Habibie's tasks

Habibie's tasks

I found Lance Castles's article "Will new govt heed Anderson's
plea?" on March 15, 1999, to be strange in many ways. For example,
he says that it is as certain as anything in human affairs that
the next government will be a coalition led by Megawati and Amien
Rais, but he gives no evidence for this.

Mr. Castles also believes that opinion polls prove that Amien
rather than Megawati, will lead the coalition. This is also
strange because in general, polls prove nothing. In Indonesia,
many people live in remote rural areas on remote islands, polling
organizations have little data with which to construct a reliable
sample. It will be an amazing feat if any polling organization
gives an accurate forecast of the vote for even a few of the 48
political parties.

It is also strange that he criticizes a Yogyakarta newspaper
for the headline Golkar declaration attended by paid masses. It
is well known that the Functional Group (Golkar) pays people to
attend its rallies and that it distributes gifts to potential
voters. This style of campaigning obviously suits Golkar as it is
by far the richest party thanks to funds built up under Soeharto.
But it will corrupt and destroy democracy and up to now, measures
taken by the government to prevent it are inadequate. So any
newspaper which spotlights the issue of vote buying (whether in a
headline or a cartoon) is doing a great public service.

Perhaps strangest of all is the assertion that "it is
difficult to put one's finger on anything that Habibie has
actually done wrong." Does this mean that Habibie has not done
anything wrong or, that he has done so many things wrong that it
is hard to put one's finger on them?

It is Habibie's task to ensure the supply of basic foodstuffs
to the poor. In this he has had some success, but it has been
marred by corruption. It is not surprising that there is
corruption at low levels because top-level attempts to eradicate
and punish corruption have been derisory and this is Habibie's
responsibility.

It was also Habibie's task to lay a foundation for economic
recovery, essentially by following an IMF prescription, and in
this he has had some success. But he delayed the recent bank
closure announcement. Thus a process that was supposed to be
transparent and reassuring became murky and perturbing.

It was also Habibie's task to prepare fair and free elections
to elect a government with democratic legitimacy, and he has had
some success. But he has also volunteered himself for election
and this has had many negative consequences. Tension has been
higher than necessary because of suspicion among the government's
opponents that Habibie and Golkar will conspire to rig the
election in their favor. This suspicion is entirely justified,
based on two decades of experience and on recent events,
including the tragic charade of last November's Special Session
of the People's Consultative Assembly and the current vote
buying.

Worse, Habibie may be elected. Even if Golkar wins only 25
percent of votes, the election system, its close relationship
with the Armed Forces and its control over appointed Assembly
delegates give it a good chance of rustling up the 376 votes
necessary to put Habibie back in power. If this happens,
democracy will have been travestied and Indonesia will be stuck
with a government that has no more democratic credibility than
the present one.

JOHN HARGREAVES

Jakarta