Control Gus Dur, says scholar

DENPASAR, Bali (JP): Strict control over President Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid is imperative now that he is guiding the nation through a trial-and-error democracy, a noted Muslim scholar said here on Friday.

Nurcholish Madjid, rector of the Jakarta-based Paramadina University, said in his address to participants of the National Dialog Forum here that confusion in practices of democracy was understandable during the mistake-ridden period, but it should not wreak havoc on democratization itself.

"Confusion is prevailing in the country under the present government because of the rapid changes we negotiated during the past two years," Nurcholish said.

"This is a hint that the country is learning to be a democratic one, but it has no strong foundation. All this confusion will some day be valuable experience for the country's democracy."

Dozens of the country's renowned figures and some 200 people from all walks of life are attending the two-day national dialog here. The gathering is meant to find ideas of systematic methods the country could adopt to cope with the problems it is now facing.

Organizers have divided the discussion into six topics, including ethics in politics, law enforcement, disintegration threats, a clean government and economic recovery.

The gathering is being held less than two months ahead of the General Session of People's Consultative Assembly, which many assume will be a test of Abdurrahman's survival as president.

Abdurrahman is slated to receive summary of the discussions on Saturday.

Nurcholish, one of the dialog's organizers, asserted that persistent control over Abdurrahman would prevent him from committing further mistakes and maintaining his tendency to making compromises.

"If Gus Dur continues to resort to compromise in solving many of the country's problems, we will only continue to make mistakes," he remarked.

Check and balance

He said the interpellation motion demanded by the House of Representatives was part of efforts to uphold the principle of check and balance in the country.

Despite Abdurrahman's weaknesses, however, Nurcholish expressed his support for the President, who won his post in the most democratic presidential election in the country's history last October.

Nurcholish said those limitations should be the reasons for people to join forces and help Abdurrahman to bring changes about.

Another speaker at the dialog, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, attributed the country's stagnant economy to uncertain regulations that could affect relationships between the government, businessmen and the public.

However, she added that reviewing such regulations would need time and patience.

"The current government is still bothered by many of the previous regime's problems and mistakes, which hamper the establishment of clear regulations for many business fields in the country," said Sri Mulyani, who is secretary of the National Economic Council.

She added that the economic performance of Abdurrahman's administration could not be solely blamed on the President, whom she said lacked experience and was being abused by certain groups that once supported his bid for the presidency.

Another organizer and noted economic observer, Faisal Basri, said the gathering would try to proportionally look into the country's problems.

"We do not mean to gather support for anybody, but I believe it is proportional to say that other national leaders in the House of Representatives and People's Consultative Assembly are being held responsible for the recent condition," he said.

On the sidelines of the dialog, another organizer of the gathering, Yogyakarta's Sultan Hamengkubuwono X told The Jakarta Post of his disappointment with his fellow reform movement figures who "keep up against each other to achieve their political ambitions".

"In the people's eyes, the conflict between the political elite has moved into an effort to topple the present government. Should it be like that while there are many people suffering?.

"I just hope all the political elite stick together to take the country out of the crises," he said.

Hamengkubuwono joined Abdurrahman, Amien Rais and Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri in leading the opposition force to demand the resignation of former president Soeharto two years ago. Many attribute their emergence to the political stage as the beginning of the reform movement in the country. (dja/zen)