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.