A presidential accession

A presidential accession

The quick ascension of the charismatic Vice-President, Ms.
Megawati Sukarnoputri, as the country's new executive leader
should satisfy the international community that Indonesia is
trying to pace its steps in its hour of a unique constitutional
crisis. Ms. Megawati's flair for populist gestures as also a
quiet style will now be measured against Mr. Wahid's flamboyant
habits of weaving a web of statesmanly vision which was swept
aside by his own erratic policies and personalized rule.

On trial now is an evolving notion of the rule of law which
epitomizes a "constitutional" system that the Indonesians have
been struggling to give themselves since the fall of an
autocratic leader, Gen. Suharto, in 1998. Outwardly, it has been
a manifest power struggle in the past few months between a
beleaguered Mr. Wahid and the MPR.

The "end-game" was hastened by the cavalier fashion in which
Mr. Wahid tried to decree a "civil emergency" in a transparent
bid to prevent the MPR from impeaching him. The MPR's hands were
strengthened by the opinion of the Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court against such an emergency at this juncture. Moreover,
Indonesia's military forces, once the ally of a "paternalistic"
but authoritarian ruler like Gen. Suharto, refused to serve as a
pawn in Mr. Wahid's hands, although his democratic election as
the President in 1999 could hardly be doubted.

The latest national trauma only underlines the need to keep
Indonesia on course for a stable role as the world's third
largest democracy (after India and the United States). Mr. Wahid
is known for political wit and his secular credo within the arena
of the world's biggest Muslim-majority state is also widely
acknowledged. Yet, it was ironic that he flaunted his final
presidential "order" regarding a still-born emergency as the
weapon of a jihad or holy Islamic crusade to save Indonesia in
his concomitant role as an erudite religious cleric.

In a sense, the peculiarities of the "constitutional" process
adopted to judge Mr. Wahid must be seen as tell-tale evidence of
Indonesia's meandering march towards a normative system of non-
ideological democracy within the rubric of an executive
presidency. Also, many among the anti-Wahid activists on the
political-constitutional front were variously associated with the
Suharto period. So, with Indonesia's territorial integrity and
multi-ethnic fabric too being under immense strain now, sagacity
is the only normative political mantra.

-- The Hindu, New Delhi