Axis Force: A case of sour grapes

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.