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