Indonesia could become a great nation if it could exorcise its demons: its negative mental attitude, according to an observer.

Head of Pancasila Studies at Pancasila University, Yudi Latif, claimed that the nation's poor performance had long been a consequence of a weak mentality.

'This nation has fallen victim to a weak mentality, even though we were destined to become a great nation,' said Yudi in a discussion titled 'Restoring Pancasila as the Nation's Identity' in Jakarta, on Tuesday.

Yudi observed that Indonesia had a wealth of achievements as a nation thanks to its past leaders. Unfortunately, subsequent governments have failed to maintain the achievements of their predecessors.

'Much of what we achieve is not maintained. We always start again from zero whenever a new leader is sworn in,' he said as quoted by tribunnews.com.

Yudi also alluded to the level of respect that Indonesia commanded from neighbors Malaysia and Singapore. The two countries were very respectful of Indonesia under the leadership of Sukarno and Suharto.

'Malaysia and Singapore used to regard Indonesia as a big brother. In fact, Mahathir Muhammad used to openly refer to himself as 'little Sukarno',' he said. (tjs)