Erratic Amien

Erratic Amien

From Neraca

I formerly admired Amien Rais for what I thought was his
consistency in fighting corruption, collusion and nepotism.
Unfortunately, my admiration has dimmed with each passing day.

The outstanding Amien has now become the fussy Amien. When
asked whether the upcoming general session of the People's
Consultative Assembly (MPR) would be turned into a venue where
the president would be impeached, he said that it was likely that
the general session would become an expanded general session. As
a layman, I can only conclude that the general session will
indeed be the site for the President to be put "on trial".

Amien also made a statement in the same vein when he addressed
an anticommunist rally in Surakarta. He said that if the
President insisted on proposing the revocation of Decree No.
25/MPRS/1966 he would not hesitate to pound his gavel.

There would be nothing strange if he resorted to the action in
his capacity as MPR speaker. However, it would be a different
thing if it was only related to the president's proposal. In
other words, Amien seems to be saying that he is ready to
confront the President head-on should he insist on proposing the
revocation of the MPRS decree on the banning of communism.

He said recently that the general session of the MPR would
only be made a venue to assess the performance of the government,
which he said would be analogous to a teacher assessing his
pupil.

The series of events has left me to conclude that Amien is an
inconsistent person. He may "rebel" against the status quo but he
is not mature enough to be a "winner".

I am saddened that once he became MPR speaker he no longer
showed his skills as a former general chairman of Muhammadiyah or
as an intellectual. With his inconsistency, Amien seems to be
overly absorbed in political games. In this case, we have to
raise our hats to KH Abdurrahman Wahid because as a president he
has not thrown away part of himself as a cultural figure.

Therefore, I would like to suggest to Amien Rais to be more
careful with his world. I still have hopes that he will become a
great man in the future. Amien should be aware that to be part of
the opposition does not mean attacking randomly, as he is doing
now. Amien must learn from Akbar Tanjung, who does not talk much
but has been able to give a more effective push to the
government.

FATAHILLAH

Tangerang, West Java