Indonesia still fighting uphill battle

Indonesia still fighting uphill battle

By Rahayu Ratnaningsih

JAKARTA (JP): The election has been carried out
enthusiastically, peacefully, and relatively successfully --
something that Indonesian people can feel proud of for a change.
The results have been validated, despite 27 minor parties'
refusal to endorse them. Megawati Soekarnoputri, chairwoman of
the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) has
delivered her long-awaited speech. What comes next depends
largely on the actions of our political elite; the individuals
that have been accorded a political mandate from the people to
represent their aspirations.

Early unhealthy signs of combativeness among them have led a
majority of Indonesian people to shake their heads in
frustration. This frustration is also manifest in the woeful
deviation of the current regime from its own boastful promises of
delivering a morally acceptable governance, as distinct from that
of its predecessor.

Habibie's administration owes explanations to the people about
many unresolved cases, which were deliberately pursued half-
heartedly. The cases range from the military's human right abuses
to alleged corruption involving subordinates of Habibie, and the
alleged misdeeds of the former first family. The President,
instead, issued cosmetic statements and announcements that lacked
any substantial follow-up action. The President acknowledged
corruption in the government and state enterprises (issues people
were already conversant with), and announced plans to set up
various "independent" commissions to deal with issues from
investigation of official's wealth, to Aceh's grave case, to
obliteration of corruption, collusion and nepotism (locally known
as KKN). In the past, such commissions have proven to be
toothless and a waste of time and money (just look what happened
to the commission that investigated the May riots and which
announced its findings late last year.)

Why bother with such lofty ideals when the President seems to
have a hard time seeing existing problems in front of his very
eyes. The continued uncertainty surrounding the Ghalib and
Cendana clan alleged corruption allegations and the bizarre
acquittal of Nurdin Halid and Beddu Amang, both of whom were
government officials, from all corruption charges, can be cited
as just a few examples in the administration's stonewall tactics.
Habibie, instead, has, in a not very subtle way, been diverting
people's attention to the pursuit of what are perceived as
politically engineered corruption cases involving businessmen
Arifin Panigoro and Sofyan Wanandi, and the ludicrous
investigation of pornography cases.

The public's only hope is for Indonesia to have a completely
new government as soon as possible. Unfortunately, it would
appear that this poor nation is trapped in the hands of
machiavellian creatures, who previously stifled it for 32 years.
The situation is not unlike the condition of Sisyphus, the
mythical Greek character forever condemned to push a rock up a
hill, only to have it roll down each time it almost reached the
top.

First, people were caught up in the euphoria when people's
power eventually managed to topple the Soeharto kleptocracy. It
didn't take long to find they had only jumped out of the frying
pan and into the fire. When the public were able to participate
in the long-awaited election with its gratifying and promising
results, not long after they encountered cheap campaigning
against Megawati's leadership on the basis of an obsolete,
narrow-minded dichotomy of Muslims versus non-Muslims, religion
vs gender.

If that wasn't enough, the people are facing the bitter
reality of how much the current seat quota system in the House of
Representatives has benefited Golkar. The fixed seat system for
every province, despite population distribution differences has
benefited the ruling party, which trailed PDI Perjuangan in the
vote count. This means that although reform parties won, there is
still a great possibility that Golkar, which has proven in the
past to have no qualms in justifying any means to achieve its
end, rules once again and Habibie becomes the next president.

Even when PDI Perjuangan won 33.7 percent of the vote and
Golkar 22.5 percent of the total votes, their seat gains did not
correspond to their vote gains. The latest counting has PDI
Perjuangan with 158 seats, with Golkar on 120, a disappointingly
disproportionate difference. This happened because Golkar has few
supporters in Java, but has a strong support-base outside Java,
areas in which the population is not massive, especially in South
Sulawesi, Habibie's birthplace. The cunning excuse for this
infringement of representational equality and people's
sovereignty is to avoid the impression that Indonesia is overly
represented by Java or the Javanese.

So it has become clear that even a reasonable and natural hope
for a new government, will potentially be too difficult to accept
for those political elite who have, with all their might, been
digging up legal technicalities on the Constitution to sustain
their political agenda. By using the Constitution (which mandates
the House of Representatives (MPR) elects the president), the
status quo quarter has constantly issued statements supported by
its endorsers, who are disguised in many different organizations,
mainly Islamic ones, that the winner of the election doesn't
automatically become the ruling party, nor its presidential
candidate assume the role of the next president. This activity is
a deliberate attempt to completely ignore the essential and moral
issues reflected by the overthrow of Soeharto's regime.
Additionally, they ignore the recent election results that placed
Golkar in second position with a mere 22 percent of the vote,
from 74 percent in the 1997 elections.

Ironically, the same people who have repeatedly shown
reservations about and advocate amendment to the undemocratic
1945 Constitution insist that the obsolete Constitution be
strictly and literally followed. It is true the Constitution is
still our legal foundation, however with current situation in our
society, as reflected in the election result, requires a little
bending of the rules without violating the spirit of democracy
and ethics. Perhaps a little deviation, if endorsed by the House
of Representatives, could be allowed. If we are going to amend it
anyway -- and the general consensus is that the president should
be directly elected by the people -- as long as it is conducted
democratically by people's representatives why don't we start
implementing the spirit of that change now? Isn't it true that
when the 1945 Constitution was being drafted there was no solid
foundation for this process, other than the trust people gave to
our founding fathers and the spirit they possessed to do the best
for the country and the people? In other words, an exception
should be granted since our current situation can be considered
as "abnormal" as it was then.

What remains so puzzling is the continued push from the
Habibie quarter for his reelection, as clearly demonstrated by
the Indonesian Muslim Intellectual Association (ICMI). Habibie
has discovered for himself that it will be very hard for him to
satisfy the people's uncompromising demand that prosecution of
corruption cases, involving almost all of his current and former
entourage, be pursued. So why is it that he is yet to figure out
that another term in office will be hell for himself as well as
the people? Has he considered the likely possibility that people
may revolt?

Finally, the haphazard use of Islam for the personal ambition
of certain groups, won't take place without resistance from the
pluralistic Muslim communities. It is doing a disservice to Islam
for it to be associated with groups advocating and maintaining
injustice, because it is clear there is no way it justifies
injustice and corrupt regimes. The undeniable fact is that ICMI,
which was then headed by Habibie, Soeharto's protege, together
with the Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI), was a silent supporter
of the New Order's killing machines against the large Muslim
population. The public is confused about ICMI's sudden concern
about the fate of Muslims.

ICMI chairman Achmad Tirtosudiro's latest bold statement that
ICMI will support the President's reelection because "Habibie is
the best man the country has (and) is committed to fighting for
the country's Muslims' aspirations, and so that the continuation
of the reform agenda is not interrupted" is so bereft of
intellectual honesty that it defies the "intellectual" label of
his organization. One may wonder what sort of mental gymnastics
he engaged in prior to releasing that statement? Whatever
happened to ICMI's initial commitment when it was first founded
of not letting itself serve as anybody's political vehicle?

The writer is director of the Satori Foundation, a center for
the study and development of human excellence through mind
programming and meditation techniques.