A political comedy of errors

A political comedy of errors

What we are currently seeing on Indonesia's political stage is a play about democracy performed by political actors who have lost their sense of logic. Observe Megawati Soekarnoputri, whose party won the most votes in the June general election, yet is acting like a loser. The consequence is that she is in danger of being left behind.

Golkar's B.J. Habibie came out a loser in the general election and support for his presidential candidacy is not solid, even in his own party. In addition he has to bear the status quo stigma. It is natural under the circumstances that many Indonesians would like to see him pull out of the presidential race. Yet, he is determined to go on and is even looking increasingly confident of winning. Now he is even looking to Army Gen. Wiranto to be his vice president. But both Habibie and Wiranto are problematic figures. Not only is Wiranto, like Habibie, considered a protagonist of the old status quo, as commander of the armed forces he is responsible for the Indonesian Military's many mistakes.

The case of (Nahdlatul Ulama leader) Gus Dur is even more ludicrous. Gus Dur does not formally belong to any political party, although he is in a way associated with the National Awakening Party (PKB). He is not being nominated as a presidential candidate by this party which he helped set up, but by Amien Rais' "axis force". Among all the present presidential candidates, he is the one whose physical condition is the most impaired. Still, he performs the deftest maneuvers. Gus Dur, who until not so long ago used to consider the idea of him being a presidential candidate as laughable, now seems to have become increasingly happy it.

Gus Dur's proposed vice president, Amien Rais, is a political party leader but his party finished only fifth in the ballot. The remarkable thing about this is that, even so, he has lately been undertaking political safaries with considerable gusto. Some observers believe he convinced Gus Dur into joining him so he could be vice president, even though he had sworn in the past he would never accept being second-in-command.

For us, indeed, democracy is not a simple matter. As observers have said, we are at present being tested in our ability to practice democracy even though we have just begun to learn about it. This is why everything now is looking absurd and devoid of logic.

-- Media Indonesia, Jakarta