Megawati's silence
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