Bashing Soeharto
Megawati Soekarnoputri, the eldest daughter of Indonesia's founding president Sukarno and chairwoman of the unrecognized Indonesian Democratic Party, has managed to impress many of us again by calling on all Indonesians to stop defiling fallen president Soeharto. Speaking at a ceremony commemorating the day on which the nation's state philosophy Pancasila was born -- June 1, 1945 -- Megawati said defiling former leaders of the state runs against Pancasila which, among other things, advocates "just and civilized humanitarianism". "Do we have to replace our state leaders through such treatment every time?" Megawati asked her audience of several thousand, obviously referring to her own father's ouster by Soeharto in 1966.
To be fair, Megawati is not the only, or even the first, opposition leader to have called for temperance in the public airing of anti-Soeharto sentiments following the strongman's forced retirement on May 21. Moslem leader Amien Rais made a similar appeal two days earlier and we can be sure that the same spirit of moderation and forgiveness exists among many others of the more reasonable and more mature of Indonesia's opposition leaders.
What makes Megawati's appeal for moderation worth noting is the fact that it was made by the daughter of the deposed president Sukarno, a victim of almost identical circumstances which led to the birth of the New Order, headed by Soeharto. Unlike other opposition figures who have made similar appeals, Megawati and her family endured the same agony of being publicly defiled when her father, Sukarno, was ousted in the wake of the communist coup of 1965.
Even after so many years, a sense of injury, perhaps even more than magnanimity, can be detected in the question she asked her audience: "Do we have to treat former president Soeharto's family the way the nation treated us, Sukarno's family, in 1965?" But apart from deep personal insight coming from experience, Megawati probably also remembered and appreciated the way Soeharto had in public always continued to accord Sukarno the respect he deserved as a founder of the nation.
'Mikul duwur mendem jero', which literally means carry your elders high and bury them deep, is a saying that is still honored by many Indonesians, the Javanese in particular. Megawati could only be observing this dictum when she made her appeal for Indonesians to stop bashing Soeharto. Indonesia's younger generation could see in this old tradition of chivalry a useful modern guide to engaging in politics without abandoning morality -- a useful general principle to remember if democracy is to survive and bloom. It is important, however, at this point to remember that civility must not stand in the way of justice.
At this stage of developments, the public clamor concerns the wealth which Soeharto and his family are widely reported to have amassed during his more than three decades in power. The public's demands that this wealth be returned to the state in as far as it has been illegally acquired must in this context be given the proper attention they deserve. Just as much as the Soeharto clan, or their associates, have a right to be treated fairly, so the people have a right to reclaim what belongs to them.
Indonesians at this stage of their country's history need the guidance of leaders who are not only sincerely committed to the cause of overall reform, but who are also mature and sensible enough to see the nation safely through these critical times. It is in this context that the calls for Indonesians to stop the Soeharto bashing must be seen as a welcome development.