Habibie's latest pledge

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.