Deceitful grandstanding

Deceitful grandstanding

Anyone who heard President B.J. Habibie's accountability
speech before the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) on
Thursday night would have been disappointed, not to say
dumbfounded, to find that it differed little from his state of
the nation address on the eve of Independence Day on Aug. 17. It
was essentially a rehash of his calculated playing with the truth
from two months ago, designed wholly to support his shameless bid
to stay in power.

His stratagem remained the same. He went to great lengths to
flaunt what he claims is his record of economic achievement since
taking office, but deftly sidestepped the crucial issues which
have completely destroyed domestic and international trust in his
leadership. Almost all major international creditors have stopped
disbursing aid to Indonesia because they are no longer willing to
entrust a single cent to the Habibie administration.

Never in its 54-year history has Indonesia's international
standing hit such a nadir. The nation has suffered one
international indignity after another due to the loss of domestic
and international trust in Habibie's leadership and the egregious
abuses of human rights by rogue elements within the military,
whose chief, Gen. Wiranto, is now his vice presidential running
mate.

When the International Monetary Fund (IMF) needs due diligence
on banks and state companies for restructuring under the US$43
billion bailout program it is arranging, it demands foreign
auditors. Likewise, the IMF, not trusting the independence of
government institutions, demanded that PricewaterhouseCoopers be
hired to investigate the Bank Bali scandal.

The nation was forced to accept a multinational peacekeeping
force in its 27th province, East Timor, last month after weeks of
rampant destruction of property and human life by TNI-backed
militias. The United Nations Human Rights Commissioner (UNHRC)
further humiliated Indonesia by voting to send a team to
investigate alleged TNI atrocities, even though the National
Commission on Human Rights has set up an investigative team of
its own.

Habibie devoted about 11 pages of his 43-page address to
economic matters, ticking off low inflation, a large increase in
gross foreign exchange reserves, declining interest rates and the
rise in the Jakarta Stock Exchange price index. He recounted the
measures already taken in bank and private debt restructuring.

But he danced around the damning indicators of his sorry
leadership; a virtual stop in foreign direct investment, steady
decline in exports despite the weak rupiah and an increase of
more than $20 billion in government foreign debt during his 512-
day tenure.

He touts his dubious economic gains like a pathetic
endorsement of his suitability to lead, but what drowns out his
self-serving words is his failure in the most crucial tasks:
combating corruption, collusion and nepotism, which are the main
cause of the economic crisis, and empowering law enforcement.

Habibie pledged a few hours after he stepped into the shoes of
his mentor, Soeharto, on May 21, 1998, that he would go all out
to fight corruption, collusion and nepotism. He has not lived up
to his word; only two or three major corruption cases have
reached the courts. If anything, his government has made further
mockery of the country's already laughable law enforcement. It
has stopped a corruption investigation into Soeharto and resorted
to all manner of tricks to cover up the Bank Bali scandal which
implicates his close aides.

A few hours before Habibie delivered his accountability
speech, the South Jakarta District Court, after a trial of almost
five months, showed scorn for the people's sense of justice by
acquitting Soeharto's youngest son, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra,
of all charges related to his multimillion dollar land swap deal
with the State Logistics Agency.

The decision to let Tommy off scot-free, its timing displaying
the ultimate arrogance and contempt toward our long-suffering
people, is nothing short of disgusting. Tommy, the youngest of a
brood of siblings renowned for their avarice, is the only one to
have been tried although some 100 business contracts awarded to
the Soehartos have been canceled due to collusion and nepotism.

Little wonder the capital market was spooked and the rupiah
plunged on Wednesday on the news that the Golkar Party
reconfirmed Habibie as its presidential candidate and Wiranto as
his vice presidential running mate.

Vigorous law enforcement and good governance -- clean,
respectable, credible and legitimate -- are crucial determinants
of a country's wealth and the degree of its social cohesion and
decency. They are the qualities sadly lacking in the Habibie
government despite the President's pretty words and simpering,
delusional professions to democracy.

Now it is up to the members of the MPR. We are convinced that
these 700 representatives of the people, elected in the free and
fair June elections, would not be so insane, ignorant or deluded
to imperil the survival of their country by repeating the fatal
mistake of the 1998 MPR. They, and Habibie, would do well to
remember that Soeharto's unanimous election, which went totally
against prevailing public opinion, could not stop him from being
unceremoniously dumped two months later on a wave of mass unrest.