From crisis to striving for competent government

By Mochtar Buchori

JAKARTA (JP): There are moments in life when I feel out of place in my own country, baffled by events which I fail to comprehend. Perhaps 70 years experience is not enough to help me understand certain things? People say that if you feel that way for a long time there is a crisis. All right, but whose crisis? Mine or that of my environment?

Whenever I am in this mood, I find reading commentary and analysis on crises in other places, befalling other people, a very helpful pastime. It reduces the psychological burden that besets my mind. It gives me a better idea of what politics is and how politicians behave. It also reduces my cynicism and my skepticism about Indonesia's politics and politicians.

An article by Hugo Young on the present state of the United Kingdom's Conservative Party is such a case.

Hugo Young states that the Conservative Party is suffering a major crisis, and this is clearly reflected in the behavior of its cabinet members. He wrote, "ministers say these things not because they believe them, but because, as politicians, they can't contemplate the possibility of disbelief. They've forgotten what it is not to be a politician."

On reading this, I immediately thought of my own country. I frequently cannot believe what respectable government officials say. Their words go against common sense or are not supported by facts.

Is it possible that they cannot conceive of public disbelief? Is it possible that they have forgotten what it is like not to be a high-ranking government official?

I doubt this because I know some high-ranking officials who still listen to their conscience and who can still think soundly. The only problem is that they lack the courage and skill to express themselves truthfully.

Hugo Young also wrote, "We should understand that there are some crises for which there is no remedy, and this is one of them. The Conservative Party is in a state of decomposition and cannot, in fact, reverse that process.

"They are, if they would but recognize it, captives to fate. I hesitate to call John Major a tragic figure, but he has the defining element of tragedy about him: The forces that direct his future are ineluctable."

This statement is shocking because it says the Conservative Party is suffering a crisis for which there is no remedy. Is this really possible?

In my view, there is a remedy for every crisis. Indonesia has gone through many crises: in 1948 the Indonesian Communist Party conducted its first coup d'etat; later in 1948 the Dutch army invaded Indonesia; in 1965 the communists attempted a coup, and, in 1974 there was the Malari anti-foreign investment affair.

But every time there was a remedy. Based on those experiences it is hard for me to imagine a crisis without a remedy.

Can it be that we are experiencing such a crisis? Is it possible that the recent irreparable damage done by some ministries and the PDI's current turmoil are symptoms of a crisis without remedy?

And are we now captives of such a fate? Are the forces that brought this crisis --if this is a crisis-- really all powerful? Until this day I have no answer to these questions.

The following words from Young are equally intriguing: "Leader ditching is the classic remedy for a party in terminal trouble... nothing corrupts a party like the imminent withdrawal of power. Power, we have to re-learn, is the cement that binds together what otherwise tend always to be centrifugal: the ambitions and rivalries of party politicians with doctrinal positions they will not surrender."

When I read this sentence, I immediately thought of the PDI's present crisis: the attempt to unseat Megawati Soekarnoputri by making her leadership ineffective.

Symptoms suggest that the PDI is in terminal trouble. But is this the right diagnosis?

If it is true that the imminent withdrawal of power causes centrifugal rivalries within a party, then one can reasonably ask why is the PDI, which has never enjoyed power, in terminal trouble.

But if the PDI is not in terminal trouble, who or what is?

I was shocked by this train of thought. I said quickly to myself, "Do not take Hugo Young's article too far. After all, he wrote about the Conservative Party in Britain not the PDI in Indonesia."

In another provocative remark, Hugo Young wrote, "All governments are more or less incompetent, and nobody can be sure that any other government at any other time would have handled the huge conflicting pressures of the BSE [mad cow disease] calamity more successfully than this one. But competence is something the people have ceased to expect."

Is this statement true for Indonesia as well? When I was young, I thought that a truly competent government would emerge one day in my country.

But gradually this hope has diminished. If countries with more mature political systems find generating competent governments difficult, can we hope that countries with younger polities and political cultures will be able to do so?

Must we give up hope? Of course not! This is only to remind ourselves that we must never take good and competent government for granted.

This nation must work hard for at least the next three generations to build good and competent governments. We will achieve this only after our society has produced enough politicians who, like Lord Jenkins and Bung Hatta, put principle before office.

May God the Almighty bless us all!