Facing a dilemma
With one day to go before the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) is due to convene in a four-day Special Session, Jakarta is in the grip of rising political tension. The reason for this tension is the meeting's potentially combustible agenda -- namely to pave the way for a free and democratic poll to elect a new government in May next year.
Many political observers have asked if the present government -- which is often referred to as the Soeharto regime without the old man inside -- is capable of holding a fair election? Many more have said the session is unnecessary and at best a farce because the Assembly, the nation's highest constitutional body, is dominated by Golkar, a favored political tool of the heartless fallen tyrant.
Our society has united behind calls for the Soeharto mentality to be eradicated from the country's political scene and a wave of protests demanding that the former president and his cronies be brought to trial for crimes against the nation has sprung up around the land. Protesters have also called for the powerful military to leave politics and -- this is mainly the concern of Moslems -- for revocation of the rule obligating all political parties to live and work by the fiat of Pancasila, the official state ideology.
Revelations of Soeharto's alleged fortune accumulated through gross abuse of power are highly sensitive, coming as they have at a time when the economic crisis is depriving more and more people of their basic daily needs. But in clamoring for justice, the public has found itself at loggerheads with a regime intent on keeping Soeharto beyond the reach of the law.
Like in the rest of the civilized world, Indonesians have long seen the military's socio-political role as an obstacle to democracy, but have lacked the courage to say so in public in any telling numbers. Providing military officers with un-elected seats in the House of Representatives is in naked violation of the 1945 Constitution and it has been a tragic irony to watch the Armed Forces, the defenders of our Constitution, gorging themselves on this forbidden fruit.
The reform movement has urged the MPR to take whatever steps are necessary to bring about a return to the democratic values that were stolen from us by the fallen regime. Sadly, the only response to these calls has been an echo from the Assembly's foreboding concrete walls, leaving those concerned with the fate of this nation frustrated and pessimistic.
The United Development Party (PPP) faction in the MPR has attempted to give voice to the reform movement's concerns during meetings to prepare policies that must be implemented before a new MPR is formed after next year's general election. But this crusade has died on the sword of Golkar, the dominant Soeharto party which is apparently fighting hard to crush all efforts to bring about change for the better.
The problem with Indonesia today is that it still depends on the MPR, a body filled with reactionary advocates of the status quo who bear no resemblance to the majority of people for whom they purport to stand up for.
The MPR has pushed the silent majority of Indonesians into an ugly corner. If pro-reform leaders support the MPR session, a political morass looms large over the nation, while if they stand up in opposition to it they risk dragging the nation back towards anarchy.
In seeking an answer to this conundrum posed by the establishment, the new pro-reform political parties could decide to boycott next year's general election if they find the odds are stacked up against democratic values. And that would lead to a calamity.
The game Golkar is playing in the MPR is dreadfully dangerous. Golkar's political egotism could destroy the nation.