Habibie's record

Habibie's record

President B.J. Habibie is going for a record of sorts which
the publisher of the Guinness Book of Records might want to
consider for its next edition. His administration has drafted
about 20 bills and asked the House of Representatives to
deliberate and endorse them before the June 7 general election.
Even if the House cannot endorse all 24 pieces of legislation,
including one or two that were initiated by members, in the
remaining four months of its term in office, we would still have
to admire the government for its ability to draft so many bills
in such a short time.

The bills that have been, or are about to be, presented to the
House include one on regional administrations; on preventing
corruption, collusion and nepotism; on national security and
defense; on allocating resources between central and regional
administrations; on repealing the law on referendum to amend the
Constitution; and on repealing the law on subversion.

The tight legislative agenda of the current administration is
a reflection of the poor state of the legal framework it
inherited from the repressive government of president Soeharto
and the urgency with which it needs to reform the system. Yet,
while we commend the government for its hard work in trying to
correct the legal structure, we question the wisdom of pushing
these bills down the throats of House members, and therefore on
the nation they represent, with as little debate as possible.

With limited time for debating each bill, the general public,
as in the 32 years of Soeharto's regime, will once again be
sidelined in the process of formulating important state policies.
Since these bills will not be subject to extensive public debate,
they will fail to reflect the aspirations of the people. These
new laws will not be all that different from the ones they
replace. They will simply reflect the political agenda of those
in power today, including Habibie himself, the Golkar party and
the Armed Forces (ABRI), which together control the House.

We have already seen how these three elements in power
conspired to push the House to endorse three political bills --
around which the June 7 elections will be organized -- by the
Jan. 28 deadline set by the government. Objections raised outside
the House, particularly by the new political parties vying to
contest the election, were virtually ignored. Many of these new
parties, which were too busy consolidating themselves, will
probably only realize that the system grossly favors Golkar
closer to election date, by which time it will too late to ask
for revisions.

The bill on regional administrations, submitted last week,
shows poor preparation and fails to live up to the government's
promise of more autonomy for the regions. In its present form,
the bill will simply confirm the overriding powers the central
administration wields over the regions.

ABRI's agenda is most clear in the plan to present a bill on
national defense and security, which will allow it to recruit and
train civilians for a new force that has been called different
names: the Rakyat terlatih civilian militia (Ratih), People's
Resistance (Wanra) and People's Security (Kamra). So confident is
the military of a swift passage, even in the face of strong
public protests and objections, that it has started recruiting
civilians for the program. By moving ahead before the legislation
is put in place, ABRI is guilty, if not of flouting the
constitutional process, at least of confirming the public's
perception that the House is a mere rubber stamping agency for
the government's agenda.

While no one will question the fact that the country faces a
Herculean task in reforming the political system, Habibie's
administration, which after all is transitional, will be well
advised to limit its legislative agenda to essentials only. Its
priority has been clear from the beginning: organize a truly
democratic general election. It should leave the business of
making other legislative changes to the next elected government.
By enacting these undemocratic laws, the government is only
creating unnecessary work for its successor, which will have to
repeal them before enacting new legislation more representative
of the people's aspirations.

In trying to accomplish much in as little time as possible,
Habibie could end up achieving nothing but a collection of
imperfect, if not useless, laws. Instead of securing entry in the
Guinness Book of Records, his achievement will probably find its
place among the collection of trivia at the Museum of Records in
Semarang. For that is what these new pieces of legislation will
end up as: a collection of trivial, but grossly wasteful,
undertakings.