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