Land of miracles?
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