Gus Dur's role as nation's mentor

Gus Dur's role as nation's mentor

By Idris Kyrway

JAKARTA (JP): The National Awakening Party has made a u-turn
by supporting Abdurrahman Wahid, also known as Gus Dur, for
president, and no longer Megawati Sukarnoputri, leader of the
winning party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-
P).

Wiranto cleverly kept his options open until Wednesday, when
he was handpicked by Habibie. Megawati, now publicly accused of
arrogance and complacency by disappointed supporters, continues
her management-by-delegation through her close aides Kwik Kian
Gie, Dimyati Hartono, Sutjipto, Sabam Sirait and a few street
demonstrations.

Meanwhile, in The Jakarta Post Oct. 7 in the article Political
disillusionment shadows presidential election, Goenawan Mohamad
made a brilliant and inspired analysis worthy of a senior
journalist. Although it is not at all certain whether "... Amien
Rais (since he) could easily have become a president had he opted
to chair a truly Islamic party rather than the more inclusive PAN
(the Nation Mandate Party)", the rest of his statements do make
sense.

Most of all with his plea for Gus Dur to keep his hands out of
the hornets' nest of practical politicking and for Megawati to
be chosen as president. His reasoning: "If she is not elected she
will remain a mystical figure ... symbol of a victim", while the
country must have a real leader.

A trusted mechanic, so to say, who is not afraid of putting
his/her hands to the task personally if the wheels of government
get punctured.

As for Gus Dur: he would remain a great man as the nation's
mentor; those who remain outside the legislature and the
bureaucracy need him more than does the political process.

If Gus Dur really joins the race for presidency, he can only
lose. Maybe not the election but much of his integrity, much of
the prestige he now enjoys, much of the huge moral power he has
now to his credit.

All of this will quickly evaporate with the mess of East
Timor, the Indonesian Military's (TNI) involvement in war crimes
there and elsewhere, the UN's human rights investigation and the
next specters of secession movements in Aceh and Irian.

Gus Dur's strength is not in realpolitik. His previous
statements on the situation in Aceh, on the number of people
supporting a referendum there, on the force of the separatist
fighters in the province were rather stupid.

The same with his statement about the United Nations (UN)
peace enforcers: "They're all wrong: the UN, the Australians,
the Americans ..." With such statements Gus Dur has unwittingly
allowed us to catch a glimpse of his darker sides: his arrogance,
at least a certain degree of pedantry, maybe even be a growing
megalomania. I would hate to see a great man like Gus Dur go down
the political and moral drain, as will have happened to all his
predecessors in the job.

The day he runs against Megawati, at least 34 percent of the
population will turn their back on him as a traitor, someone who
has broken his word to those who trusted him.

Before he agreed to run for the People's Consultative Assembly
(MPR) top post, Amien went to see him and to ask for his
approval. Once he is king himself, Gus Dur will no longer be the
kingmaker he is now, just a brutally lonely king forced to tackle
all by himself the rotting apples his predecessors left him as
their welcome present: Semanggi II 1999, Trisakti shootings,
Semanggi I 1998, riot-rape-and-death squads allegedly under
Prabowo in May 1998, the 1997 kidnapping of activists, the attack
on PDI-P on July 27 1996, Santa Cruz 1991, Tanjung Priok 1984,
Petrus mysterious killings in the early 1980s, Malari January
1974, G30S PKI and Supersemar, both in 1965, killing of
journalist Udin and female activist Marsinah.

And that's just cleaning up the mess from the past. On top of
that, there is the US$150 billion debt to the International
Monetary Fund, the Bank Bali scandal and probably leaks in other
banks still to come to the fore, nonexisting poverty alleviation
policies, Balongan, Pertamina, a dreadful education system, the
drug epidemic, foreign investment, an overcrowded, incompetent,
corrupt bureaucracy where too many people earn too little to
survive without bribes and extortion, the reeducation of TNI and
the National Police (Polri) and overhauling the whole judicial
system.

The MPR General Session heat one went well: a president-in-
waiting, somewhere in the 21st century, at the head of the MPR;
an experienced and now more humble Akbar Tandjung as chairman of
the House of Representatives (DPR), the military in its political
role not humiliated and astonishingly neutral so far.

It looks like the start of fair power-sharing. What is still
missing is Megawati, as winner of the June 7 elections, as
president. And the TNI/Polri bloc? If there is still a role for
it, such as helping Megawati to her throne together with grateful
Akbar's Golkar, there would still be the vice presidency.

Not for Wiranto, who has burned too many of his fingers, and
who, anyhow, after having let pass the coup opportunities of May
and November last year, would probably not settle for anything
less than the top job; not for Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen.
Subagyo Hadisiswoyo, who had to rescue his son from drug-sniffing
police officers; not for a certain Gen. Widodo who readily agreed
to play the overture to a plot to get the emergency law approved.

There is one man in the military, however, composed, above the
ploys and the jumbles, untainted, and who managed despite all
these qualities to get four stars as well: Lt. Gen. Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono, chief of territorial affairs.

There is one more reason for Gus Dur to stay away from the
fray and above the melee: the international and the Muslim
context. No one dares to say or write it but the truth is that
Gus Dur is not a man of presidential mien. Amid the pomp and
circumstance of presidential protocol and glamour of solemn
ceremonies, his looks and tics will not serve him well.

But as the nation's spiritual leader, as Goenawan Mohamad's
guru bangsa (nation's mentor), they might even be an asset. The
Muslim terrorists who blew up the World Trade Center in New York
have their blind Egyptian imam, now languishing in an American
jail. Palestine's Hamas movement has its blind and wheelchair-
bound spiritual leader back after Netanyahu released him. Iran
has been struggling, so far largely in vain, to get rid of the
political omnipotence of its supremo ayatollahs, first Khomeini,
now Khamenei.

Here in Indonesia, with Gus Dur in the role of guru bangsa,
which fits him like a glove, we would have a chance to show the
whole world, and not just to the West, that we can do much better
than pepping up some lunatic bomber, invent religious fanaticism,
or sponsor state terrorism.

For the first time in modern history, Islam, through an
unexpected example from an unexpected corner of the world, would
be able to show that Islam is intrinsically peaceful, moderate,
engaged, modern.

This is Gus Dur's real calling, his truly exalted role: to be
preeminently the exemplary ayatollah of the world's most populous
Muslim country, not trapped in the fangs of instituted and
corrupting power as in Iran, not abusing influence over easily
incited youths, but elevated to the highest office of the most
exacting standards of morality through the free will of Amien,
Akbar, Megawati, Wiranto and their likes -- shored up by the
respect of the population as a whole, including the Christians,
the Buddhists, the Hindus, the Confucianists and even the
nonbelievers.

The writer is a business consultant based in Jakarta.