25, 2011 10:24 AM GMT

There are more threats to national unity and ideals than most people think, participants at a seminar in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara province were told yesterday. The seminar was organized by the Union of Catholic University Students of the Republic of Indonesia. Ethnic conflicts such as the struggle for independence in Papua and West Papua, as well as religious extremism are the main issues most people identify as threats to harmony within the country. But there are also several others that are fast becoming causes for concern, according to Norbert Jegalus, a lecturer at the Catholic University of Widya Mandira’s faculty of religious philosophy. There is a third and rapidly spreading grouping  called greed that can be added to the mix, he said. The whole fabric of our society is being destroyed by greed in the form of corruption, crime, selfishness by individuals and the preoccupation of officials in looking out for their own welfare, Jegalus told the seminar. “Money controls everything, everywhere. It even can buy the law,” he added. “Indonesia is a nation state,” he maintained. “If a certain parties want to create their own set of national ideals by eliminating the primordial identity of all national components, then they will only create conflict. Many will fight against such efforts,” he continued. Anti-social actions that fall under the umbrella of greed “are all harming our national ideals,” the chairman of the synod of the Protestant Evangelical Church in Timor warned.

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