Graceful exit
Graceful exit
For 32 years, President Soeharto has firmly, and largely
effectively, guided the development of a vast, crowded, multi-
racial archipelago.
Since he came to power in the mid-1960s, during a time of
terrible bloodletting openly encouraged by the military, he took
Indonesia from dreadful poverty to modest prosperity. Even in the
horror of the current violence, that should be acknowledged.
But what President Soeharto has also done is stayed in power
far too long and created conditions which risk destroying all he
has achieved. He has cultivated and promoted a small clique of
business people, his own family members hugely prominent among
them, denied all opportunities for the flowering of democracy,
and produced an explosive mixture not much different from that
existing when he took power.
The president, and his nation, are now paying the price of
that side of his legacy, a price that risks wiping out all the
hard-won gains of the past three decades.
Two groups have become prominent in the push for his ousting.
One is the students, who from campuses across the nation have,
generally with great restraint and maturity, demonstrated
peacefully, in a spirit of compromise with the military given the
duty of guarding and limiting their reach. This group has been
seeking peaceful change towards a democratic system, in line with
international norms.
The other group, which has exploded so horrifically onto
Jakarta's streets in the past few days, is the very poor and the
underclass. They failed to benefit from the economic miracle and
have suffered the most from its collapse. They emerged from their
poor slum shacks, after seeing prices of basic commodities rise
to levels at which they could not survive, and decided, with that
uncontrollable mass will which has fueled so many revolutions,
that they had suffered enough. Others, who they identified as the
cause of their misery, must suffer in their turn.
The impulse to loot, to kill, to destroy, cannot be condoned,
but it is easily understood.
Today, in a subdued Jakarta, with many in mourning and many
others hiding in fear behind barred doors, the key question must
be, what happens next?
What should happen is that President Soeharto should step
aside, genuinely hand over power, in favor of a council of
national unity.
That council should consist of a cross-section of all of the
individuals who have emerged as likely representatives of the
people in the past turbulent months, from Amien Rais to Megawati
Soekarnoputri.
No one leader has emerged who could step into President
Soeharto's shoes -- he has made sure of that -- and a council of
near-equals could well be a valuable transitional form towards
eventual democracy.
Face demands that President Soeharto should be granted some
honorary title, and there is no reason why his contribution
should not be recognized in that way, but he must not only
genuinely hand over power, but must be seen to be doing so.
It is clear that the students, the mob, and the ordinary
citizens of Indonesia, will not be satisfied with anything less.
Such a genuine, graceful gesture, would surely be looked upon
kindly by history, and would allow the people of Indonesia to
begin the massive task of rebuilding a shattered economy and
national spirit.
-- Bangkok Post