'It's time to reform ourselves'

'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.