Elite now root cause of crisis

Elite now root cause of crisis

From Media Indonesia

The political game engaged in by the members of the country's
political elite at the central level is both ridiculous and
boring in the eyes of laymen. I am a layman in politics but can
see clearly that they are devoid of any political will and have
no grasp of good political management. They have yet to be able
to employ efficient and effective management so as to enable the
existing institutions to work. Finally, they have made themselves
the root cause of the crisis itself. How come?

The function of consultation is no longer to be found in the
People's Consultative Assembly. The function of representation
that should be fulfilled by the House of Representatives has now
been converted into a mere show of power by the legislature. The
Supreme Advisory Council has also failed to pursue the concept of
balance while the President cannot fully exercise his
presidential functions. The Supreme Audit Board and the Supreme
Court have also both failed to fulfill their respective auditing
and judicial functions.

The state's highest and high institutions seem to have lost
their significance and what is regularly exposed to the public is
merely their tangled confusion. We lost most of our money through
the monetary crisis and what is left is disappearing completely
into thin air with a crisis characterized by disintegration and
conflicts stemming from ethnicity, religion and race. What is it
that we are really after?

FATHULLAH H HUSEIN

Jakarta