Mega told not to waste mandate

Mega told not to waste mandate

Kornelius Purba
The Jakarta Post
Singapore

President Megawati Soekarnoputri should be able to use the strong
political support she received from the public and her opponents
to speed up the implementation of her Cabinet's programs in
rescuing the country's shrinking economy, Indonesian senior
economists and political observers warned here on Thursday.

M. Sadli, who served several Cabinet posts under then
president Soeharto, pointed out that Megawati's current position
was quite safe, at least for the short term, from any significant
efforts to destabilize her leadership. He quickly added that it
could not last long unless she was able to show convincing
progress in reviving the dying economy.

Sadli, a professor of economics at the University of
Indonesia, said people were desperately waiting for good news
from the economy, because they had been suffering too long and
were tired of waiting for empty promises from the previous
governments. The terrorist attacks on the U.S. and the U.S.-led
military attacks on Afghanistan have further worsened Indonesia's
gloomy economic prospects, he noted.

He also said that the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World
Bank (WB) and Asian Developing Bank (ADB) were also fed up with
Megawati's sluggishness in realizing the government's reform
pledges such as carrying out the restructuring of banks, the sale
of IBRA assets, the overhaul of the judiciary system and stemming
corruption.

"If Megawati's government can make some progress in this area,
the situation may improve. Even under present difficulties, there
is still hope," said Sadli in his key note speech at a seminar
here.

The seminar was jointly organized by the Institute of
Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) and the Jakarta-based Centre for
Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). The topic of the
public forum was "The First 100 Days of President Megawati
Soekarnoputri: Political and Economic Perspectives". All the 12
speakers were Indonesian, including CSIS's Jusuf Wanandi and
political scientist Mochtar Pabottingi. Coordinating Minister for
the Economy Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti canceled his presence as he
had to accompany Megawati to the opening session of the People's
Consultative Assembly (MPR).

CSIS executive director Hadi Soesastro noted that both the
markets and the public had so far failed to see clear, coherent
and firm policies on the part of the government to deal with the
country's political and economic crisis.

Hadi said that in the short term, the disposal of assets and
the privatization of some state enterprises, which were already
in the pipeline, should be executed without further delay. The
government needed successful cases quickly before confidence was
totally lost. This requires, in the first instance, strong and
effective political will and leadership, Hadi said.

According to Hadi, no new measures were required and there was
no need to look for radical, alternative measures to restore the
economic chaos. There were also no quick fixes. A breakthrough
would be obtained only through hard work and determination to
accelerate and strengthen the implementation of the government's
recovery agenda, Hadi noted.

"If the government fails to undertake essential rescue
efforts, namely to accelerate the implementation of the recovery
agenda, the country and the economy will fall into an even deeper
pit. The end result will be the greater incidence of poverty,
increased unemployment and a downward economic spiral into a
state of misery," the economist cautioned.

Former governor of Bank Indonesia Soedradjad Djiwandono
praised Megawati for her strong determination in dealing with
major donors and international agencies, like the IMF. However,
the Sept. 11 attack, its aftermath and the slowing down of the
global economy, clouded the prospect of economic recovery under
the IMF-supported program, he remarked.

"This development has caused the promising start of Megawati's
presidency to run out of steam. Uncertainty is returning, the
rupiah is weakening and economic recovery seems to have
disappeared, at least for the time being," said Soedradjad.

Mochtar Pabottingi predicted that Megawati would be able to
finish her term in 2004. He said most of her political rivals,
ranging from Vice President Hamzah Haz to Assembly Speaker Amien
Rais were still not strong enough to challenge her leadership.

Mochtar, however, criticized Megawati for her weak leadership
and poor vision. Megawati was surrounded by people who upheld the
status quo, many of them were former New Order politicians and
government officials. Her inability to eradicate corruption,
collusion and nepotism has been strongly influenced by those
people, Mochtar said.

"It is difficult to expect much from her if she continues to
adopt her housewife style of management, as she recently
disclosed," said Mochtar.

Meanwhile, rector of Jakarta's State Institute of Islamic
Studies (IAIN) Azyumardi Azra attracted great attention from the
300 participants of the seminar when he delivered his speech on
the challenge of political Islam. He played down the significant
power of the several Muslim hard-line groups in Indonesia despite
their highly publicized anti-U.S. protests in Jakarta recently.

The tendency to view the hard-liners as representatives of
Indonesian Islam was unfortunate. Despite the growing prominence
- at least in the mass media - of the hard-liners, mainstream
Indonesian Muslims remained moderate in their religious attitudes
as well as in their political behavior, said the scholar.

"It is again clear that hardline political Islam has very
little prospect in Indonesia. It is also very doubtful that
hardline Muslim groups will be able to post a real threat to
President Megawati's government," said Azyumardi.

Azyumardi reminded the audience that mainstream Islam was
represented by the major Muslim organizations, Nahdlatul Ulama
(NU) and Muhammadiyah, estimated to have up to 40 million members
each.

"The two largest Muslim organizations in Indonesia have
publicly stated that they do not agree with, let alone support,
the appeal to Indonesian Muslims to wage a jihad in Afghanistan,"
Azyumardi said.

He, however, warned that prolonged U.S. military operations in
Afghanistan would destabilize countries with large Muslim
populations like Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Jusuf Wanandi emphasized the importance of
implementing civilian supremacy over the Indonesian Military
(TNI), not only in laying out the law and regulations on defense
and domestic security but also in the realization of the rules,
regulations and the accountability of the TNI to civilian
authority.

"This has yet to happen. What has been proclaimed thus far is
that civilian control is limited to the decision-making level and
so does not include the implementation. In the end, a political
culture ensuring complete civilian supremacy has to be
established gradually," said Jusuf in his speech on the changes
in TNI's political role.