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