Letter to Gus Dur and Megawati

Although I am an old soldier and veteran of Indonesia's War of Independence (1945-1949), I cannot consider myself an expert in Indonesian politics. But I would like to convey my views regarding the direction in which our renewal is heading, because I do not want to see it adopt the attitude of "business as usual". This was the way the New Order expanded their authority to the utmost, in which nobody could challenge them until the monetary crisis of 1997.

We voted for you and you were entrusted by us to reform and/or renew our government. What does renewal mean? Renewal means to reinstate our values and beliefs. The founding fathers proclaimed Indonesia's "freedom, equality, fraternity and mutual agreement as prioritized in God's guiding principles of Pancasila for those in charge of our nation to strive themselves in good faith and honesty, to achieve the well-being and social justice in our nation on earth".

Freedom in Indonesian terms means absence from subjugation by others. Each freedom requires a linkage of responsibility toward others. The rights of equal opportunity mean a moral duty of each individual to share the opportunity as the merits permit. The fraternity gotong royong means a common effort for the benefit of society. Finally, mutual agreement on the affairs of men in every forum should lead to civility in the conduct of self-governance. That is the essence of our values and beliefs.

But as history has taught us, the essence of freedom requires that power be limited and never concentrated on one man, one group or on one institution. The denial of that finality is the key to our capacity to reform. Your renewal should proceed with the rule of law. The separation of power and innumerable checks and balances make it almost impossible for any individual or group to have power in one place. Once we accept the concept of renewal, we cannot depend on the rule of men alone. The rule of law should help men in the conduct of self-governance.

We created our nation's republic to serve our shared purpose. We cannot blame foreigners for our own mistakes and our own decay. Those of us who understood what we should have done to prevent the self-destruction were ostracized in the past. On the other hand, those who supported the power, especially those intellectuals, were living a good life to the extent of enjoying for several, if not for "seven generations".

Now we know as the learned intellectual used to say of the good old days as "really stuffy, pretentious without being literate, erudite without understanding, pedantic without being critical". As we enter the 21st century, I hope we will not see the repetition of this episode.

MAHFUDI NOTONEGORO

East Stroudsburg, PA

USA