Ideal president needed

Ideal president needed

Leaders of a nation have the responsibility to protect and
provide for the people. A good president must be an exemplary
citizen who upholds the law for the benefit of all, not bending
it for personal gain.

When the president of a nation is also its uncontested
dictator, the temptations toward self-serving policies are great.
In the case of former president Soeharto, clearly they were too
great. When a ruler falls to the temptations of greed, wealth and
power he has failed his people. He has missed his opportunity to
be written in history as a great leader. In a nation where
religion plays such a major role, one has to wonder what lies in
store for Mr. Soeharto after he passes to the other side. Surely
it will not be easy for him when he faces his final judgment day.

The recent and very timely article in Time magazine, Soeharto,
Inc." indicates that Mr. Soeharto was a very clever leader who
appropriated billions of dollars from the Indonesian government
and thus the people for himself and his family. With government
decrees backing him up, his family was permitted to rake billions
of dollars out of the economy for their personal gain. Does the
fact that Bapak (Father) had members of parliament rubber stamp
his decrees make him any less of a criminal? According to
Indonesian law, Mr. Soeharto may be clean. But what is the
validity of legal decrees made by the very man who is benefiting
from them? What is the validity of rubber stamps when coercion
was the name of the game and anyone not cooperating lost their
job or was removed permanently? To oppose Bapak during his reign
was to die, literally or officially. The many cases of nepotism
and favoritism are well documented. A close circle of
approximately 30 Chinese businessmen surrounding Mr. Soeharto,
plus his entire family made off with tens of billions of dollars
for their businesses and personal gain. Is this a crime?
Certainly for the millions of poor Indonesians it is.

Of course, things improved during the years of Mr. Soeharto's
iron-handed rule. Indonesia, a country rich in natural resources
with a large, inexpensive workforce entering into the modern
world of commerce was bound to change. But no country's economy
could withstand the level of corrupt and unscrupulous behavior
that existed in Indonesia for the past 20 years.

The national infrastructure providing the people with job
opportunities, good education systems, good health services,
clean water supplies and sewage disposal are greatly lacking in
most villages and many cities all over Indonesia. That women are
still dying in childbirth due to lack of good health care is a
crime. It is a crime for children to suffer from malnutrition and
lack of good education. Men and women have been forced out of
their jobs facing ruin and starvation as the economy crumbles.
From a humanitarian perspective, the policies of the Functional
Group (Golkar) government under Mr. Soeharto's control were
criminal, causing distress, disease and ruin for millions of
Indonesian citizens.

Indonesia is at a crossroads, a critical passage in its
history. At this juncture, it is vitally important to have a
president whose focus and policies are directed toward helping
the people by improving their life quality in substantial ways.
Indonesia deserves to have a great president who will uphold the
law, applying it even to himself or herself as it is to others.
He or she must object to unfairness wherever it is found and
eliminate corruption through improved economic conditions and
diligence as basic principles of good leadership.

EMERALD STARR

Ubud, Bali