Megawati's lurches

Megawati's lurches

Megawati Soekarnoputri, Indonesia's new president, held her peace for a long time. Now she has broken her silence but is sending out mixed signals.

It is praiseworthy how she apologized Thursday, in her address marking the 56th anniversary of the founding of the state by her father Sukarno, for the attacks and human rights violations by the army in the provinces of Aceh and Irian Jaya that are striving for independence.

Her assurance that soldiers who were responsible for human rights violations would be called to account for their actions are laudable too. And, her offer of a far-reaching autonomous status to Aceh and Irian Jaya in the extreme west and east of the island chain, respectively, is worthy of praise, although she excluded the possibility of independence for the unruly territories.

However, counter-currents also exist. Human-rights activists and reformers are disturbed about Megawati's staffing policy. The appointment of the attorney-general is one example. Muhammad Abdurrachman, the new policymaker in the area of human rights violations and corruption, is a junior state prosecutor from exactly that office that has not succeeded so far in doing anything decisive to come to grips with the gloomy past.

The new secret service chief, Gen. Hendropriyono, is also at the center of criticism. He is accused of being responsible for a massacre of unarmed farmers on Sumatra in 1989. And the new interior minister, Gen. Hari Sabarno, once was unable to understand what wrong the military could have done in East Timor.

This gives rise to doubts over Megawati's course. Very likely, it will be difficult to get late justice from this government team.

-- Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Germany