Haughtiness breeds contempt
Nothing but a tsunami could have shocked me out my daily reveries. And I am positive that the worst ever tidal wave in the era of reform has turned millions into statues from disbelief.
What else could I mean but the incomprehensible announcement made by the state secretary and Functional Group (Golkar) chairman that former president Soeharto deserves a Rp 26.5 billion house for his services to the people and state during his 32-year presidency.
Had the Austrian composer Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus still been alive he might, as a reaction to the news, start composing another comic opera like Der Figaro. To Frans Lehar, this might be an opportunity to launch another Die Lustige Witwe (Merry Widow) waltz operetta.
If my senses are still intact, it was only a month ago a well- known politician blamed the prevailing crises, the people's suffering and all sorts of shortages and the foreign debt burden, squarely on the New Order government under Soeharto and on the (old) Golkar leadership. And yet, the present reform government believes Pak Harto is in urgent need of financial assistance while the majority of the people barely have enough to purchase their daily needs.
Think of the millions of jobless people. Perhaps, The Jakarta Post editorial of July 23 reflects the conscience of the majority of people and fortunately also of some leading members of the House of Representatives. The benevolent genie of reform has been put back in the bottle and the evil spirit of the former government is roaming around freely, as many have dreaded. At least the political cards have now been thrown on the table for everybody to see who loves who and where the true and pseudo reformists are to be found.
How can one not get sarcastic about it; we beg foreign institutes for loans to feed the people or pay our debts, sell our companies, economize state rupiah spending, yet we throw away money unnecessarily.
Now the true colors and true intentions of this reformist government have been revealed in an unfortunate, if not very haughty manner. To allege that the reform movement has been derailed seems not far from the truth.
My criticism is far from politically motivated, although it may contain political undertones. From the point of morality in announcing the refund (for Soeharto's house) under the present general hardship and economic malaise is simply inhuman.
As I wrote in a previous letter, even geniuses, supreme thinkers calling themselves intellectuals, make mistakes, misjudgements or blunders. It seems that intellectuals can also lose their sense of crisis. And even worse, this untimely disclosure shows their ineptness as statesmen and as a loss of their sense of priorities. Statesmanship, wisdom and honesty -- not mere intellectualism -- and compassion are needed more now to govern well.
GANDHI SUKARDI
Jakarta