Glory or tragedy awaiting

According to the dictionary, "glory" is heavenly bliss (and splendor) while "tragedy" is a very sad happening or serious play with an unhappy ending.

Sometimes in my solitude I conclude that for the famous Kennedy clan life looks like a serious play with a very sad ending. The untimely death by an assassin's bullet of John F. Kennedy in Dallas at the peak of his career was such a tragedy. Only heaven knows why another tragedy should strike Kennedy's family with the sudden and also humanly speaking untimely death of John Kennedy Jr. who expected to follow his father's footsteps as his nation's political leader.

Man can only guess why tragedies happen such as the sinking of the Titanic, the deaths at such a young age of John Lennon and Princess Diana, just to mention a few.

In contrast, there have been people who could overcome the perils they have encountered and so to speak reached a glorious end. The journey to the moon and back was glorious for a man named Armstrong, and so was in a way Scot's journeys through the North and South poles. Jazz trumpeter and singer Louis Armstrong had a life that ended in glory.

It has puzzled many people that the Indonesian general election proceeded by uncontrollable violence did not end in tragedy as feared. But one can say that the elections will end in glory if the choice of the majority of the people becomes a reality. To be sure of that, the nation has to wait the second phase of the "perilous journey to democracy", the General Session of the People's Consultative Assembly in which the president will be elected.

Overall, the organizational success, is glorious for the whole nation. It is tempting now to see the event in a historical perspective.

The Sukarno family went through glory at the beginning of the first president's public service, but ended in tragedy as we all know when he was ousted and met his death in isolation. His daughter, Megawati Soekarnoputri, almost was lost to tragedy when her party was hacked into two and its followers mercilessly prosecuted and pursued at the beginning of her leadership.

Only the "wise men" from Yogyakarta or Surakarta, who cared to visit ailing former president Soeharto, would dare to forecast, if "glory" is awaiting Megawati at this point of her career.

GANDHI SUKARDI

Jakarta