Cabinet of cacophony

Cabinet of cacophony

Few people know, perhaps, how busy the State Minister for the
National Planning Board, Kwik Kian Gie, is inside the cabinet.
But outside cabinet the Dutch-educated economist, who was
coordinating minister for economics, financial and industrial
affairs in president Abdurrahman Wahid's government, is giving
the impression that he is finding it difficult to get his message
across to his ministerial colleagues. As a result, he is now very
busy attacking government policy.

To everybody's surprise, Kwik recently started his own TV
forum, called Kwik's Solution, which he uses as a platform to
criticize the government's performance. The policies Kwik has
singled out include the extension of the debt settlement program
by the Financial Sector Policy Committee, as proposed by the
Indonesian Bank Structuring Agency (IBRA), which he opposed. He
also opposes the divestment of Bank Central Asia, a stance he
reiterated to the Kompas daily on Monday. But he should have
voiced his opposition in a cabinet meeting rather than going to
the press. In this way, he could have tried to get his point
across to his fellow ministers, although this would also have
risked attracting their hostility.

Sources close to the cabinet said that President Megawati
Soekarnoputri had warned Kwik to refrain from making such sharp
statements but he seemed to have ignored her instructions.
Confrontation looms, but before the President takes any punitive
measures against her own economics adviser it would be wise for
the minister to bear in mind that his opposition in public is far
from being polite or healthy. If a minister does not agree with a
cabinet decision, he or she should either control the inclination
to attack the government in public or resign. A continued war
against one's superiors will prove counterproductive and
eventually backfire. Kwik might justifiably be accused of rocking
the boat for behaving the way he has been.

However, if we peer more deeply inside the government, the
case looks like just one part of a wider chaos. The peace
agreement between Muslims and Christians in Poso, Sulawesi,
ending a long, bloody feud in December, is an example of another
kind of chaos. The agreement was reached due to relatively
smooth, two-day-long negotiations in a cool mountain resort area
about 70 kilometers southeast of the South Sulawesi capital
Makassar, mediated by Coordinating Minister of People's Welfare
Yusuf Kalla.

Kalla did his job well and the two warring sides signed a
peace agreement and promised to cease all conflicts and disputes,
abide by the due process of law, request that the state take firm
and impartial measures against any violators, reject a state of
civil emergency and interference from foreigners and outsiders,
and return property to its rightful owners.

Kalla allowed 24 delegates from the Christian Red Group and 25
delegates from the Muslim White Group to sign the agreement. They
then shook hands and embraced. The delegates included religious
and tribal leaders, along with field commanders from militias
representing the two camps.

This was a great success for the region and the minister, but
in other parts of the country people were asking why the
Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare had led the peace
negotiations and not the Coordinating Minister for Political and
Security Affairs, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Was this because
Kalla comes from the island and Susilo from Java? In the current
situation the question is not relevant, but it nonetheless
remains unanswered. Asking that kind of question has become very
commonplace under the rule of President Megawati Soekarnoputri,
who is well known for her inaction and her problems in getting
her message across.

On another occasion Taufik Kiemas, the President's husband,
visited his birthplace in South Sumatra to express sympathy for
the victims of a natural disaster. He took with him not the
minister of social services, who would have been able to take
measures to alleviate the victims' suffering, but Minister of
Research and Technology Hatta Radjasa. It remains unclear why he
made the decision and what Hatta did to help the unfortunate
people.

Megawati does not seem to think it necessary to end this
chaotic farce. Her government looks like an auto-piloted plane
flying a course set by the IMF. Known for inaction, her last
quotable quote was "Dunia belum kiamat" (Doomsday is still far
away) when speaking about the national crisis -- a phrase least
expected from a stateperson of wisdom.