A question of relevance

A question of relevance

Now, there's an interesting question in your June 20
editorial: Is Golkar still relevant, given its past blemished
record? Taking relevance in its broadest sense -- i.e. having a
bearing on, or being pertinent to, the present situation -- it is
difficult to see how Golkar could be, well, irrelevant. Until the
party disbands, it remains relevant. But over the past two
months, gallons of ink have been spent and airwaves kept rocking
with the thunder of calls for a session of the House of
Representatives/People's Consultative Assembly (DPR/MPR), be it
plenary, extraordinary or both. So with Golkar as the ruling
party still, let's look at a few things and see whether it is
relevant or, better still, should be made irrelevant. First,
Soeharto (still Golkar's generalissimo), during his final moments
as head of state, sidelined DPR/MPR by appointing the vice
president as president. Note also that if a session is held, he
would be entitled to be present at it. Second, whole blocks of
groups as well as individual members, like so many rats leaving a
sinking ship, have left both bodies. This means, of course, that
they have recanted on the oath they took last year to represent
the people. Suppose a session does take place, would the
Musyawarah Kekeluargaan Gotong Royong (MKGR), which has turned
its back on Golkar, the party it joined and through which it
gained seats, still be legally entitled to take part? Third, even
the speaker of both the MPR and the DPR, Harmoko, has said that
he'd be willing to step down provided it goes through
constitutional procedures. And fourth, one of the vice
chairpersons of Golkar's central executive committee is Mrs. Siti
Hardijanti Rukmana whose name needs no further elaboration.

Indonesia is a country that since its independence has had
nothing but a top-down system of authority, a system that
trivializes the most important component without which there is
no raison d'etre for any nation: the people.

This renders the existence of institutions such as a
representative assembly, even a constitution, totally
unnecessary. Of course, the reform movement endeavors to change
all this, but for the moment this top-down condition remains
unchanged. Hence one must expect that one day, sooner or later,
there will again be a bunch of people garbed in yellow, green and
red jackets parading about in the legislature. The only
suggestion I would venture is that they keep those jackets
tightly buttoned if only to reduce the stench of decay in the
chambers.

GUS KAIRUPAN

Jakarta