DPA advises President

DPA advises President

I was watching the 12:30 p.m. news on SCTV on Feb. 7, 2001,
when, after incessant reports on nationwide mass demonstrations,
this time raging in East Java, a sudden hopeful sign suggesting a
reconciliatory rapprochement was aired. Unexpectedly it was
reported that a delegation of the Supreme Advisory Council (DPA),
under its chairman, Achmad Tirto Sudiro, met the President. The
chairman was seen reading from a folder in his hands the DPA's
advice, to which the President was seen listening attentively,
but obviously in his well-known unique style.

The salient points of the DPA's advice caught in the report
essentially covered two meaningful features. First, advising the
President to act tactfully and reply accordingly to the House of
Representatives' memorandum, and second, advising that a tactful
and proper reply from the President would make the issuance of a
second memorandum unnecessary.

Conspicuously, in its advice, the DPA opted to shy away from
entangling itself in the controversial issue of urging the
President to resign. By taking a wise reconciliatory attitude,
the DPA clearly showed its statesmanlike stance vis-a-vis the
confrontation between the pros and cons of political forces on
one side supporting and on the other opposing the President to
serve the full term of his tenure.

I couldn't help but heave a sigh of deep relief when I heard
of the unexpected stance taken by the DPA, as it serves to prove
that this country still has politicians with statesmanlike
visions in the DPA. Hopefully, the DPA will help avert the
country from being dragged into a holocaust sparked by the
warring forces of the pro and con camps.

We must spare our children and future generations from such a
disastrous fate. If the incumbent head of state has only four
years to serve, can we not exercise tolerance in light of our
experience of being subjected to a three-decade all-powerful rule
of the past? This experience cannot be denied. I have the feeling
(I don't mind if readers laugh at me) that our founding fathers
in heaven like Bung Karno, Bung Hatta, Djuanda, Leimena, Mohammad
Roem and others will unreservedly second the DPA's advice.

The founding fathers must have been fully aware of the fact
that ever since this country gained independence, no government
has fulfilled the pledge to give the masses a just and affluent
society.

If there is one of the highest aspirations harbored by the
people at the grassroots level, spreading to the far-flung outer
regions of this great archipelago, it is this pledge that stands
out which no government has been able to date to fulfill.

Although we can talk endlessly of, and champion reform and
democracy, it must be realized that they are not an end in
themselves. They are only the means to the end. The end for the
people is to achieve a just and prosperous society. Hospitals,
schools housed in adequate buildings, public health centers and
comfortable transportation means for the lower classes are
urgently wanted, to cite a few.

S. SUHAEDI

Jakarta