Blame hypocrisy for lost of East Timor

Blame hypocrisy for lost of East Timor

By Donna K Woodward

MEDAN, North Sumatra (JP): "To many leaders of the world,
(B.J.) Habibie appears to be a democrat, a supporter of human
rights. That is a pity." So says Megawati Soekarnoputri in her
article in the Sept. 20 edition of Newsweek magazine, Blame it
[East Timor] on Habibie.

No, the pity is that Megawati, admittedly a leading opposition
figure, may be mistaken for a reform leader. The article might
lead international readers and donors to believe that Megawati
has exercised since January 1999 some leadership-like role on
East Timor issues. Or that she has been a prophetic voice crying
out in the wilderness of post-Soeharto Indonesia, urging Habibie
to get on with reform. She has not.

Megawati was elevated in 1993 to the position of head of the
Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) largely if not wholly because
of her name. Only after the unrelenting attacks on the corrupt
regime of Soeharto by other, braver national leaders -- which led
to Soeharto's downfall in 1998 -- did PDI members transform their
party (now called the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle --
PDI-Perjuangan) and Megawati as its head into a galvanizing
political force.

Many neutral observers interpret the recent electoral success
of Megawati as proof not of her leadership capability, but of the
superior political network her party had in place. PDI Perjuangan
was the only political party formed after the downfall of
Soeharto to have had a past life and experience as a viable
grassroots, vote-getting organization. And too, there is
Megawati's aura, borne of her status as Sukarno's daughter.

Though Megawati won a plurality of nearly 40 percent of the
popular vote in the June General Election, she is not guaranteed
the presidency. The Indonesian electoral law has placed the
election of a president not directly in the hands of the people,
but with the members of the People's Consultative Assembly, which
will meet in November.

Her suggestion that Habibie is doing something sinister by
attempting to gain a winning position in that election as other
candidates have tried, is simply not honest of her. Like the
other hopeful candidates, Megawati will need to form a winning
coalition to be elected president.

Like Habibie's Golkar backers, PDI Perjuangan leaders have
actively sought support from other parties. Tentative coalitions
have so far failed to hold. For the time being President Habibie
is Megawati's only real rival for the presidency, which may
explain her attempt to paint him almost as a second Soeharto.
This, Habibie most assuredly is not.

Like Megawati, President Habibie would like to style himself
as a reform-minded presidential candidate.

Habibie has, in fact, done some surprisingly positive things
during his tenure, the most important of which is to allow a
degree of freedom of political expression unheard of in Indonesia
or most other Southeast Asian countries. He has recognized the
right of the East Timorese to choose their own political destiny,
though his government's preparations were woefully, even
criminally remiss.

While declining to control his military subordinates properly,
Habibie nevertheless has not resorted to misuse of his position
as Commander in Chief to retain office. But he has thus far
failed to execute the two most important reform mandates given
him by the people of Indonesia: to bring Soeharto to trial on
charges of corruption for the 30 years of theft of the national
wealth by his children and cronies; and to bring to justice
members of the military who are guilty of human rights violations
committed over the last decades.

Now he is plagued as well by a bank corruption scandal
surpassing all earlier bank corruption scandals. Like Caesar,
Habibie is learning that appreciation for any good he has done
will be buried under mounting resentment for what he has refused
to do to clean up his government. Unless Habibie immediately
takes decisive steps to prosecute corruption and human rights
violations, and expose the rotten roots of Bali-gate, he will
have no moral standing and virtually no popular support for his
pursuit of the presidency.

And what about Megawati? Ironically, Megawati seems no more
inclined than Habibie to prosecute Soeharto, or to alienate the
military establishment by curtailing the broad authority they
have so shamefully abused. A further irony: her party has also
allegedly received huge "quiet" donations from the very banking
establishment that, were she to become president, she would need
to exterminate of its systemic corruption.

On crucial issues like the future role of the military in the
government and the prosecution of corruption in the past,
Megawati has been irresponsibly (for a presidential candidate)
mute.

She did speak out to oppose President Habibie's offer of
political choice to the people of East Timor, nostalgically
mirroring the nationalistic bent of her late father: "East Timor
is a natural part of Indonesia."

But Megawati has declined invitations to discuss other issues
in public forums with other candidates, saying it was not the
Indonesian way. It is not the usual way is what Megawati should
have said. And this is precisely the problem. Despite the
rhetoric and the mass appeal and the enormous hopes placed in
her, Megawati and her party are likely to bring a business as
usual approach to running the country.

Though Megawati's article purported to be a plea to readers
not to confuse the people of Indonesia with the government of
Indonesia, this is not what it was. The article was a well-
written attempt to portray Megawati in the international media as
something she is not -- a strong-minded, articulate, reform
leader.

Megawati has held a political leadership role for nearly six
years longer than President Habibie and the other presidential
candidates have. Where has her voice of opposition to human
rights abuses in East Timor been?

Megawati's article decried the current government's sacrifice
of public interest for narrow political and personal interest;
but has she or her party been different? Megawati was the
people's favorite in the General Election, and in furtherance of
democratic principles this should rightly be given the greatest
weight when the Indonesian electors choose the next president of
Indonesia.

But Indonesia's presidential election should be seen for what
it is likely to be: a victory of pragmatic politics over
principled leadership, just as elections are in the world's other
democracies. For, Megawati's speech writer's words to the
contrary notwithstanding, Megawati has yet to establish her own
bona fides as a reformer. For the sake of the millions who
believe in her, we must hope that she will.

We cannot blame Habibie alone for East Timor. Blame hypocrisy,
from whatever source it slinks. America, Australia, Indonesia: we
all witnessed Soeharto's Army's crimes down the years, and were
silent. So too was Megawati Soekarnoputri.

The writer is president director of PT Far Horizons.