Cracks emerging in Mega-Hamzah relationship
The Jakarta Post Jakarta
Discord between President Megawati Soekarnoputri and Vice President Hamzah Haz is becoming increasingly obvious now, with the two frequently making conflicting statements.
Officials at the State Secretariat said over the weekend they were annoyed with the statements by Hamzah, whom they described as talking too much.
Hamzah's free-wheeling statements often contradicted Megawati's stance, they said.
The latest example has concerned the question of an Afghanistan jihad.
Initially, the Vice President said that the government would not bar Indonesians wishing to travel to Afghanistan to participate in a jihad, but after a cabinet meeting last week the government issued a statement prohibiting Indonesians from fighting in a war in any foreign country.
Before that, they had already differed on a more fundamental issue, the amendment of the 1945 Constitution.
Hamzah wanted to enshrine the position of syaria (Islamic law), as set forth in the Jakarta Charter, in the Constitution, but Megawati, through her party, objected to the idea.
If such disagreements are not quickly addressed, observers warned, they could be used by the administration's opponents to attack it.
"The two leaders should restrain themselves from making statements just to satisfy their own constituents. They have to show true statesmanship and address the entire nation," political observer J. Kristiadi said on Saturday.
He said both leaders had to synchronize their statements, and therefore, they would have to adjust themselves to each other considering that they came from two ideologically diverse political parties.
Megawati, with her Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), is widely-known as a nationalist, while Hamzah is the chairman of the largest Muslim-based party in the country, the United Development Party (PPP).
"That is why, the two should build a more informal relationship. They could do it through having breakfasts together, for instance," Kristiadi said, referring to the weekly breakfast meetings that used to be held by the president and vice president during the administration of former president Abdurrahman Wahid.
Meanwhile, legislators Alvin Lie from the National Awakening Party and Ferry Mursidan Baldan from the Golkar party, both of which helped Megawati and Hamzah to power, said that they could understand whey the two leaders differed in some areas, considering their different political backgrounds.
Nevertheless, the two legislators expressed their confidence that such differences would not pose a danger for the administration.
"Their different backgrounds cannot be used as parameters for analyze anything about their relationship. Moreover, both of them had pledged from the beginning to work together," Ferry said Sunday.
However, National Awakening Party legislators Effendy Choirie and Chotibul Umam Wiranu, whose party's patron Abdurrahman Wahid was forced out of the power in early August, said that Megawati and Hamzah would never have a genuine, sincere relationship.
"There are contradictory fundamental values that cannot be negotiated between a nationalist and a religion-based politician. They cannot establish a sincere relationship," Effendy said.
Chotibul added that such discord would be bad for the country, and it would only create disharmony between the supporters of Mega and Hamzah at the lower level.
"We are concerned about this, but we don't want to go fishing in troubled waters."