Golkar remains a potent political force

The following is the first of two articles on presidential candidacy prepared by Ikrar Nusa Bhakti, acting head of the Division for International and Regional Affairs at the Center for Political and Regional Studies, the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Jakarta.

JAKARTA (JP): Although the preliminary results of the June 7 general election are showing Golkar party will be in second place, it seems some of its leaders are not yet ready to accept that Golkar will become an opposition party.

A week after the elections, Golkar chairman Akbar Tandjung said he was prepared to concede defeat and congratulate the chairwoman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), Megawati Soekarnoputri, as the winner. However, the chairwoman of the leading party will not necessarily be elected as Indonesia's fourth president.

It is interesting to note that on one hand Golkar has tried to approach PDI Perjuangan to form a coalition of nationalist parties, as well as Islamic parties at the same time, while exploiting Islamic sentiments saying that Golkar's presidential candidate, the incumbent president B.J. Habibie, is a good son of the nation and a Muslim.

There are still so many hurdles for Megawati to overcome in order to be elected as the next president. Some Golkar members, leaders of the United Development Party (PPP) and the Association of Indonesian Muslim Intellectuals (ICMI), have been campaigning in tandem that the next president must be a Muslim and male.

This campaign was done to degrade Megawati as the potential presidential candidate. Apart from that, there was also some propaganda from Islamic leaders that if Megawati's PDI Perjuangan wins the elections, it will endanger the Muslims' interests since most of the party's parliamentary candidates are non-Muslim.

In fact, according to PDI Perjuangan secretary-general Alex Litaay, most of the party's candidates are actually Muslim. The latest statement from the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), states that some ulemas and Islamic leaders in North Jakarta who were campaigning against PDI Perjuangan during the campaign period were abducted by people wearing uniforms of the party's civilian guards.

Megawati and PDI Perjuangan have never been free from difficulties created by New Order leaders and followers. The use of gender and religious sentiments toward Megawati and PDI Perjuangan is actually an effort to stop her from becoming the next president.

In other words, by using gender and religious sentiments, the supporters of the old New Order government have been trying to divert the issue from a reform movement against the status quo forces to a religious issue. However, some modernist and traditional Islamic leaders and the Indonesian Islamic Student Union (PMII) were of the opinion that there is no ban in Islam to have a woman as president. In fact, a president is not the same as an imam (Muslim prayer leader). A man and a woman, therefore, have the same rights to become a president.

There was also an opinion among young Muslim scholars who question the Islamic community, because there are so many Muslim communities in so many Islamic and nationalist parties, including PDI Perjuangan. So that, one cannot say that only Islamic parties and Golkar can represent the interests of the Islamic community, just because Habibie and chairmen of other Islamic Parties are Muslims and males.

The approach from Golkar toward nationalist and Islamic parties shows that Golkar still wants its personnel to be in the Cabinet, either as senior or junior partners.

The use of nationalist and Islamic symbols are the only ways Golkar can approach PDI Perjuangan and Islamic parties.

On the one hand, in approaching PDI Perjuangan and other nationalist parties, Golkar leaders said it is for the benefit of the country to have political stability and the continuation of national development. On the other hand, when approaching Islamic parties, Golkar leaders and followers said its presidential candidate, Habibie, is a good son of the nation and a Muslim. Muslim interests could be fulfilled if Habibie was President.

However, we learned from the New Order government that during 1966 to 1990, the government implemented Islamic phobia. There were so many examples about it, such as the Tanjung Priok shooting incident in Jakarta in 1984 and the accusation of Islamic fundamentalism in Lampung, Jakarta and other cities, and so forth. Former president Soeharto's government tried only to approach the Islamic community by establishing the Association of Indonesian Muslim Intellectuals (ICMI) in 1990 under the chairmanship of Habibie. Its establishment was actually aimed to balance Soeharto's supporters between the military and Muslims.

Since he took over power from Soeharto on May 21, 1998, Habibie has been trying to show to the people that he is a true democratic man.

He allowed, for example, the freedom of the press, which was actually done by Minister of Information Lt. Gen. (ret.) Mohammad Junus, freedom of expression, although his government issued Law No. 9/1999 which limits mass demonstrations, freedom of mass political organization, which allows the establishment of new political parties and other non-governmental organizations, and also free and fair general elections because of pressure from people.

He also offered two options for the East Timorese to choose: either accepting special autonomy status or independence from Indonesia. However, during the short period of his presidency, so much religious and ethnic-oriented violence has happened in Indonesia, such as in Ketapang (Jakarta), Kupang (East Nusa Tenggara), Ambon (Maluku), Sambas (West Kalimantan) and so forth.

His government also cannot stop the ethnonationalist movement in Aceh through peaceful means, as he promised to the Acehnese in Aceh and Jakarta. Although the military stated that it has stopped special military operations in Aceh since August 1998, mass killing and torture are still going on there. The question is, how can Habibie maintain Indonesian unity and pluralism in the near future? And which Islamic community can benefit from Habibie's presidency?