Megawati, Susilo and people's choice

Megawati, Susilo and people's choice

Suko Sudarso, Jakarta

The presidential election on Sept. 20, is likely to become a
battle of symbols -- the popular-change symbol of Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono challenging the authority-stability symbol of Megawati
Soekarnoputri.

Any political competition should not result in a one-sided
critical judgment of one of the candidates, in this case, Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono. The article entitled Weighing pluses and
minuses of candidates (The Jakarta Post, Sept. 8, 2004) is
misleading. In my view, the article will lead to misperceptions
about Susilo. The writer has tried to find good points about the
Megawati regime, but has included inconsistencies and misleading
information about Susilo.

It is therefore a must to fairly and objectively scrutinize
this writer's biased political evaluation and highlight the
subjectivity that colors his article.

Susilo, in fact, was not centrally involved in military
operations including the attack on the Indonesian Democratic
party (PDI) headquarters, the killing of students at the Trisakti
campus, and the Semanggi tragedy during the New Order era. Being
a military officer and a constitutionalist, Susilo has always
reaffirmed he is ready to take responsibility for any incidents
and to face due legal process should accusations about him be
brought to court.

It seems that the writer also tends to put aside Susilo's
role during his tenure as political and security coordinating
minister. Megawati's administration owes much of its political
stability to Susilo. Susilo's political role was crucial in her
last term. Although we cannot say he was too determinant, without
Susilo, Megawati would not have been able to promote political
stability in the country and would likely have failed to overcome
regional conflicts in war-torn Aceh, Ambon, Poso and Papua.

In terms of political stability, Susilo, on the contrary,
realizes more work needs to be done in this critical transitional
period. In detail, Susilo sees three areas -- the pillars of the
state -- which need more work: first, national consensus, values
and personal identity; second, national integration, encompassing
territorial integrity, the state philosophy Pancasila and social
cohesion; and thirdly, dealing with the increasing level of
sectarian conflict.

Whoever is elected president should put these three concerns
on the national agenda.

The three years of Megawati's administration have not resulted
in the institution of the reform mandate she came to power on.
Susilo, the challenger, is the presidential aspirant who has the
fewest influences from the New Order regime, while Megawati, the
incumbent, is the presidential candidate who now represents the
"euphoria of the New Order".

Indonesia will have the same leadership style if she is re-
elected president -- the status quo of a weak and crooked
national leadership will continue. In the long term, it will
result in collusion among elites in the executive, legislative
and judicative institutions and this in turn will negatively
impact the Indonesian people. Of course, it will also hamper the
recovery of the economic sector, social development, good
governance and law enforcement.

We also should have taken a lesson from Megawati's
administration after the 1999 general election.

Charisma without good technical ability can only generate weak
and crooked administrations in central and regional governments.
Megawati's party coalition is riven with internal disputes and
does not communicate efficiently or effectively. This coalition
will worsen the country's existing problems and will only bring
about more distrust of political parties and of democracy itself.

The coalition of numerous ruling parties will result in a
coalition of interests; a weak central government will be
associated with dirty deals and ineffective and dysfunctional
systems. People will lose their civil power and become the
victims of this short-term self interest.

The longer this weak and crooked government rules, the more it
will create a dangerous and unstable political situation in the
country.

This uncertainty eventually will hamper the country's
transition to democracy and could even halt it.

As to anxieties as to whether Susilo would be able to overcome
a desire to suppress human rights, freedom of the press and put
the military under civilian control, Susilo realizes these three
issues are crucial to the future of the country and has pledged
to maintain the freedom of the press and put the military under
civilian control.

What the article says about Jusuf Kalla is also groundless.
Susilo and Kalla have reaffirmed in their campaign that they will
build a fair, secure and prosperous country by involving all the
country's racial groups without discriminating between native and
Chinese Indonesians.

Megawati, on the contrary, has not been able to eradicate
corruption or increase jobs in the country. Kwik Kian Gie, the
head of Bappenas (the National Development Planning Board) and
also the state minister of development, once noted Indonesia has
experienced swelling domestic and foreign debts under Megawati's
administration. Megawati also refuses to start talks with
overseas creditors.

On servicing the government's domestic debt, under Megawati's
cabinet banks' obligations to the government have been sold to
private foreign-owned firms at prices far lower than the cost of
the debts.

Susilo, currently the people's choice in these elections, has
a professional military background and a commitment to the
military pledge Sapta Marga. Surely the people are not 100
percent wrong in their conviction Susilo would be the best leader
for the country who could bring them a better life.

Morality and logic will play vital roles in the selection of
either Susilo -- the transformation icon, or Megawati -- the
status quo icon.

The intellectual Jusuf Wanandi should not ignore the evidence.

The writer is an executive member of Susilo-Kalla campaign
Team and the head of the YKPK (Nationhood, Brotherhood
Foundation), a former activist of GMNI-ITB and the former of the
deputy head of PDI-P's Research and Development office.