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. 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.

Adding to the confusion, Coordinating Minister for the Economy Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti issued differing statements from Kwik regarding the extension of the debt settlement program by the Financial Sector Policy Committee, as proposed by the Indonesian Bank Structuring Agency (IBRA).

Confrontation looms, but before the President takes any punitive measures against her own economics advisers it would be wise for the ministers 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.

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 among others to cease all conflicts and disputes, abide by the due process of law.

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.