Additional work for the new MPR

Soeharto's resignation from the presidency on May 21, 1998, has paved the way for political reform as demanded by university students and other society members. But thus far, the reformation process does not show significant progress. Political affairs analyst J. Soedjati Djiwandono proposes the best way to guarantee the continuation of reform.

JAKARTA (JP): Since the general election, leading politicians have been preoccupied with the process of political horse- trading, especially now that no political party has won a clear majority of the vote. They have been focusing their attention on what kind of coalitions are to be formed, with which political parties, and considering what kind of deal to make as the price of such coalitions. The central issue has been the election of the new president. What follows seems to be taken for granted, or at least no one seems to care that much.

The issue of reform seems to have been set aside. At any rate, the future of reform seems uncertain. Nor is it clear -- as it was before the elections -- which parties are for reform, and which back the status quo. This may not be an important consideration for forming coalitions. I think it was Thomas Jefferson who said: "My loyalty to my party ends, where my loyalty to my country begins." It would appear that few Indonesian politicians are familiar with that patriotic form of wisdom, let alone attempt to emulate it.

Whoever is elected president, the new government is likely to be busy with the urgent problem of grappling with the economic crisis, reactivating the national economy, and running the day-to-day business of the government. At the same time they will be responsible for ensuring public order, and perhaps try to pursue the corruption case against former president Soeharto, his children and cronies. A new government may not have time to deal with the problems of political reform. Above all, it may not have the necessary constitutional power to implement fundamental reform.

Indeed, in the eyes of many in society, I believe the formation of a new government will not be the single most important symbol of change, it will also be the most visible manifestation of change. It may be the simple logic of the ordinary person in the street that the election of the incumbent President would make the recent general election appear a useless and wasteful exercise.

That perception is due to the fact that not only was his party the runner-up in the elections, but also, and especially, because he was part and parcel of Soeharto's New Order regime. That administration's manipulation helped to make him vice president, then soon afterwards catapulted him to succeed Soeharto as President. For this reason, how can the people be expected to understand, and therefore to support, further reform processes?

To be sure, the new government will be one with assured legitimacy. Hopefully, this will restore public as well as international confidence in the government, a factor of great significance in its efforts to overcome the severe economic crisis that has beset the country for too long. But this will be understood by the politically conscious segment of the population.

Irrespective of which party will form a new government, probably with the help of coalition partners, reforms must go on unhindered. And given the understanding that reform is a change within and through the existing system -- in our case the system based on the 1945 Constitution -- this will be the responsibility of the new People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), the supreme governing body in our political system.

The new MPR should not stay idle after the election of a new president and a new vice president. Unless a special session of the MPR is convened in the event of a political crisis, 200 of its members -- that is, apart from the 500 members of the House of Representatives (DPR), who are concurrently members of MPR -- will be idle for the rest of their five-year term, even given the possibility that the new MPR will sincerely initiate reform measures.

It does not seem realistic, however, to expect the new MPR to complete the reform process. Therefore, this time, the MPR -- especially the 200 members, the DPR being fully occupied with its work with the executive branch -- should be entrusted with the task of carrying on the reform process. This is not to expect that the MPR will be able to complete the formidable task of reform by the end of their term of office. With all due respect, I do not think those honorable members are up to it.

At any rate, however, they would prepare the ground for the continuation of the reform process by the next MPR -- if we still have one -- within the next five years. Personally, I hope that we will no longer have this clumsy institution in our future political system, thanks, hopefully, to a new, more democratic Constitution.

To that end, the MPR could form a special commission and various committees, possibly under the leadership of the standing committee. It could enlist help and input from various circles in society. These could include politicians, intellectuals and academics from different disciplines.

Whatever institution will be responsible for carrying on the reform process, we must hope that in the course of time -- I do not know how long -- to have better educated, more skillful, and more sophisticated politicians. The ruinous effects of decades of dictatorial rule, under both the Old Order and the New Order, with their own styles of indoctrination, suppression of individual freedoms, and impoverishment, in material, mental, moral, and intellectual terms, were extreme and would seem to almost be beyond treatment.

We may need years and years to recover. For everybody, that is what reform in this country is all about.