Is anyone capabale of running this country?<\/p>\n
J. Soedjati Djiwandono, Political Analyst, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Indonesia's tragedy is a crisis of leadership, I wrote in this
\nnewspaper in October 1998. Alas, we are now going through the
\nworst stage of leadership crisis since the resignation of
\npresident Soeharto in May of that year, which was generally
\nunderstood as the onset of the \"era of reform\".<\/p>\n
Since the monetary crisis in 1997, which has developed into an
\never-worsening multidimensional crisis, there seems to have been
\nlittle, if any, serious sense of crisis or sense of urgency on
\nthe part of any of the leaders from Soeharto down to Megawati
\nSoekarnoputri. The leadership crisis also lies behind the current
\nlegal confusion and uncertainty and the increasing tendency
\ntoward lawlessness, with people taking the law into their own
\nhands.<\/p>\n
Of no less significance, however, the crisis of leadership
\nalso means a scarcity of potential leaders who are likely to meet
\nthe needs, requirements and aspirations of the people in many
\nterms: their vision and their commitment to that vision; their
\ncapacity for coordination, management and organization; their
\nability to inspire and motivate, their intellectual quality and
\nknowledge; their integrity, morality, personality and lifestyle;
\ntheir modesty and honesty, including their readiness to listen,
\neven to criticism, and thereby their capacity to learn. The
\npresent generation of political leaders clearly lacks consistency
\nin their attitude and commitment to moral values and ethics.<\/p>\n
Prominent in the weaknesses characteristic of the present
\nleadership under the Megawati government is a wide gap of
\ncommunication between the government and the people at large,
\nparticularly as regards the government's policy on the price
\nhikes in fuel, electricity and telephone charges with all their
\npossible dire consequences for the lives of the common people.<\/p>\n
Hence the continuous nationwide protests against the
\ngovernment demanding not only the cancellation of the policy, but
\nalso for the resignation of Megawati from the presidency and
\nHamzah Haz from the vice presidency.<\/p>\n
While the policy may be understandable in terms of economic
\ntheory, it has not been properly communicated to the people. The
\nMegawati government has no good communicator; unfortunately, the
\nPresident herself is not at all a good communicator.<\/p>\n
She has not tried seriously to tackle the problem at issue
\nhead-on, arguing and explaining on the basis of the merits and
\ndemerits of the policy, especially from the perspective of the
\ninterests of the common people, in a language that people would
\nproperly understand and thus offer their support.<\/p>\n
Instead, not untypical of a dictator, she has blamed the
\nmedia, as she did before on the question of illegal Indonesian
\nmigrant workers. She has also dealt with trivial matters such as
\nthe burning of her picture and that of Hamzah Haz by
\ndemonstrators. Worse, she has been trying to find those behind
\nthe recent mass protests involving university students, workers
\nand other people of various walks of life.<\/p>\n
More particularly, she has been trying to find out who is
\ntrying to topple her from power. In fact, she challenged her
\npolitical foes to meet face to face in the 2004 elections.
\nInterestingly, Amien Rais of the National Mandate Party (PAN) and
\nspeaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), responded in
\na similar manner. Both unnecessarily, for they are bound to face
\neach other next year anyway; yet they seemed to have been engaged
\nin a show of mutual challenge and name-calling in a style
\ncharacteristic of Javanese shadow play.<\/p>\n
Indeed, even if no one seriously intends to force or at least
\nease Megawati as well as Hamzah out of office, the end result of
\nthe widespread protests against the policy on the price hikes,
\none way or another, barring constitutional means through a
\nspecial or annual session of the MPR, might well be the fall of
\nthe Megawati government.<\/p>\n
Should that be the case, to form a presidium (as a temporary
\nform of national leadership), the possibility of which was raised
\nby many among the protesters, would be meaningless. That,
\nhowever, would be the worst scenario that could happen to the
\ncountry, for their successors would most likely be found among
\nleaders of the existing political parties; granted, that is, that
\nthe present generation of politicians have mostly lost public
\nconfidence.<\/p>\n
Therefore, the question is whether the 2004 general election
\nwill resolve the leadership crisis, even with a direct
\npresidential election. The issue of whether the proportional
\nsystem of election should be closed or open has been resolved
\nparticularly now that Megawati's party, the Indonesian Democratic
\nParty of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), has finally agreed to an open
\nproportional (open list) system.<\/p>\n
In theory, a closed proportional system, as so far practiced,
\nwould result in the election of \"representatives of political
\nparties\" instead of \"representatives of the people\".<\/p>\n
This is not to say that an open-list system does not have
\nserious weaknesses, especially under the present circumstances.
\nWith the spirit of \"regional autonomy\" tending to become \"ethnic
\nautonomy\", not only the election of provincial governors, as has
\nbeen the case with some provinces, but also that of
\nrepresentatives of the people, may heavily and adversely be
\naffected by both ethnical and also sectarian oriented candidates.<\/p>\n
As far as the election of a president and vice president is
\nconcerned, however, and thus a way of resolving the leadership
\ncrisis, the main obstacle would be a condition set by the
\nelection law that only political parties that have won a certain
\npercentage of the vote can nominate presidential and vice
\npresidential candidates.<\/p>\n
Given the possibility, even the probability, that the major
\nparties of 2004 will more or less be the same as today's major
\nparties in terms of the result of the 1999 general election, then
\nthe \"new\" leaders after the next election in 2004, even with a
\ndirect presidential election, will most likely come from these
\nsame big parties.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, our electoral law does not provide for
\nindependent (nonparty) candidates to contest the election. So we
\nwould be back at square one. A deadlock! Most existing political
\nleaders are beyond the pale.<\/p>\n
It seems hard to believe, though, that among over two million
\npeople in this country, no one at all is capable of becoming a
\nleader of this nation. He or she, however, civilian or military
\n(by then retired), is almost definitely to be found outside the
\nparty system. This would give us light at the end of the tunnel.<\/p>\n
Would there be a political party, or better still, a coalition
\nor alliance of parties, big or small, or big and small, which
\nshare this concern and this big dream, genuinely concerned with
\nthe survival and future of this great but suffering nation, and
\nwhich would nominate their candidates for president and vice
\npresident from outside any of the existing political parties?<\/p>\n
We need the best, or second, even third best, if need be, in
\nterms of the qualities or set of above criteria to lead this
\nnation. That would be the deus ex machina the nation is waiting
\nfor.<\/p>",
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