Nature Alert: Letters: The President’s songs

Monday 15 February 2010

Letters: The President’s songs

Letters: The President’s songs

Mon, 02/15/2010 | Reader's Forum The Jakarta Post

I refer to an article “All the President’s songs” (The Jakarta Post, Jan. 27). I wonder how many copies have been sold. Anybody can write a song and compose its melody, but not everyone can compose one that has artistic value.

“Although I was in Lima, Peru — a place that’s very far away from my homeland, I didn’t stop delving my soul into the beauty and the calmness of our own nature,” said Yudhoyono of the song Jiwaku Terang di Malam itu (My Soul was Enlightened That Night), which was sung by new pop sensation Vidi Aldiano.

I doubt that he has such a great concern for our nature. If he really cares about nature, then why does he let mining companies, oil companies, palm oil companies, pulp and paper companies destroy the natural beauty of our country?

Why doesn’t he guard and protect this land of Indonesia? Why does he let this country be robbed by criminals from inside and outside the country?

While those three songs revolve around his private life, the songs Untukmu Anak Manis (For You, Sweet Children) and Jiwaku Terang di Malam itu (My Soul was Enlightened That Night) reflect his concern for children in disaster areas and his adoration of the beauty of Indonesia.

His concern for children is like an amoeba: it’s so tiny. There are a lot of children out there who need not just the President’s concern, but also the President’s action, to help them in getting good nutrition, health facilities, and better education.

That is the most important thing. What’s the point of spending money on luxurious cars for all the people who call themselves “servants of the nation”, an airplane for the President and hi-tech laptops for members of the House of Representatives?

Instead of spending money on improving healthcare and the education of children in this country, he spends money on all those silly things. Is this what he calls “concern”? Indonesian children are the next generation of this nation. He must put them as the first priority.

Bumi
Jakarta

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/02/15/letters-the-president%E2%80%99s-songs.html

Hall of Shame for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Palm Oil Industry.

Nothing can prepare one for the sight of the systematic extermination of orangutans by the government of Indonesia.

Look at the photos and news articles on these pages in the context of a statement the President made to the media on 10th December 2007.

“In the last 35 years about 50,000 orangutans are estimated to have been lost as their habitats shrank. If this continues, this majestic creature will likely face extinction by 2050,” President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said at the launch of an orangutan conservation plan at the climate talks in Bali.

“The fate of the orangutan is a subject that goes to the heart of sustainable forests … To save the orangutan we have to save the forest.”

Statements like these are most welcome, but unless backed up by action, such words fall on deaf ears within the Ministry of Forestry....who are busy granting licences to cut down the very forests the President says they should protect!

When you think you are to busy to help, please could you reflect for a moment on .........

The following extract refers to environmental problems in general. I just hope you find it as thought provoking and relevant to orangutans as I have.

"This is such a shocking and unpalatable fact that most people deny it, or they just don't want to think about it. They believe as individuals, they can do little about it, so push it to the back of their minds. But I can't do that.

When something has to be done, we need to do it. It doesn't matter how big the challenge is or how hard the solution; if I know something is wrong, and I am in a position to help, I will do my best to make it right." Duncan Bannatyne, successful British businessman.