The New Order ghosts<\/p>\n
While many of us share the frustration that President
\nAbdurrahman Wahid feels about the slow pace of reform, we are
\nbaffled by his intentions with regard to the remnants of the New
\nOrder regime whom he blames for subverting his reform agenda.<\/p>\n
The President's office said on Sunday that the time had come
\nfor the nation to draw a clear dividing line between those who
\ntruly support reform and those from the New Order regime.
\nAccusing these New Order elements of undermining the reform
\nprogram, the President, according to the statement prepared by
\nhis staff, said he would no longer tolerate their behavior. He
\nsaid he has given them enough time to mend their ways and to
\nrepent for their past misdeeds, but they have squandered the
\nopportunity. It was now the time to deal firmly with them.<\/p>\n
The timing of the statement looks suspicious, coming on the
\neve of Monday's House of Representatives meeting to hear the
\nconclusion of a report investigating scandals in which the
\nPresident may have been implicated. The statement looked like
\nanother attempt by the President to divert the focus of attention
\naway from himself. It also implies that the inquiry against the
\nPresident was part and parcel of New Order elements' attempts to
\nfoil the reform agenda.<\/p>\n
Putting aside the real motive behind the President's
\nstatement, there is some truth to his claim that the New Order is
\nstill deeply entrenched in our political establishment, and that
\nits presence has frustrated the national reform agenda.<\/p>\n
Golkar, the political party which called all the shots during
\nthe 32 years of New Order's reign, remains the main symbol of
\nthat past regime. Yet, Golkar emerged as the second largest
\npolitical party after the 1999 general election. Claiming to have
\nadopted the reform mantle, the party has consolidated itself,
\nwinning many subsequent gubernatorial and regency elections. Now,
\nGolkar is gearing up for the 2004 election while the reformist
\nparties are fighting each other in their attempt to grab power.<\/p>\n
With still so much political power and influence in its hands,
\nGolkar has the ability to foil or undermine the Abdurrahman
\nadministration's programs and policies. The clearest evidence of
\nthis is in the administration's failure to ensure a single
\nconviction against people from the New Order regime for
\ncorruption or abuse of power. Golkar has even prevailed in the
\nnominations for the chief justice; the President has rightly
\nrefused to select one of the two candidates proposed by the House
\nof Representatives lest he gives the nation's top judicial
\nappointment to someone who either comes from the New Order regime
\nor at least has had close association with it.<\/p>\n
The President's \"humanist\" approach in dealing with the
\nremnants of the New Order has not worked, as he freely admitted
\nin his statement on Sunday. But then, the legal or the
\nconstitutional approach too has failed him and the nation in
\nloosening once and for all the tentacles of the New Order.<\/p>\n
As forceful as the statement may have sounded, the President
\ndid not identify exactly who these elements of the New Order
\nwere, and, most of all, he did not spell out how different his
\napproach would be from now on in dealing with the remnants of the
\nNew Order.<\/p>\n
How exactly does he hope to make a clean break from the past?
\nSurely, he does not envisage draconian laws such as those which
\nSoeharto used in cleansing the political elite and the
\nbureaucracy of communist elements shortly after he assumed power
\nin 1966. Soeharto then outlawed the Indonesian Communist Party
\n(PKI), rounded up its members and supporters and packed them off
\nto a penal island in Maluku. Soeharto also introduced laws
\nbarring former communists, their offspring and both their close
\nand distant relatives from running for public office, entering
\nthe civil service and from joining certain strategic professions.<\/p>\n
As tempting as these measures may sound in circumventing the
\npower of the New Order, they would plunge the country back into a
\nnew form of authoritarian regime.<\/p>\n
The best thing that reformist leaders and groups can do to
\nconfront the remnants of the New Order is to join forces. That,
\nsadly, is where the main problem lies. Many of the current
\nleaders elected on the back of the reform movement are far from
\nbeing united because they have been too preoccupied with
\nconsolidating their own power. They, more than anyone else, must
\ntake the blame for letting the ghosts of the New Order continue
\nto haunt the nation to this day.<\/p>",
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