Legislators, observers hail Mega's speech

JAKARTA (JP): Observers and legislators showered President Megawati Soekarnoputri's state-of-the-nation address with praise on Thursday which they said shed a ray of hope for good governance.

However, some cast doubts on whether Megawati's law enforcement team in the Cabinet were competent enough to help her live up to her commitment to combat corruption and abuse of human rights.

"Megawati showed that she is confident to take responsibility for all these complex jobs from combating corruption to maintaining the nation's integrity," said political observer J.B. Kristiadi of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

The state-of-the nation address, the first that Megawati has given since she was appointed President on July 23, was seen as a sign that she had a clear agenda and set priorities that her coalition government would pursue.

The speech disproved many people's skepticism about Megawati's ability to communicate her vision and leadership, Kristiadi said.

Kristiadi was impressed by the President's modesty as reflected in her call for support from all quarters and that there was nothing overly ambitious in setting goals.

Political observer Fachry Ali sees that President Megawati's speech clearly showed her vision as she articulated goals the government wanted to achieve.

"Generally, the speech was good as it was prepared by competent experts, but at the core of her speech was her intention to keep herself and her family free from being tainted by unlawful practices. Such a statement has never been expressed by any of our presidents in the past," he said.

Megawati realizes that the main problem faced by her government is credibility as it is public knowledge that the majority of government officials are corrupt.

"She wants to show to the public that the effort to fight corruption should start from herself and the impact is expected to be felt on her Cabinet members and other government officials."

Fachry said that Megawati is a law-abiding leader.

Megawati's speech had particularly impressed Jusuf Syakir, chief of the Public Servants' Wealth Audit Commission (KPKPN). He said, "It erased many people's doubts about Megawati... It was powerful and straight using the language of housewives, which is unsophisticated but easy to understand."

House Speaker Akbar Tandjung also praised the President's speech concerning her vision toward the numerous major problems the nation was facing and the programs she wanted to implement up until 2004.

"Generally, we are satisfied with the President's speech and the House of Representatives will fully support the government's programs to uphold the supremacy of law, overcome the crisis and create political and social stability," he said.

Commendations also came from Todung Mulya Lubis, a lawyer and human rights activist and Mochtar Pabottingi, a political observer of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI).

They said that Megawati's commitment and vision as head of state was very well expressed in her speech and that the next step was to bring them into reality.

"With the new good Cabinet and first speech, Megawati has made a flying start and everybody is watching to see whether she will do well in the future," Todung said.

Skepticism

Todung and Mochtar, however, expressed their skepticism of the new government's ability to fight against the prevalent corruption and human rights abuses.

Todung warned that Megawati's establishment of a coalition Cabinet could kill the process of checks-and-balances because of the absence of opposition parties in the legislature.

He argued that Megawati, Vice President Hamzah Haz, People's Consultative Assembly Speaker Amien Rais and House Speaker Akbar Tandjung should quit their position in their respective political parties to ensure their integrity in implementing their state duties.

Todung was skeptical whether Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yusril Ihza Mahendra and Attorney General M.A. Rachman would have the guts to deal with cases of corruption and human rights abuses involving powerful personalities, such as the East Timor and Tanjung Priok massacres.

"It's impossible to solve the problems of Aceh and Irian Jaya unless the government investigates human rights violations in the two provinces," he added.

Mochtar pointed out that Yusril did nothing under former president Abdurrahman Wahid's Cabinet and that he was very close to former president Soeharto while the new attorney general had no convincing track record in the prosecution of corruptors and human rights abusers. (rms/02/pan)