State Policy Guidelines obselete, needs update<\/p>\n
Bambang Nurbianto and Abu Hanifah, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The 1999 State Policy Guidelines (GBHN) that the People's
\nConsultative Assembly will use to evaluate the Megawati
\ngovernment are outdated and need revising, observers say.<\/p>\n
Many of the assumptions used to make the guidelines are no
\nlonger relevant because major changes have affected the global
\neconomic and political scene, they said.<\/p>\n
Fachry Ali of the Research Institute for Indonesian Business
\nEthics Development, said GBHN was no longer relevant because the
\ngovernment's policy had been very much dictated by the
\nInternational Monetary Fund (IMF) through the Letter of Intent
\n(LoI).<\/p>\n
Fachry said that the Assembly should revise GBHN and think of
\na long-term development strategy when Indonesia no longer relied
\non IMF.<\/p>\n
\"Over the next few years, the government will still
\nconcentrate on the LoI with the IMF, which is probably just as
\ntough as making State Policy Guidelines. Therefore, from this
\nyear on, MPR will have to think about a long-term development
\nstrategy,\" Fachry told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The Assembly has obtained a lot of input about the national
\ndevelopment strategy, he said, citing one document proposed by
\nalumni of the Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada University.<\/p>\n
The State Policy Guidelines were adopted in the 1999 Assembly
\nGeneral Session. The guidelines were drafted with very high
\nexpectations that the then democratically elected president
\nAbdurrahman Wahid would have the capacity to pull Indonesia out
\nof the deep crisis, improve law enforcement and overcome security
\nproblems.<\/p>\n
Twenty months later, in July, Abdurrahman was ousted due to
\nincompetence. The economic crisis only worsened.<\/p>\n
Under President Megawati Soekarnoputri, Indonesia's economy
\nhas not yet shown signs of improvement. Worse still, the global
\neconomy has suffered a recession following the Sept. 11, 2001
\nterrorist attacks on America.<\/p>\n
Fachry stressed the need to have a new national development
\nstrategy which allowed greater participation of the people. At
\npresent, the development strategy remained top-down.<\/p>\n
\"We know that when thousands of people take to the streets,
\nthe rupiah will plunge. It will seriously affect our economy.
\nUnfortunately, the demonstrators do not really care because they
\nhardly benefit from the fruits of development,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Sri Sumantri, a constitutional law expert from the Bandung-
\nbased Padjadjaran University, said the Assembly should go back to
\nthe drawing board and review unrealistic targets set within the
\nguidelines.<\/p>\n
\"We should adjust the target. Make sure that the target is not
\ntoo high for the government to achieve,\" Sri told the Post on
\nWednesday.<\/p>\n
One of the economic targets laid down in the guidelines is
\nthat the government should speed up economic recovery in order to
\nnormalize the real sector.<\/p>\n
Tommi A. Legowo of the Centre for Strategic and International
\nStudies (CSIS) is also of the opinion that GBHN needs to be
\nrevised.<\/p>\n
Tommi, who heads the CSIS's socio-political development
\ndepartment, said the 1999 GBHN was a revision of the guidelines
\nissued in the previous year.<\/p>\n
But the question is whether the Assembly has the will to
\nreview it now as GBHN will be effective only until 2004.<\/p>\n
\"Many people know that our State Policy Guidelines are
\noutdated but it seems that the Assembly does not have a sense of
\nurgency in reviewing them,\" Tommi said.<\/p>\n
According to Tommi, it is still possible to make revisions,
\nbut the Assembly should prioritize selected parts which are
\nurgent in the context of the current situation, such as the ones
\non the economy.<\/p>\n
\"It is impossible to start rewriting it all over again,\" he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Satya Arinanto, an expert on constitutional law from the
\nUniversity of Indonesia, proposed that the revision of the
\nguidelines be put on the agenda of the current session.<\/p>\n
\"I don't know whether GBHN has been put on the agenda yet,\" he
\nsaid, adding that if it was not updated, the government would
\nfind it difficult to set its development priorities.<\/p>",
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