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The world has noticed that Indonesia is in a long and deep crisis. Everybody knows the crisis in Indonesia can be categorized as economical and political crises caused by a deep moral crisis.
We also know that the youth-especially university students-from all over Indonesia have initiated reformation and democratization movements to recover stability. Christian students have also played roles in this movement. As Christians, we can take pride in this, although the result is still far from our expectations.
Now individuals, as well as the country as a whole, live in poverty. Because of this situation a lot of companies have gone bankrupt. Christian publishers are having serious financial difficulties. Some are no longer able to continue production, and some have even discharged their employees. Religious book publishers face many obstacles, and they can only publish a small amount of books. Christian publishers that are still in business are only producing books at 30% of their former capacity.
In the other side, because of the poverty people are unable to afford even their basic needs. In the midst of this situation, it is very hard for people to set apart a budget for books since those would be "extras" in the budget. The purchasing power of the society decreased to a maximum of 25% for October 1997.
Nowadays people face a very hard life. They are beginning to feel the effect of the crisis. Since the rate of unemployment is increasing, the number of beggars or singing beggars is also increasing. They can be seen at every crossroads. News about thefts, robberies and riots happening in many places makes the people in our society feel unsafe. However tourists are still able to visit some cities where there is a safe environment, like Bali (Denpasar) and Yogyakarta.
The urban population now have a harder life than the farmers, who have fields to plant vegetables in to fulfil their daily needs. News of hunger and poverty can be found every day in the newspapers. The value of the currency is going down. Goods are expensive. It is very difficult for most people to get daily foodstuff.
Together Christians, Moslems and members of other religious communities are making efforts to help the starving people. People are helping their weak neighbors. In a situation like Indonesia is in now the church is also challenged to care for its parishes. That is why in many places the church is forming programs to develop solidarity.
Sadly, I hear news that there are clashes among races, ethnic groups and religions, although it occurred only on a small scale. In spite of that, anti-violence movements have sprung up in some cities.
In the political field many new parties-about 70-have appeared. The old parties are considered not to satisfy the needs of the people, and have failed to bring prosperity into the life of the society. Will these new parties succeed? Most people are in doubt. There are many parishes which are joining the new political movements. Will Indonesia become better by having so many parties? All we can do is to make an effort to participate in it.
I ask for your prayers for a better Indonesia. 
YB. Priyanahadi was the former chairperson of AR-WACC
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