Habibie's latest pledge

After sending confusing signals about his future plans, President B.J. Habibie announced last week that he had no intention of running for election next year. The President had earlier announced that the government planned to hold a general election for the legislature next year. According to the country's system, the members of the People's Consultative Assembly, the country's highest constitutional body, will elect a new national president.

Habibie's announcement can also be understood as an admission that his government is transitional in nature, although he has refused to make a clear statement as the people have demanded.

However, despite the choice of words, we welcome his down-to- earth decision because if he has no intention of changing his mind, he will be making an historic step to initiate the nation's shift from the old mentality, from which officials had stubbornly refused to step down even after a disastrous failure.

Over its 52 years of independence, this nation has seen only two presidents. Tragically -- and humiliatingly too -- both refused to step down, even though they had been in the national saddle for decades amid protests. It took huge student demonstrations to make them resign.

The question now is what pushed Habibie to make such a wise decision? We believe that after almost a month of putting on former president Soeharto's shoes, the President still works without a significant power base. Even worse, the international market is still maintaining a wait-and-see policy. No economist has the ability to predict when the market will start to show the President some trust. Now what the government faces from day to day is the worsening fast and frightening advance of an economic calamity amid public restlessness.

Habibie can help reduce this tension, and make the people see things in perspective, if he is willing to introduce some reform, starting with cleaning house. The President must have heard the people's vociferous demand for a shake up of his Cabinet, which from the beginning has been a liability not an asset.

The people have urged him to clean the Cabinet of old figures who they have found as having shared in the emasculation of democracy, such as Minister of Home Affairs Syarwan Hamid and State Minister of the Environment Panangian Siregar. The public has also questioned the sincerity of State Minister of Land Affairs Hasan Basri Durin and Minister of Population Affairs Ida Bagus Oka, as well as the effectiveness of the transfer of Yustika Baharshyah from the agriculture portfolio to social services. Some other ministers do not help the image of the Cabinet because they previously worked to preserve Soeharto's authoritarian rule.

Habibie's Cabinet was born defective because the President did not want to disappoint his predecessor, the military, political entities and non-governmental organizations. The President was not courageous enough to convince them that a Cabinet was meant to be an effective administration in facing Herculean problems, not a representative body.

Since Habibie has claimed that he does not live in Soeharto's shadow, it is now high time for him to prove that he is his own man. His popularity would be even more solid if he were brave enough to ban his family members from doing business during his tenure.

This might sound like violating a basic right but the President needs to understand that the people are still traumatized by Soeharto's practices of nepotism and crony capitalism.

For the sake of his own people, we believe Habibie would not mind making some sacrifices. If he is willing to take the above- mentioned steps, we are sure he will be remembered as a sincere leader who paved the way for national survival even though he might not be successful in salvaging the economy.