Axis Force: A case of sour grapes

By Rahayu Ratnaningsih

JAKARTA (JP): In her long-awaited July 29 speech which was accompanied with much fanfare, Megawati Soekarnoputri, leader of the victorious Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI- Perjuangan), made large statements about herself. First, that she is not a mere politician, but a stateswoman. She is firm in her beliefs and is consistent, unlike so many of her counterparts that say black today and white tomorrow. This is demonstrated by her affirmation to still stand by the Ciganjur declaration that Amien Rais, leader of the National Mandate Party (PAN), seems distracted from.

Second, she has shown high emotional intelligence loud and clear, that, unfortunately for other people, is perceived as overconfidence and arrogance. She wasn't affected by the large amount of criticism, derision and condemnation from different people and political groups. She never rushed to defend herself but was content and confident of her self-worth in her low- profile quietness. Her silence was a statement of "I do it my way".

Hence, when she did speak, everyone was looking forward to it and made it a special occasion to pay attention to. This is the sort of publicity that no other politician, not even Gus Dur, leader of the huge Nahdlatul Ulama and founder of the Nation Awakening Party (PKB), Amien Rais or the President himself, could ever command.

SCTV broadcasted it live. And when she did speak, she did not sound dumb by any means, as so many people, who accused her of lacking in intellectual capability, thought she would. She is not less intelligent or eloquent than Gus Dur, Amien Rais or Habibie, a technocrat with -- as it turned out to be -- inflated claims of competence from his supporters.

Her opponents certainly wouldn't accept defeat. They expressed sour grapes from "she didn't bring up anything new" to "it was improper for her to 'threaten and condemn' others" to "of course, she didn't write the speech herself". Kwik Kian Gie, Megawati's deputy, denied her speech was mostly written by a team consisting of PDI Perjuangan's division heads.

She did ask for advice, but she put a lot of personal effort into the writing as a whole. The fact is whatever Megawati does will never be good enough for these people; when she is silent and maintains her low profile, she is dumb and not intellectually capable to express herself, and when she speaks and shows her self-confidence, firm commitment and passion, she is labeled arrogant and aggressive.

What new things did these people expect when, as social commentator Wimar Witoelar said, the "old" issues -- even those that demanded clear-cut answers to -- are not even near conclusion or solution? Was she wrong in her "condemnation and threat" against the prostatus quo quarter when it obviously failed to put forward a reform agenda in a meaningful way other than what occurred by default, such as free media and release of some political prisoners.

After her phenomenal speech, can anyone really believe Habibie vowed to all parties to refrain themselves from issuing "divisive, haphazard rhetoric" when he is second to none in issuing haphazard rhetoric or ill-considered statements. And regarding divisiveness, as far as people are concerned, it was his supporters who engaged themselves in such a shameful act about which he has remained silent throughout.

It is ironic that even Amien Rais, who was perceived arrogant and inconsistent by many, jumped onto the bandwagon by calling Megawati arrogant and unconstitutional for demanding Habibie's resignation.

It is still fresh in people's memories that Amien Rais, not Megawati, gave Habibie three months -- then revised it to six months -- when the latter took over power from Soeharto. And we never heard anything again about Habibie's fate since the six months ended. The fact that he has now "fallen prey" to Islamic groups' persuasion by forming the axis force with the United Development Party (PPP), the Crescent Star Party (PBB), the Justice Party (PK) and a throng of other minor Islamic parties, which obviously intend to propose their own presidential candidates, demonstrates once again his tendency to be easily swayed from one commitment to another.

His party, PAN, is known to be supported by two forces; one with a secular-nationalist basis overseen by Faisal Basri, his secretary-general, and the other an Islamic basis spurred on by, among others, a few members of the Association of Muslim Intellectuals (ICMI) and the Muhammadiyah, such as Dawam Rahardjo and A.M. Fatwa.

Apparently, he is currently unsure of which pole to lean on. Basri's camp tends to stick with the original commitment, widely broadcasted by Rais, of supporting the winning reform party for presidency, in this case PDI Perjuangan. The other camp certainly holds great prejudice against the secular PDI Perjuangan and Megawati.

What is very disappointing is the fact that he associates himself with PPP, which A.S. Hikam, a political analyst, said is antireform and unconstitutional for rejecting Megawati merely based on gender, which the Constitution clearly excludes as one of the criteria.

It seems obvious from statements that PPP may give conditional support for Habibie, but will sooner or later reveal its true colors as a remnant of the New Order. It is dogmatic, regressive, unintellectual and inconsistent since Hamzah Haz, its chairman, made a statement with Amien Rais and PK's chairman prior to the election stating their lack of support for Habibie.

Now, however, they have sheepishly demonstrated that they would rather go for a "pious" Muslim male than a female presidential candidate, regardless that a "pious" Muslim male is partially responsible for the country's current dire state. They would rather have a "pious" man like the one who doesn't seriously pursue the anticorruption agenda as demanded by the public, and is even suspected of being behind or having knowledge of the various current scandals of fraud and money politics, such as the one involving Bank Bali.

It is so sad that the usually sober Amien Rais failed to see this potentially adverse development. His place is with PDI Perjuangan and PKB, which has, through its admirable chairman Matori Abdul Djalil, repeatedly shown their commitment to support Megawati.

The axis force's claim to play a balancing role between the two competing forces, Habibie and Megawati, is nonsensical and doesn't sound genuine in accommodating people's wishes of reform. If it is really oriented toward reform, the choice is fixed, namely to go with Megawati. It is so naive to repeat the line that her party only won a simple majority of 35 percent. Its victory may be simple, that is only because they were too many parties contesting the elections, but it certainly exceeds other contenders in a significant way.

And if there should be another election to decide between Megawati and Habibie, the majority of other reform parties' voters would definitely prefer Megawati because they know the choice is not between them. The choice is between change and stagnation. It is a matter of survival or extinction.

If they think Megawati doesn't deserve to be president, who does? The 22 percent of the vote for Golkar's candidate? Or the 12 percent for PKB's?

With the support of PKB and supposedly PAN, the coalition will get almost 60 percent of the vote.

And if the elections is not enough of an indication to know people's aspirations, what makes them think that people want the parties included in the axis force to fulfill their officers' personal ambitions by stopping Megawati?

And pray tell why did we have elections in the first place if the political elite will haphazardly ignore the result by using loopholes posed by the Constitution?

As it was correctly put by Hermawan Sulistyo, an Indonesian Sciences Institute (LIPI) researcher, the Constitution is not meant to be read like a simple text. It is much more profound than that and the spirit of it should permeate anyone who bases his decisions upon it. People's sovereignty should not be reduced to the sovereignty of the House of Representatives. It takes maturity, intellectual honesty and sound morality to realize this.

In this situation, if Megawati is not elected, it won't be Gus Dur -- which would not be a bad option -- but Habibie who will become the next president legitimately this time. Can Amien Rais afford to be labeled as one of the culprits of why people's power failed miserably after so many promising signals of potential change? He may only have 7 percent of the vote, but he still means a lot in the current political constellation and surely he will not fail his own supporters and the public in general by making a poor decision.

He is perhaps disillusioned by Megawati's distance and indifference, something which perhaps could be justified. She has, however, affirmed her willingness to work together with PKB and PAN. It is time for him to ignore his personal discord with Megawati and start working for the people he represents. Needless to say, the urgency of the situation demands all political elite who claim to be reformists to join hands to fight off the hovering status quo. It is a matter of now or never.

The writer is director of the Satori Foundation, a center for study and development of human excellence through mind programming and meditation techniques.