Disappointing politicians

Disappointing politicians

From Jawa Pos

In the 1999 general election I voted for the party whose
chairperson was the main sponsor for and "discoverer" of
Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid as president of the Republic of
Indonesia. Since the beginning of the Special Session of the
People's Consultative Assembly, I had begun to suspect why this
person insisted that Gus Dur be the president. Then other
political leaders simply followed him and widely expressed the
opinion that a woman was ineligible for the presidential seat.

Only a few months into the leadership of Abdurrahman, the same
figure began to stir trouble for Gus Dur. Today, the political
leaders who initially refused to accept a woman in a presidential
seat have begun to opine that it is not against religious
precepts to have a woman as president. Must the Indonesian people
be fooled a second time? Nobody is willing to be fooled twice,
surely.

So, this is the conduct of a politician. I am not one of
Abdurrahman's supporters but for the sake of consistency, an
elected president must be consistently supported. If the
President's performance is unsatisfactory, this must be caused
by, among other things, the messy situation of the country
brought about by the previous regime.

BAMBANG

Surabaya