Do we need a dialog?

Many public leaders have expressed their sense of apprehension at the current tragic national condition. Some have said that this country is on the brink of disintegration, while many believe we are already at that ruinous and tragic stage.

The more alarming indication of the process is the fact that the country's power holders seem to have lost touch with the gloomy reality. In such a situation, which is marked by explosions of popular wrath, and acts of hysteria and anarchy, the vacuum created by a lack of a strong and effective national leadership is crystal clear. Without any power holder capable of solving the crisis, many people have tried to solve a given upheaval in their own way. They have resorted to taking the law into their own hands. In many cases even at the deadliest stage of a drama security officers were nowhere to be seen.

However, to the people with a great sense of patriotism and national responsibility the situation is lethally dangerous and this has potential to lead to a social revolution. They have not misjudged the reality in their notion because even those persons with a merely adequate knowledge of national history can easily find echoes of the current crisis in the republic's 53-year existence.

During the turbulent years of the national revolution -- between 1945 and 1949 -- Indonesia faced no less serious national crises and challenges. Some of them almost pushed the young republic over the very brink. There was the heroic battle against the British in Surabaya, two overall Dutch colonial attacks, the kidnapping of prime minister Sutan Syahrir, and a bloody communist coup. But all these tragic events were successfully overcome under a strong and able leadership, consisting of Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta, the two undisputed most popular national leaders. They were unquestionably the leaders the nation needed then. They listened to the peoples' heartbeats and they sincerely loved them.

Now we have a president who is a far cry from national leadership quality and with whom we are not expected to share a dream of having a dialog. Only a monologue, perhaps. Moreover he is not sensitive to the people's aspirations and is surrounded by a group of professional reactionary "rejectionists" who always say 'no' to any sound ideas on how to solve the national crisis. One of them is the chairman of the Supreme Advisory Board.

We also have an armed forces commander but his evaluation of the situation can hardly be palatable to most people's stomachs. This has pitched the nation into crisis after crisis, without the ability to solve any of them, and also worsened the conditions of public safety. Jakartans now think twice before leaving home late at night and officers who are responsible for protecting them have been subject to popular mockery.

Many people have started pinning their hopes on next year's general election, which is expected to produce a national figure. But if the current bloody political situation continues to drag on one can only expect discord and disunity. The only positive trend now is the emergence of brave and responsible student leaders and other young people who have a great sense of responsibility for the nation's future.

But while waiting for their bigger roles in the society, what the people hear now are rumors about possible new riots because anyone can spread rumors given the absence of sound social and political communication. And any thing is now possible including the risk of potboiling plots that will go undetected.

To save the nation from this ruinous fate we see a national dialog as the only workable way. To make this possible, all informal and formal public leaders should have a strong national commitment and share a common ideal, as Abdulrahman Wahid, chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama, who advocates the idea, has said.

The idea should be taken seriously because a social revolution, once it arises, will push this country back into the Stone Age again.

It is rather unfortunate, though not entirely surprising, that Habibie rejected the idea on Monday. Habibie may keep reciting the constitution, as he always has, but this approach, including his reliance on the People's Consulttative Assembly (MPR), is not helping to solve the nation's major problems.

If it had not been for the students and their forceful way to make the MPR, the highest constituional body, listen to the people's aspirations, Soeharto would still be up there with his iron-fisted rule. All that the MPR had been able to do then was only to re-elect the dictator to his seventh term.