Megawati and 'wong cilik'<\/p>\n
Is anyone up there in the government still defending and
\nfighting for the wong cilik, the Javanese words Indonesian
\npoliticians fondly used to refer to the little people?<\/p>\n
President Megawati Soekarnoputri, and her Indonesian
\nDemocratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), are fast shedding
\nthe image and reputation of the leader and the party for wong
\ncilik which they have carved for themselves to give them victory
\nat the 1999 general elections.<\/p>\n
The government's decision to hike the prices of utilities at
\nthe start of the year may have been an inevitable economic
\nnecessity. But because it came so close to President Megawati's
\ndecision to waive criminal charges against big time corruptors,
\nshe is sending the wrong message about her own commitment to help
\nthe lot of the wong cilik, her party's main constituents.<\/p>\n
The massive price hikes clearly meant additional economic
\nburden for everyone, and most of all, for the working class.<\/p>\n
But the decision to free heavily indebted conglomerates, who
\nbrought the nation to the present state of near bankruptcy, of
\ncriminal charges means that the burden of economic crisis is not
\nbeing shared equally by society. Far from it.<\/p>\n
These conglomerates have left in their trail massive unpaid
\ndebts that the government have had to assume. And it will take at
\nleast an entire generation of taxpayers to pay them off.<\/p>\n
The way they incurred these debts, through corruption,
\ncollusion and nepotism, is legendary. They literally robbed the
\nnation. Yet, the government has now decided that the corporate
\nassets which the conglomerates had surrendered would be good
\nenough to cover their entire debts, although in many cases they
\nbarely amount to a fifth of the value of what they owe.<\/p>\n
Hence, Megawati on Thursday signed away a presidential
\ninstruction to release the conglomerates of their obligations,
\nand to discharge them of criminal liability arising from these
\ndebt problems. Thanks to her personal decisions, these
\nconglomerates are about to walk free, after causing untold misery
\non the rest of the nation.<\/p>\n
How is this release and discharge policy related to the policy
\nto increase the prices of utilities, besides their closed timing?<\/p>\n
The two are related in the way that the burden of the economic
\ncrisis are being apportioned. And let's never forget, the present
\neconomic crisis, and the reason why utility prices were hiked at
\nNew Year's, was largely caused by the thieving conglomerates.<\/p>\n
The hikes in the prices of electricity, fuel and telephone are
\nburdensome but they would have been palatable because there are
\nvalid economic rationales for their increases. Besides, these
\nwere periodic increases that had been largely accepted before.<\/p>\n
What makes this month's hikes different is that it comes at a
\ntime when the people's sense of justice and fairness has been
\nhurt by a series of controversial decisions, the most important
\nof which is the release and discharge policy. The thieves walk
\nfree while the rest of the nation is made to pick up the tab.<\/p>\n
The government is increasingly earning the reputation as being
\npro-business for the wrong reason, for it is helping out the kind
\nof business conglomerates that have a criminal track record.<\/p>\n
We may recall that this is not the first instance that the
\nMegawati administration has betrayed the very constituents that
\nhad helped her party won the 1999 election.<\/p>\n
Last year, she personally intervened in the Jakarta
\ngubernatorial election to ensure the reelection of the incumbent
\nSutiyoso, even as he still faces criminal charges for the brutal
\nattack against Megawati's supporters in Jakarta in 1996.<\/p>\n
The small folks today have every right to feel that they have
\nbeen abandoned or even betrayed by their party. Megawati and her
\nPDI Perjuangan are fast losing the support of the people,
\nespecially of their own constituents, the wong cilik.<\/p>\n
The government may stand on a solid constitutional ground
\nuntil the 2004 election in spite of the massive price hikes, but
\nits popular legitimacy is fast ebbing. She must heed the lesson
\nfrom the last year of Soeharto's presidency, and from the brief
\nterms of B.J. Habibie and Abdurrahman Wahid, that without popular
\nlegitimacy, you simply cannot govern effectively.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/megawati-and-wong-cilik-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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