'Free' at last, Sophan starts over

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The new year arrived with a jolt on the political scene.

One of the country's best known legislators from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), Sophan Sophiaan, resigned from the House of Representatives amid a blaze of publicity.

Many said that they regretted the move, citing the fact that Sophan was regarded not just as good movie actor (his first profession), but also a "decent" politician with enough of a conscience to make decisions for the sake of the country.

President Megawati Soekarnoputri, who is the chairwoman of the party, tried in vain to coax Sophan into reconsidering his decision. Sophan remained firm, saying that he could no longer deal with the current political situation.

The decision, which Sophan said stemmed from his inability to adjust to recent political developments, prompted even more soul- searching and questions from the public -- particularly about why there was no longer a place for a decent man in the dirty world of Indonesian politics.

"I feel free, I feel like I've been let loose from everything that has been tying me down. I haven't decided what to do next, because I just wanted to take some rest for a while before starting over," Sophan said last week.

Sophan said that he is currently finishing 13 episodes of a new television series, Rahasia Perkawinan (Secret of Marriage), which is aired by SCTV on Sundays. He said that he had been swamped with acting offers since announcing his resignation.

"Maybe I will be active again in acting -- but maybe not ... I am not sure," he said. "Maybe you can ask me again in another six months."

Born in Makassar, Sophan, 58, first made a name for himself with Pengantin Remaja (Teen Bride) in 1971. He remains a respected actor and director, and is married to actress Widayawati, his co-star in many movies and mother of his two children.

In 1991, he joined PDI Perjuangan and went on to became a legislator in 1992 in his hometown of Parepare, South Sulawesi.

He helped in the development of the party, which was considered the main opposition in the declining years of the Soeharto regime, and was one of the first legislators to demand that the authoritarian ruler surrender power.

Despite his late entry into the legislative arena, Sophan has some impressive political experience. He said that he has had a strong interest in public service from a very young age through his father, Mannai Sophiaan, who served as the Indonesian ambassador to the Soviet Union.

Sophan agreed that, in his political choices, he was influenced by his father, an activist in the then-Indonesian Nationalist Party (PNI), the party that was the predecessor to PDI Perjuangan.

"Of course, my father influenced my choice of lifestyle, I grew up in a nationalist family, and it affected my political choices."

But Sophan's love of politics soured when he witnessed the reality of what was happening in the corridors of power.

Despite the fact that his party made a remarkable transformation -- from the oppressed opposition to the legislative leader, with their chairwoman at the helm of the country -- it was a case in which the more things changed, the more they remained the same.

"This is a symbol of my political disappointment. I used to dream that PDI Perjuangan would finally become the 'winner' in politics -- but when it did came true, we still could do anything."

He was appointed faction chairman of the party at the People's Consultative Assembly, a job he didn't want, especially with the unending infighting within his party.

"I wanted to resign from the position because I don't like to see people fighting. In the party there are frictions among many groups, and conflicts between the new members with the senior ones," Sophan said.

"Some of them even dared to manipulate the written results of the faction meetings so as to accommodate their own political agenda, and it continued to happen during the last Assembly's special session."

Sophan has refused to specify the exact thing that pushed him to resign, but said that he felt ashamed at being powerless to fight for people's interests.

"I am disappointed," he said. For example, "my fellow PDI Perjuangan central executive board member accused me, in a newspaper, of taking sides. Yet, during a meeting with me, he did not confront me about my reasons of quitting."

Despite the unavoidable truth that the country is still suffering from unethical political practices, even under the rule of "the people's party," Sophan said that he only wanted the best for PDI Perjuangan.

"I just hope that PDI Perjuangan will finally be a better party," he remarked.

But, he added, it's not a case of enjoying life in the entertainment world in lieu of politics. "I don't think so -- I have found plenty of things that I dislike about both professions."