Megawati's agenda
Megawati's agenda
Although it lasted for no more than 40 minutes, the first
meeting of President Megawati Soekarnoputri's full Gotong Royong
(mutual help) Cabinet on Monday gives us what might properly be
called the first rough sketch of the President's grand policy
design for the coming three-year period. Given the President's
earlier statements that reflected her deep concern about the
possibility of this nation's disintegration, maintaining the
territorial integrity of this sprawling archipelagic country is
at the top of the Cabinet's six-point agenda.
Second on the agenda is the continuation of the country's
reform movement that was set into motion with the fall of former
president Soeharto in 1997, democratization on the basis of a
more clear-cut program and respect for human rights.
Normalization of the economy ranks third on the agenda, while law
enforcement, improving public security and the drive against
corruption, collusion and nepotism rank fourth.
Fifth on the agenda is the conduct of a free and active
foreign policy and restoring international trust in the country,
especially among foreign aid institutions. Finally, sixth on the
Cabinet's agenda, is conducting preparations for the 2004 general
elections. A few other policy directives, such as improving
internal communications and pinpointing the nation's threats and
challenges, round out the government's agenda outlined at this
first Cabinet meeting. In short, nothing spectacular or dramatic
came out of the meeting. Instead, it was plain, rational thinking
well in line with Megawati's earlier policy decisions that seems
to have dominated.
Although the Cabinet's national agenda is spread over six
points, it must not be assumed that those points are ranked in
order of priority. Rather, they must be seen as constituting an
indivisible whole with priorities allotted as the situation
demands. How, for example, can Indonesia's territorial integrity
be assured unless the sense of justice of the local populations
in each of the country's various regions is met?
Meeting this demand for justice involves not only a more
equitable distribution of wealth between the center -- or Jakarta
-- and the regions, it also means adjusting and implementing the
law so as to properly balance their interests and to assure that
human rights are respected.
On a different plane, the fact that reform, democratization
and the eradication of corruption and economic reform must go
hand-in-hand must be obvious to everyone. The rampant corruption
that was one of the major hallmarks of the past New Order regime
was born of the fact that democracy was suppressed, thereby
giving corrupt businesspeople and officials a free hand in
mismanaging the country's economy. How hollow the much-touted
"economic progress" under the New Order was only came to light
after the Asian economic crisis struck and corporations, which
for decades had thrived on favors obtained in collusion with
government officials with powerful names, turned out to be unable
to pay their huge outstanding debts.
If there is one point that needs to be answered it is how the
Cabinet intends to implement its new "free and active" policy.
Indonesia in fact adopted this stance of non-alignment almost
immediately after its birth in August 1945 in response to the
then existing Cold War between the West and the Soviet Block. The
newly born Indonesian state at that time opted not to be drawn
into the global conflict by adopting a policy of non-alignment,
although history shows that the implementation of this policy was
not always as consistent as some might wish, veering sometimes to
the left or right as policymakers in Jakarta saw fit in the
overall Indonesian context.
In our view, whatever appearance Indonesia's new foreign
policy may present in the near future, the measure of its success
should be in how well it serves the nation's interests, at home
as well as abroad. By doing so, Indonesia's foreign policy would
help round out the Megawati administration's policy goals as
delineated by the Cabinet.