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