'It's time to reform ourselves'

The election this week of respected Muslim leader Abdurrahman Wahid as president and the leader of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), Megawati Soekarnoputri, as vice president signifies the beginning of national reconciliation, says political analyst J. Soedjati Djiwandono.

JAKARTA (JP): It was all so nerve-racking. It was high drama in real life, from helplessness to euphoria, but it was glorious. That is how the series of events of the past week unfolded before our eyes.

Yet when all the hurly-burly is over, when calm and sobriety have returned, we must look ahead with a cool head and down-to- earth realism and pragmatism. It should be the end of the reliance on rhetoric and charisma, however important a role these have played in the initial efforts at restoring law and order.

Indeed, one would hope that the pairing of President Abdurrahman-Megawati -- the first Indonesian leadership team with real legitimacy in decades and I would dare say the best in moral terms -- will be the beginning of national reconciliation.

This should be given the highest priority in their agenda after the travails the nation has suffered over the years, triggered by unresolved differences long hidden beneath the surface but brought to the fore by deep social injustice and perpetuated by a severe economic crisis. These legacies of the New Order pose a serious threat to national unity, and thus to the survival of the republic.

National reconciliation is an asset that will serve primarily as a basis on which trust and confidence, and thus credibility, may be restored both at home and abroad. This, in turn, may stimulate economic activities for the nation's recovery from the crisis.

The government of B.J. Habibie was faced with at least equally gigantic problems and challenges. But his was a transitional government lacking in legitimacy and few, if any, expected much from it. This time, popular expectations may be so high as to be unrealistic. The new government must not try to please everybody for none can and nothing will.

What the nation needs under such difficult prevailing circumstances is a government and leadership that will face head on, with confidence and realism, our real and difficult problems. We need a government that will have the courage to pursue a policy, even if unpopular and therefore readily subject to criticism, as long as it is sure that it is in the interest of the nation as a whole.

Given the political will and good faith of the Abdurrahman- Megawati days, the formulation and implementation of their policies will depend on the human resources at their disposal. This means they need resourceful, capable, competent, critical and independent-minded people, clean and free from the restrictions in ways of thinking and attitudes characteristic of the New Order.

I believe in principle that there is always an opportunity for human beings to change, repent and seek forgiveness. A human being is not an apple; once an apple begins to rot, the process cannot be arrested except by excising the decaying part.

It is also a fact, nevertheless, that it is almost impossible for some people to change. They are simply incorrigible. With this in mind, I hope the new government will be free from legacies of the New Order governments of Soeharto and Habibie. I for one, a member of the older generation of this country, would like to see fresh, younger faces in the new government to be formed by Abdurrahman and Megawati.

The future rightfully belongs to the young people. They may have their own vision for their own problems and challenges, as well as their own approach, attitude and way of thinking. These may not necessarily be similar to those of the older generation or be well understood by them. Change is likely to be more difficult to the older, more established generation, because change always bring with it uncertainty, itself a challenge to the state of being established.

Furthermore, although not a politician, I can understand and accept compromises, particularly with respect to Abdurrahman and Megawati, whose respective presidential and vice presidential posts have been the result of support, deals and bargaining with different political parties, especially in the context of the June elections. But the interest of the nation as a whole must take precedence in their consideration of policies. I would accept such deals and compromises but without sacrificing certain moral values.

We Indonesians are likely to muddle through a long process of further democratic reform. For this, we will above all have to reform ourselves in terms of our way of thinking, attitude and behavior. We have a long way to go.