Gus Dur must make some basic changes
Gus Dur must make some basic changes
By Adam Schwarz
JAKARTA: Nine months ago, Indonesians greeted Abdurrahman Wahid euphorically -- their first democratically-elected president in more than four decades. A charismatic Muslim leader, Abdurrahman's praises were sung widely at home and abroad -- religious pluralist, political democrat, economic pragmatist, national unifier.
Today, one has to listen carefully to hear even an echo of this enthusiasm. Although still popular in some regions, his stock among politically-active Indonesians has dropped.
He has borne the brunt of the people's unmet and unrealistic expectations. But he has been, in many cases, his own worst enemy.
Ignoring blithely the precariousness of his governing coalition, he has exasperated allies, demoralized ministers, infuriated critics and frustrated advisers. His public comments have been erratic, contradictory and, at times, irrational.
He has compromised where principled stands were called for, and dug in his heels stubbornly where a more experienced politician would have given ground.
Reform has bogged down and across the board, policies are confused -- where they can be discerned at all.
It is not too late for him to combat an image of political clumsiness and managerial incompetence. But time is running out.
He and his foes are on a collision course which, if not averted, will damage both sides and weaken a fragile democracy.
The struggle has moved into the open this week as the People's Consultative Assembly sits for an 11-day session. Under former president Soeharto, the Assembly met once every five years to rubber-stamp his continued stay in office.
Now newly-invigorated, it meets annually and is determined to bring the President to heel.
Stretching the elastic boundaries of the constitution, the Assembly intends to vote on a proposal which would give it the right to oust the President with a majority vote. The measure, if passed, is almost certain to make Indonesian politics more uncertain.
It could well usher in a period of Italian-style, revolving- door governments. This is not what Indonesia needs.
The time is ripe for a bargain. The top political leaders -- Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri, Assembly Chairman Amien Rais and Speaker of the Parliament Akbar Tandjung -- should drop the talk of impeachment and resist the urge to put every public policy issue through the grinder of party politics.
They all had a hand in creating the Abdurrahman presidency. They all had a hand in assembling the dysfunctional Cabinet he has been saddled with. They should deal with the consequences, not run from them.
But no deal is possible unless the President commits to some fundamental changes in style and substance.
First, he must streamline his Cabinet and inject discipline into the bureaucratic machinery. On issues ranging from overhauling the courts to investigating high-profile corruption cases to privatising state-owned assets, the government has been long on talk and short on action.
Second, Abdurrahman needs to shake up his Cabinet, which was cobbled together after his election to satisfy a mishmash of political, religious and geographic interests.
In particular, he needs to assemble a new economic team which is less beholden to competing political camps and more capable of making the difficult compromises needed to get the economy moving forward again.
These two steps alone will not shorten the list of urgent tasks: decentralizing fiscal responsibilities to the regions, dealing with separatist sentiment and sectarian violence in Aceh, Irian Jaya and Maluku, tackling the enormous foreign-debt overhang and moving ahead with military reform -- to name a few.
They would allow him to give these problems the attention they deserve. Such political changes would also go a considerable way to stymieing those whose No 1 priority is pushing the President from power.
The writer, author of A Nation In Waiting: Indonesia's Search For Stability, contributed this comment to the International Herald Tribune.
-- The Straits Times/Asia News Network