Megawati's snowball
Megawati's snowball
It will surprise no one -- apart, perhaps, from President
Megawati Soekarnoputri herself -- that her reported support for
Sutiyoso to be reelected as governor of Jakarta is inviting so
much controversy and debate.
If unchecked, the matter could well continue to grow and
snowball into an issue that would be detrimental to the short-
term political future of the Indonesian Democratic Party of
Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), which the President leads. Jakarta
newspapers, for example, have been filled in the past few days
with reports of public statements of opposition to the
President's apparent choice.
And for good reason: Sutiyoso is a failure.
Media reports say that concern for keeping the Indonesian
capital secure and orderly is a major reason for Megawati's
preference for maintaining Sutiyoso in his present post at the
helm of Jakarta's ship of public administration. Sutiyoso, in
Mega's apparent reasoning, is, after all, a military man whose
professional duty it is to maintain security and order, not only
in Jakarta but throughout the whole country.
There are many Indonesians who regard such reasoning as naive
at best, and some even suspect that family business and political
interests could have been behind the President's preference for
Sutiyoso, a suspicion that the President would be well advised to
scotch as soon as she returns from her current overseas trip.
Whatever the case, at around the end of June 1997, when Maj.
Gen. Sutiyoso was military commander, Jakarta was far from secure
and orderly. At that time, what is widely suspected to have been
soldiers disguised as members of the Soerjadi faction of the
divided Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) stormed the party's
headquarters on Jl. Diponegoro, which was under the control of
the Megawati splinter group of the party.
That incident led to the worst riots the city had seen in two
decades. The rampaging went on for two days, paralyzing parts of
the city and leaving scores of people dead or injured. Many
people went missing and remain so to this day. The unrest was put
down with brutality. A trial started after the current reform
movement gained momentum, but has so far led to nothing. Megawati
must share the responsibility for all of this, for it was she,
among others, who encouraged the public to come forward at an
open public forum and spell out their grievances against the then
ruling regime, thereby infuriating those who were in power.
Little wonder, then, that family members of victims of that
incident and their sympathizers felt betrayed by Megawati's
support for Sutiyoso. Just a few days ago scores of them
registered grievances with PDI Perjuangan -- the reborn PDI that
Megawati chairs -- but were unable to receive a proper hearing
from any of the party's leaders. Nevertheless, in view of all
this, Megawati's support for Sutiyoso, unless satisfactorily
explained, could very well inflict serious damage to the party's
standing with the public.
But aside from those old wounds, it might well be asked if
Sutiyoso has learned from history and whether he has improved his
record with regard to order and security. Take the question of
security. Does Jakarta's public feel any more secure at present
than in the past? The answer, unfortunately, is hardly so. If
anything, the opposite is true. Hardly a day goes by without a
report appearing in the newspapers of people getting robbed or
even killed in taxis or buses or in their homes -- not to mention
the bombings in public places.
Sutiyoso's record in other areas of public administration does
not look much better either. One recent example is his handling
of the recent, devastating floods that inundated large parts of
Jakarta, including some strategic banking and business areas. But
there are other reasons why Megawati's support of Sutiyoso is
taken by many observers to be an alarming indication of a certain
insensitivity towards what her father, Sukarno, would have called
the current zeitgeist (the mood or spirit of the times), which,
in one word, is reform.
It would be most unfortunate and against the spirit of reform
if Megawati were to try and impose her will and ignore the wishes
of the majority of the leaders in her own party, who oppose
Sutiyoso's renomination. The best thing that could happen
therefore would be for the President to retract her support for
Sutiyoso and respect the choice of the majority in her party. Or,
better still, for the government and the legislature to produce a
system that took the selection of a governor away from the
political parties and allowed Jakarta's citizenry to elect its
governor directly, for only through direct elections can
democracy be assured.
It will surprise no one -- apart, perhaps, from President
Megawati Soekarnoputri herself -- that her reported support for
Sutiyoso to be reelected as governor of Jakarta is inviting so
much controversy and debate.
If unchecked, the matter could well continue to grow and
snowball into an issue that would be detrimental to the short-
term political future of the Indonesian Democratic Party of
Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), which the President leads. Jakarta
newspapers, for example, have been filled in the past few days
with reports of public statements of opposition to the
President's apparent choice.
And for good reason: Sutiyoso is a failure.
Media reports say that concern for keeping the Indonesian
capital secure and orderly is a major reason for Megawati's
preference for maintaining Sutiyoso in his present post at the
helm of Jakarta's ship of public administration. Sutiyoso, in
Mega's apparent reasoning, is, after all, a military man whose
professional duty it is to maintain security and order, not only
in Jakarta but throughout the whole country.
There are many Indonesians who regard such reasoning as naive
at best, and some even suspect that family business and political
interests could have been behind the President's preference for
Sutiyoso, a suspicion that the President would be well advised to
scotch as soon as she returns from her current overseas trip.
Whatever the case, at around the end of June 1997, when Maj.
Gen. Sutiyoso was military commander, Jakarta was far from secure
and orderly. At that time, what is widely suspected to have been
soldiers disguised as members of the Soerjadi faction of the
divided Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) stormed the party's
headquarters on Jl. Diponegoro, which was under the control of
the Megawati splinter group of the party.
That incident led to the worst riots the city had seen in two
decades. The rampaging went on for two days, paralyzing parts of
the city and leaving scores of people dead or injured. Many
people went missing and remain so to this day. The unrest was put
down with brutality. A trial started after the current reform
movement gained momentum, but has so far led to nothing. Megawati
must share the responsibility for all of this, for it was she,
among others, who encouraged the public to come forward at an
open public forum and spell out their grievances against the then
ruling regime, thereby infuriating those who were in power.
Little wonder, then, that family members of victims of that
incident and their sympathizers felt betrayed by Megawati's
support for Sutiyoso. Just a few days ago scores of them
registered grievances with PDI Perjuangan -- the reborn PDI that
Megawati chairs -- but were unable to receive a proper hearing
from any of the party's leaders. Nevertheless, in view of all
this, Megawati's support for Sutiyoso, unless satisfactorily
explained, could very well inflict serious damage to the party's
standing with the public.
But aside from those old wounds, it might well be asked if
Sutiyoso has learned from history and whether he has improved his
record with regard to order and security. Take the question of
security. Does Jakarta's public feel any more secure at present
than in the past? The answer, unfortunately, is hardly so. If
anything, the opposite is true. Hardly a day goes by without a
report appearing in the newspapers of people getting robbed or
even killed in taxis or buses or in their homes -- not to mention
the bombings in public places.
Sutiyoso's record in other areas of public administration does
not look much better either. One recent example is his handling
of the recent, devastating floods that inundated large parts of
Jakarta, including some strategic banking and business areas. But
there are other reasons why Megawati's support of Sutiyoso is
taken by many observers to be an alarming indication of a certain
insensitivity towards what her father, Sukarno, would have called
the current zeitgeist (the mood or spirit of the times), which,
in one word, is reform.
It would be most unfortunate and against the spirit of reform
if Megawati were to try and impose her will and ignore the wishes
of the majority of the leaders in her own party, who oppose
Sutiyoso's renomination. The best thing that could happen
therefore would be for the President to retract her support for
Sutiyoso and respect the choice of the majority in her party. Or,
better still, for the government and the legislature to produce a
system that took the selection of a governor away from the
political parties and allowed Jakarta's citizenry to elect its
governor directly, for only through direct elections can
democracy be assured.