A rare coincidence?

A rare coincidence?

One day when I was looking at a picture of the robust
Philippine President Estrada and his petite Indonesian
counterpart President Habibie, I suddenly remembered an article
in Asiaweek of Oct. 9, 1998 about President Estrada.

Although the article was about Estrada, if you exchange
Estrada with Habibie, the Philippines with Indonesia and Ramos
with Soeharto, you realize that these changes make no difference
and the article still makes sense. That is when you'll agree with
my observation.

Allow me to repeat what was written in this Asiaweek.

While reading it, don't forget to change all the names as I
mentioned above. Here it comes.

The opening weeks of Joseph Estrada's presidency would be one
of stumbles, grumbles and of course lots of laughs, some at the
President's behest, some at his expense. But Estrada is President
at a time of unprecedented complexity and uncertainty, a scary
new era that is testing the skills of the planet's most
experienced leaders. Doubters wondered if Estrada has the right
stuff to be the Philippine's chief executive.

There is real reluctance among many Filipinos to judge their
president before he has had a chance to prove himself.

The President has a habit of shooting his mouth off or making
off-color remarks. This makes it hard for the people to accord
him the appropriate Presidential awe. At the same time however
Estrada's refreshing candor pleases sympathetic crowds.

Estrada is routinely compared to his predecessor, the man most
often credited with saving the Philippines' economy. Right or
wrong many people believe he cannot match Ramos' various
achievements.

One of the charges most often leveled at the president is that
he is never really in charge of his administration. These
allegations arise at least in part because his ministers
contradict one another, sometimes on the same afternoon.

SOEGIH ARTO

Jakarta