Fighting among political elite

Fighting among political elite

From Media Indonesia

On Jan. 22, a number of political figures including Eros Jarot
(Bung Karno Nationalist Party), Sri-Bintang Pamungkas (Indonesian
Democratic Union Party) and labor activist Dita Indah Sari
(National Front for Indonesian Workers Struggle/Democratic
People's Party) got together to set up a loose coalition called
the National Coalition, and then declared the need to set up a
new democratic government.

Ordinary people, including me, may wonder whether or not
(President) Megawati (Soekarnoputri)'s administration is a
democratic one. Will the National Coalition guarantee that the
new government it has proposed will be more democratic than the
present one? If the government under Megawati and (Vice
President) Hamzah Haz is not democratic, those voting for them in
the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) must also not be
democratic. So, the MPR must also be replaced by a new one
because the present one elected a president and a vice president
who are not democratic.

Again, laymen are fed up with the bickering and fighting of
the political elite, who always purport to represent the people.
Eventually, they are the ones who have brought misery to the
people they claim to help.

It is the hope of all ordinary Indonesians that the political
elite will be ready to sit at a negotiating table to find the
best solutions for the problems of this country. They must stop
making statements that only confuse the people and lead to the
fighting among themselves. They must try to respect one another
and remember that they serve as role models for the people. They
must stop prioritizing their personal and group ambitions at the
expense of the entire nation.

DADANG ISKANDAR, Bogor, West Java