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