Land of miracles?
To call this land under the tropical sun full of miracles surely is an exaggeration. Yet there have been a number of, I would say, "miracle-like" developments recently.
The first miracle is the inability, due to a certain conspiracy or not, of the South Jakarta Court, to start proceedings on the Soeharto case that has seemed for years such a simple task to tackle and the charges so obvious, being illegal conduct both political and personal. As we know, expert doctors, including the so-called independent ones, have declared Soeharto, aged 79, absolutely unfit for trial due to the fact that he has lost his memory, his speech and perhaps his mind as well. He was found to have dropped to the intellectual level of a third grade elementary school child.
The former strong man was also found suffering from permanent brain damage. There is now little chance that he will ever occupy the chair in the court. As a matter of miraculous fact, he has now been declared a free man and can go wherever and whenever he wants. Soeharto, who has been accused of corruption, collusion and nepotism for so long, has successfully escaped the grip of law. The question on many lips is now whether he will also escape the scale of justice?
Another miraculous thing is the statement by the deputy governor of Bank Indonesia, Miranda Gultom, painting a very rosy picture for the coming fiscal year, including an economic growth rate of 4 percent and an inflation rate of 6 to 7 percent. There would be an increase in foreign capital investment and greater stability of the rupiah currency, she predicted. As she usually does not talk so optimistically, such predictions sound suspicious, at the least.
Fuel prices have been raised beginning Oct. 1. Yet the massive student protests over the country, accompanied by uncontrollable workers' strikes and other social upheavals, have not happened. This seems to be something like a miracle too.
A big miracle that many people would like to happen is that after his return from his overseas trip, President Abdurrahman Wahid would stop making controversial statements and fixing new dates for the exploration of terra incognita near the south or north poles. Does he ever care to have priorities? Does he mind at all that Indonesia's household is still grappling with the heavy burden of international debt and internal dissent? Why was he away when the Soeharto trial was aborted? Does he not see it as a defeat of the reformists camp and a reawakening of the New Order forces?
A solution of the Atambua crisis against that background would indeed be another miracle if it happens.
GANDHI SUKARDI
Jakarta