1999: Awakening of democracy

Inconsistency between statements and actions, as well as between given facts and conclusions, are not uncommon in this country, with the degree of inconsistency varying from "less correlated" to "completely irrelevant", or even "contradictory".

For 1999, while not taking into account various backlog issues like investigations of corruption, collusion and nepotism and basic foodstuff availability, it is my prediction that national activities will be mostly occupied with the execution process of the national reform agenda.

Being already in the beginning of the year, the issue of new political parties' establishment and its in-process rules and regulations have been taking up a considerable amount of people's time, concentration and energy. The situation will persist, possibly with higher intensity, during the tightly scheduled campaign period, general election, general session of the People's Consultative Assembly and, finally, establishment of a new Indonesian government by end of the year.

Trying to draw, hopefully, a consistent and coherent conclusion from the above, it is my opinion that it would be factually more appropriate and more positive-spirited if 1999 were named "the year of awakening of Indonesian democracy" instead of any other name, unless there is another unpublicized agenda set by the government predicted to have more dominant effect to the national activities within the 365 days of 1999.

ATTILA RAHAYOE

Bekasi, West Java