Devil's prayer book

As it faces the coming general election, slated for June, this nation is posing itself so many gloomy questions. These are, among others; will chaos precede the poll; will the general election be fair, and, if it is, will it yield an effective government and promote a lasting democratic system?

Some people have said that there is no reason to worry about the fairness of the elections because the supervision system is supported by independent watchdog organizations, students and academics.

However, those who are pessimistic are concerned at the particularly crafty methods which will possibly be applied by Golkar, the effective tool of the authoritarian regime during the last three decades.

This political entity has announced its determination to win the poll in an apparent effort to prove that the public still love it, and that its triumphs at the last six polls were clean and democratic.

But this time, the party seems to feel it is not necessary to resort to Soeharto's harsh methods of ordering the military and the Civil Servants Corps to terrorize the people to vote for it but will use other patterns.

Many people believe that Golkar, with its 30 years experience in dirty politics, and with its vast network system and clout over many local authorities, will be able to defeat the nation with its tricks. And it already gained a victory when the election bill was deliberated in the House of Representatives, which it dominates.

These tricks, among others, include money politics, a lesser used gambit in the past. For the rest of Indonesians, money, if used for political ends, is a devil's prayer book, but for Golkar the end always justifies the means.

Although the new law on political parties has cut its traditional sources of funds, civil servants, and private and state corporations, it can still solicit money from both individuals and corporations whom it has long fattened.

And, as a Muslim scholar has warned, in Indonesia there is almost no clear boundary between contributions and corruption. Votes can also easily be bought in exchange for basic necessities in districts where the poor are concentrated, and this Golkar has started to practice.

The party has also a huge volume of funds accumulated in past years, putting it at a major advantage over all the other parties vying to contest the June poll.

These funds are enough to buy votes from 351 out of 700 members of the People's Consultative Assembly, the body which will elect the new president of the republic, to ensure its candidate is returned.

Indonesians have long witnessed how Soeharto's election machinery has been so busy that it has not had time to think about the virtues of morality and righteousness. Its axiom has been if you allowed morality into politics there would be no politics at all. Golkar has a great ability to diagnose the nation's diseases and prescribe the wrong medicine.

So, Indonesians can look forward to seeing Golkar playing at shadow boxing in the June elections.