A clean bill of health

The return of a beaming President Soeharto from a checkup in Germany last Saturday is not only good news for the country and the nation, but most importantly it has ended the rampant speculations on the President's physical condition. Now it is clear that President Soeharto is in excellent health for a man of his age.

Although President Soeharto's heart is somewhat enlarged, it is heartening to hear there are no blocked arteries. Although he has a stone in his left kidney, as doctor Ari Haryanto last weekend said, the President's kidneys are still very healthy for someone his age. Now, President Soeharto has only to reduce his cholesterol level and slim down.

All in all, it is good to hear that President Soeharto will be able to resume active work soon. Because, for weeks before his surprise trip to Germany, rumors about Soeharto's health flew far and wide, causing concern and anxiety among the public.

Some people went even as far as to liken the situation with 1965, when rumors about president Sukarno's ailing health rocked the country to the extent that it prompted the now banned Indonesian Communist Party to take the preemptive measure of launching a coup to take power. The coup attempt failed and eventually president Sukarno's rule collapsed, but it opened up a new chapter in Indonesian history with the emergence of a New Order administration under President Soeharto.

The clean bill of health given by a very competent medical team to President Soeharto has not only stopped all these rumors but has also normalized the rupiah and Jakarta Stock Exchange.

Yet, the brief case of jitters among the business community caused by the news about Soeharto's health has reminded us that nowadays our economy is so closely linked to the global economic system that any occurrence which may affect the country's future could have a dire impact on the domestic and international market.

Last week's short-lived tension also exposed a very important issue which in the past tended to be deliberately ignored due to its sensitivity: the problem of succession. Of course, constitutionally we do have some sort of succession mechanism in case the President is incapacitated. But real politics have shown us that the problem is not that simple, and in fact is much more complicated.

As he has repeatedly said, out of respect for the Constitution, President Soeharto has made no practical provision for his succession except by reiterating that it is up to the People's Consultative Assembly in its session in 1998 to elect a new president. Given Soeharto's age and unclear health condition, heightened by Mrs. Tien's demise last April, many people in the past months expressed doubt over his capability to serve another term.

The doctor's statement last week that President Soeharto is in excellent health, however, has removed those doubts. Some have even started to believe that one of the motives behind the President's trip to Germany was to declare that he is still in shape to lead the country for another five years.

The real motive of the trip aside, one has to admit that succession should indeed be more openly discussed in the future. Although we are much in doubt that President Soeharto, after his trip to Germany, will be more open on this issue, we suggest that the country's elite should give more serious thought to this matter. After all, since we are already an inseparable part of the global system, if it can in any way be prevented, we should make sure that no more jitters hit our economy and disrupt development in the future.