Moral bankruptcy
Indeed, it is the shame of the nation that the public does not trust the political parties and the Armed Forces. It is quite clear the people judge these entities by past performance.
What did they do in the past to protect the destiny and interests of the people? 1. Abuse of power in terms of massive and open corruption, collusion and nepotism, well known since at least the release of the head of the national police in 1973, Gen. (ret) Hoegeng, the bursting of the US$10 billion bubble of Krakatau Steel-Pertamina corruption in 1974, and the closure of the newspaper Indonesia Raya. 2. What about the upholding of the law? 3. What about the annual "state of the republic" message of the president, plus the annual presentation of the state budget? 4. What about the smooth reception for each five-year report of accountability of Soeharto in the House, and his continuous reappointment?
So all of the three parties are now in focus, and all those years with clear track records of being soft puppets in the hands of the master, and perfect rubber-stamping stooges.
The government-recognized Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), since the bloody engineered crushing of Megawati in July 1997, can be seen as the symbol of everything except a representative of the real PDI masses. In the early reform days, one could read as Syarwan Hamid and Feisal Tanjung were cornered by journalists and interviewed for alleged roles in those engineering practices, but that was all of "no further consequence".
In a mature society, addressing the fundamental consequences are standard procedure. Look at South Korea, which will submit a third former president for investigation into alleged wrongdoing during his tenure. It only became a republic 10 years after Indonesia, in 1955, after the bloody Korean War and the division of north and south, then a dirt poor country with no natural resources except coal.
The real bankruptcy of our country is the missing system of social functioning with its rules and laws, and the attitude of civil servants with the appropriate set of proportions. Look at the lavish offices of the ministers, their cars and lifestyle. They are "above", living like gentry, with seemingly no relationship to our present hardship.
The house of a former governor in Kalimantan was ransacked by robbers, and he lost about Rp 300 million worth of foreign exchange, jewelry and other valuable. Did President Habibie follow the standard procedure in asking all civil servants to register their fortunes, and subsequently publish it?
Everything is wishy-washy and done on a whim, including by the media which completely lacks consistent and investigative targeting.
A recent example is the six BMW cars bought by the attorney general to the tune of Rp 1.8 billion.
It was bought with "tactical funds". What does this mean?
Outside the budget? Or ... outside the power of the finance minister?
What is the House of Representatives or the office of Billy Joedono, the Supreme Audit Agency, doing?
And what about the list compiled by George Aditjondro which he gave to the attorney general months ago?
The students are the ones going out in the open, but unfortunately not choosing also a parallel way of "going legal" in preparing the evidence to sue in the name of the people.
They seem now to be aware of the increased risk of being killed if they return to taking to the streets. It will be the beginning of civil war, similar to what America experienced of north against south, Americans against Americans. Or, like the French upheaval in 1789, French against French.
If this is what is meant by the natural way of "growing up" through bloodshed, so be it.
Y. SANTO
Jakarta