Aspirations for reform

Aspirations for reform

The clamor for economic and political reform may die down
temporarily now that the new cabinet has been installed.

Unlike the students and housewives, however, who can only
grumble if, within the next few months, prices do not go down
significantly, the rest of the population may just pray and wait
for better times.

Of course, the above is a scenario drawn up and engineered by
the governmentmakers. The reality could be entirely different
depending on what the students and other intellectuals perceive
of the composition of the new cabinet and its prospective.

In golf, there is a Father & Son Challenge game in which they
team up to record the best under par result. In a cabinet, such
teamwork creates a kind of suspicion, at least in democratic
societies.

This team looks more likely set to challenge rather than
accommodate the IMF prescription. Patriotic sentiments are more
discernible than economic or political pragmatism for that
matter.

When the founding fathers of this republic, notably Sukarno
and Hatta, rose against Dutch colonial rule, they were students.
Also it was students who helped the New Order topple the then
president. Some of them were rewarded later with ministerial
posts, to be traced easily until today.

No doubt, justice and history are trampled upon if student
movements and aspirations are suppressed. Nobody should dare to
forget that from the start of the independent movement (1926),
students played decisive roles.

In times of crisis, like now, their voices must be heard, for
ignoring their call and aspirations could well mean ignoring the
course of history and justice. They represent the people's
conscience.

A former minister like Emil Salim, who has so passionately
appealed for total reform -- economic and political reform --
including a broader basis for the new cabinet, has, apparently,
no more place in the conscience of the rulers.

Under such a turmoil of body and spirit, what springs to mind
is that the economic and political labyrinth we have created,
knowingly or unknowingly, would stay for an indefinite period, as
long as the term of the presidency is not limited.

In a recent TV interview, the secretary-general of the Central
Journalists Association, Parni Hadi, advocated to limit this to
two terms. Many intellectuals and the younger generation share
this view.

Now we shall again have a period where the ministers "have a
free ride". They can do no wrong since they are only responsible
to the head of state instead of to the House of Representatives.

Any constitutional reform should include changes in the
election system.

GANDHI SUKARDI

Jakarta