Reform Efforts Still Continuing: Yudhoyono

Nusa Dua (Antara) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said reform efforts in Indonesia that began in 1999 following a financial crisis in 1998 had not yet finished and are still continuing. "I wish the Indonesian people would see conditions at present and in the future," he said in his speech at the closing of the Forum of Indonesian Chief Editors meeting here on Friday. He said in the past 15 years since 1998 a lot had been done and achieved but a lot also still had yet to be done and achieved. He said after reform movement in 1999 a lot of right things had been done and in view of that he appealed to chief editors and all national elements to increase them. "If we think clearly, honestly and openly a lot of things which are not right still happen in the country. Therefore, we need to continuously correct them," he said. President Yudhoyono said as common citizens he called on chief editors to see current conditions in the country and also national hopes for the future. "Do not see Indonesia as a still photograph but as a moving picture for more complete description of the country," he said. And that is also the way they must see the next general elections in 2014, adding that the people and the mass media must not only see what the country would be in 2014-2019 but also by 2025 in line with the Master Plan for the Acceleration and Expansion of National Economic Development (MP3EI) as well as by 2045 or a decade after its independence. In view of that he called on the mass media to look at the vision and mission of candidates that would compete for the country's leadership in the 2014 presidential election. He said the country's president must have vision and mission until 2045 and not only for 2014-2019. (*)