Bashing Soeharto

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.