Is silence still golden?
Is silence still golden?
It is not often that one hears Megawati Soekarnoputri -- our
Vice President and the person most likely to replace President
Abdurrahman Wahid if, and when, he loses his job -- speak out in
public on the myriad problems the nation is currently facing.
That is why Indonesians were rather agreeably surprised when late
last month the Vice President spoke out quite strongly against
absolute power in leading this country towards modernity.
Indonesia needs a new vision of power to lift itself out of
the present crisis and to prevent it from becoming the sick man
of Asia, the Vice President said in a speech addressed to the
National Resilience Institute (Lemhanas), a government think tank
in Jakarta. "The highest priority for reform is our vision of
power. In a world that has become interdependent there is no
place for the concept of absolute power," Megawati said,
emphasizing the fact that Indonesia had no choice but to adjust
itself so as to become a constructive force in the new world
order.
Furthermore, according to the Vice President, "in this modern
world all power is relative and must be accounted for, both to
the people as the repository of the state's sovereignty and to
the civilized world." In this new vision, she said, the measure
of success for a leader is no longer the amount of power that he
accumulates, but how far his power can benefit the people.
Certainly, those are reassuring words, coming from a leader
who commands the unquestioning loyalty of millions of zealous
supporters. Frankly, many among the better-educated Indonesians
fear that the style of governance of the popular but taciturn
eldest daughter of founding president Sukarno would in fact bring
back, at least to some degree, the autocratic style of government
this country has known for so many decades. Such a style was
first experienced under the "guided democracy" regime of her
father president Sukarno and later under the New Order autocrat
Soeharto.
To many of these middle-class Indonesians Megawati's silence,
even sometimes under dire circumstances, is not very reassuring
and is a reflection of an inborn tendency to view events
occurring around her with an attitude of regal aloofness.
Megawati remained typically silent during the rather critical
political developments of the past week, when President
Abdurrahman Wahid appointed a new deputy chief of police -- a job
that legally does not even exist -- and declared the chief of
police "non-active". In the wake of her non-attendance of a
Cabinet meeting, the public was left to infer that this was her
way of indicating that she refused to take responsibility for
policy decisions taking by Cabinet ministers, the appointment of
whom she was not consulted.
Nevertheless, considering that Megawati gave one or two
excellent speeches in the past -- one as chairperson of the
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle and another during her
installation as Vice President of the country, it seems absurd to
assume that she lacks any talent of expressing herself well, or
even most eloquently. The wording of her recent hint to
executives of the Association of Young Indonesian Businessmen
(HIPMI) that "political stability and certainty will prevail by
the Aug. 17 Independence Day" also seems to support this belief.
To be sure, circumstances and the position in which Megawati
now finds herself placed dictate that she be careful in what she
says. However, there are times when silence is indeed golden. At
other times, however, Megawati would do well to remember one of
the dictums of her father, Sukarno, turning an old Indonesian
proverb on its head. For Sukarno it is not sedikit bicara, banyak
kerja (talk little, work hard), but banyak bicara, banyak kerja
(talk much, work hard).
For Sukarno, who was famous for his oratory skill, that may be
appropriate. For most people, though, it may be exaggerated. But
certainly there are times when leaders are duty-bound to explain
themselves to the public. The public has a right to know where
and by whom they are being led.