Megawati's silence
The question of why Megawati Soekarnoputri has not participated in the open debate between presidential hopefuls, organized by students of University of Indonesia, seems not to have been answered satisfactorily, as the ongoing discussion shows. While her critics stopped short of questioning her intellectual capabilities to master such a debate, her supporters desperately look for arguments to justify her refusal to participate in the event.
To me, her arguments for not participating in the debate, as well as for her decision to remain silent until now on various urgent political matters, do not make sense. Concerning the debate, Megawati argued that such an event is a "breach of oriental culture". She seems to believe that a participant in a political discussion who cannot come up with convincing arguments will necessarily lose face. But this notion does not fit at all with the repeated commitment of the Indonesian Democratic party of Struggle (PDI-Perjuangan) to democracy, of which the exchange of political arguments is a cornerstone. Megawati also cited the lack of a law regulating such a debate as reason for not participating.
If she really believes that a public debate among presidential hopefuls needs to be regulated by law, then one might wonder what flood of laws and regulations can be expected if she is elected president. On behalf of Megawati, PDI-Perjuangan secretary Alex Litaay said that "Megawati's opinions and thoughts are very deep". If this is the case, why does she not come forward and present her "deep" opinions and thoughts to a wider audience, for which a debate between presidential hopefuls on TV would be an excellent opportunity? Apart from dictatorships, I cannot imagine any country in the world, let alone my own country, Germany, where candidates who want to be elected to office would have any chance of winning without providing voters with their political visions, ideas and programs.
Megawati's answers to criticism of her silence do not make any sense to me either. She said, for example, that it is better to keep silent than to make statements which could worsen situations. Nobody does, of course, expect her to make such statements. However, on many occasions people had indeed hoped she would make statements which could have helped overcome the critical problems the country is faced with.
She continued, "Don't force me to speak because I do not want to speak if it proves to be meaningless." Again, I do not think anybody wants her to say something meaningless. On the contrary, people expect some meaningful political statements from her. She also said, "I prefer to be silent because I know the nation faces very serious challenges." From what I know about history, serious national problems or challenges have never been solved by silence.
Thinking about the above statements might lead to questioning whether Megawati, who is admittedly a symbol for the resistance against the Soeharto regime, does not have clear political visions and concepts on how to solve the country's problems. Does this mean that her hopes to become the president of Indonesia depend solely on the name of her famous charismatic father?
HILDE MAY
Jakarta