Consistent law enforcement

It was interesting to hear President Megawati's speech during the ceremony to open the Indragiri bridge in Riau province last weekend.

She showed her concern about illegal logging, which has haunted the country for decades. She even said that she knew exactly the "smuggling line of command" that the illegal loggers used in the central government (The Jakarta Post, March 15).

Such a statement should not have come from the President when she said that eradicating illegal logging simply required the will of law enforcers and other state officials. Law enforces, as we know, consist of the police, prosecutors and judges.

Other related state officials guarding state borders, through which illegal timber passes, consist of security officers and immigration officials. The security officers, as has been known for years, together with the police, are among those who profit from this illegal business.

As the country's armed forces commander, if Megawati really wanted to enforce the law, and if she really knows the line of command for illegal logging and smuggling, the President should command both the armed forces chief and the National Police chief to cope with this disastrous problem.

If they were unable to do so in a given period of time, she could replace them and find other officers more capable to do the job. It is not difficult to find two good generals among the hundreds of Army and police officers in the country.

The President should uphold the best know message of her father, the late president Sukarno, who said in the late 1950s: "Enforce the law even if the sky collapses."

If she had remembered her father's message in the first place, these problems and other crises crippling the country for the last five years or so would have been handled from the start of her term in August 2001.

And by doing so, her reelection in the direct presidential election in July 2004 would have been virtually guaranteed.

M. RUSDI Jakarta