Check and checkmate

Check and checkmate

First of all, we are lucky to have a President like Gus Dur.
Why? Indonesia has been "dying" since we were hit by the monetary
crisis years ago. Common sense says there is no cure to this
crisis.

All of a sudden, instead of looking for a good doctor to
remedy the economic illness, we chose a "chess player",
Abdurrahman Wahid, better known as Gus Dur. Fortunately Gus Dur
is not an amateur, but a super Grand Master (GM).

As a GM, Gus Dur will never let his opponent read his moves.
Unlike an amateur, a GM never moves his pawns first, instead he
might sacrifice his knight or his bishop.

The first move was to sacrifice his knight, Mr. Hamzah Haz.
This move shocked many people. They were puzzled, upset and then
lost their temper.

But Gus Dur secured one point here, the Axis force. Without
Mr. Hamzah, the Axis force had lost one of its hands in the
government. Then came the time for the second move, offering the
bishop, Mr. Wiranto. The second move secured another point, the
military.

After securing two points, Gus Dur slowed the game by offering
two of his pawns, Laksamana Sukardi and Jusuf Kalla. Why these
two? Simply because both of them were on the first line of the
chess board, not because they were incapable or uncooperative.

In playing chess we have something that is called the "time
crisis", and Gus Dur knows this very well. He knows when he
should move, and when he must wait. Now Gus Dur still has a king,
a queen, a rook and pawns.

So when will Gus Dur trap the opponent's king? Only Gus Dur
himself knows that answer. But one thing is clear, that when Gus
Dur checkmates the opponent's king, he will secure the last
point, i.e. "a democratic Indonesia".

LAY KA BUI

Bogor, West Java