MPR fails to heed people's voice

MPR fails to heed people's voice

By Rahayu Ratnaningsih

JAKARTA (JP): The popular joke about the three prominent
presidential candidates (Abdurrahman Wahid, B.J. Habibie and
Megawati Soekarnoputri) that they are "blind, deaf and mute"
respectively, turns out to be applicable to most members of the
People's Consultative Assembly.

These members are blind and deaf because they seemed to be
totally oblivious to the dynamism that existed outside of the
Assembly. They are mute because they don't voice the majority of
people's aspirations that are itching for change.

It is true that deliberation in the Assembly was a far cry
from what happened in the New Order. It was far more democratic,
transparent, and dynamic. However, what we cannot fail to notice
is the bitter fact that the sovereignty of 200 million
Indonesians was disastrously reduced to the sovereignty of less
than 700 members of the political elite.

Democracy, anywhere in the world, cannot accommodate and
please everyone but perhaps only in Indonesia can the election
winner be the underdog and almost end up with nothing from the
process. The oddity of Indonesia's politics cannot be more
emphasized seeing the rapid development turning upside down the
constellation of foes and allies in the counts of minutes.

The unpredictability has been so unnerving that the election
result has practically been discounted. It was never used as a
reference to begin with. In the Assembly building -- and among
certain "objective and neutral" political analysts -- the
people's voice became a source of polemics that echoes the magic
question, "which people?", and the skill of "lobbying." In other
words the flexibility of accommodating compromises has much more
say.

The closest allies can turn out to be the most dangerous foes
within minutes. The commitment of who-will-get-what is more
alluring than a common mission, vision or ideologies, although on
the surface it appears that the division is between the secular-
nationalist camp versus the Islamic camp. But remember, it
doesn't mean that the "commitment" cannot be broken.

There are several phenomena to note here. First, the unique on
and off relationship between the National Awakening Party (PKB)
and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan).
The two shared a commitment from the beginning to smooth
Megawati's road to national leadership on the firm belief that to
cultivate democracy, the first crucial step was to give the
election winner the first opportunity to rule.

However, a big scenario purported by Amien Rais and his gang
naming themselves the "axis force" despite their apparent
rightist platform, successfully broke up the promising alliance
at the last minute as well as splitting Amien's own party, the
National Mandate Party (PAN) into two camps, the pro-Habibie
Islamic camp and the anti-Habibie secular nationalist camp.

After Megawati's dramatic, if bitter loss, PKB then attempted
to compensate for its unavoidable "betrayal" by nominating her to
be vice president while PDI Perjuangan seemed to have lost
interest in the whole unfair process.

When asked whether PDI Perjuangan would nominate Megawati for
the vice presidency, its deputy chairperson Kwik Kian Gie in
frustration gave a broad "mandate" to the "people's"
representatives, in this case the 700 Assembly members, to decide
whatever they wanted. He lamented that party officials had tried
everything to win support, but they had repeatedly been
doublecrossed. It was widely known that there was a deal between
Akbar Tandjung's Golkar camp and PDI Perjuangan, among others,
but apparently almost all of Golkar's votes were given to
Abdurrahman.

Second, we can't help noticing the irony that the very people
who were loudest about their commitment of total reform, the
hardest in condemning Soeharto and the status quo and the
staunchest and most consistent in deriding others who they
thought to be less reformist than themselves, turned out to be
one of those reluctant to reject Habibie's accountability speech.

Meanwhile, small and low profile factions, the Indonesian
Nationhood faction (FKKI) and the Love the Nation Democratic
Party faction (FKDB) proved themselves to have more guts by
flatly rejecting Habibie's speech, something worth applauding.

Belonging to the former category are all members of Amien
Rais' axis force, including his thought-to-be reformist PAN,
which together with the Justice Party forms the "Reform" faction.
This fact angered many PAN voters even further. Yusril Ihza
Mahendra, who chairs the Crescent Star Party (PBB) and who was
among the loudest in questioning PDI Perjuangan's commitment to
reform, is himself suspected of money politics, as one of his
party executives told the press that the party received Rp 1.5
billion from Habibie's camp; a charge which he has denied.

This might have led to the result which was a nerve-racking
slim margin between those who accepted and rejected Habibie's
accountability speech. This is, without doubt, most
disappointing.

Thirdly, what we currently have is not entirely democracy. It
is procedurally democratic but substantially is not. What
happened was a process of unhealthy ganging up against the
election's winner which was very dispiriting and heart-wrenching,
using a superficial and manipulative dichotomy of Muslim non-
Muslim, and to a lesser degree, Javanese non-Javanese or Eastern
Indonesia-Western Indonesia. These issues were aggressively and
consistently manipulated by Golkar, especially from A.A.
Baramuli's camp, and have apparently found support among the axis
force members.

The essence of democracy, which is rule by majority, bears
little importance to the elite, particularly when they furiously
advance the fuzzy logic that 65 percent of voters reject
Megawati, which is not necessarily the case. The game was
ridiculously and exclusively turned upside down between PDI
Perjuangan, the "minority", and non-PDI Perjuangan, the
"majority".

So what we have is not people's representatives but party's or
axis force's representatives. Hence, the system and its elite
have once again failed PDI Perjuangan and Megawati, though
through the elite's "kindness and benevolence" she was finally
"admitted" as one of the team.

They have failed the people which means they have essentially
failed democracy. Amien Rais had claimed that Abdurrahman was the
candidate with the most acceptability and the least resistance
compared to Habibie and Megawati. This turned out to be not that
simple, particularly after his own family homes in Surakarta were
broken into and their belongings taken out and burnt by mobs.

Even the usually peaceful Balinese resorted to burning
government offices in Denpasar and other areas in Bali. Nothing
can be further from the truth than that the surest way of
cultivating radicalism among the people is by unheeding the
essence of democracy.

This is irrelevant to how much voting, how loud the cheering
and jeering and how many interruptions occurred during the
General Session. So, the political elite and those "objective"
political commentators shouldn't rush to toast the "success" of
the "democratic" elections of all the key positions. There is
still a lot to be done and pondered over, so next time this
principle is well taken care of.

Fourthly, nobody would ever expect that the unique
relationship between the elected president and vice president
would extend to these two key positions. Abdurrahman is widely
known as a supporter of Megawati, despite his denial amid the
rampant speculation about his seriousness in running for
presidency.

Abdurrahman has been labeled as erratic by many since nobody
can really predict what is on his mind. His quick oscillation
from a supporter to a contender and then finally to being the
greatest obstacle of his good friend's road to the palace is
perhaps unprecedented anywhere else in the world, and begs a
question of ethics.

His preference for taking Megawati as his vice president was
apparently also a last minute decision considering the fast
adverse developments in the grassroots as a reaction of
Megawati's dramatic loss. The original plan was to take Akbar as
a reward for Golkar's votes.

Finally, we should perhaps look at the bright side. The "happy
ending" duet between the two close friends, widely accepted by
the people, has practically kept Golkar and the armed forces on
the periphery and, not less importantly, has appeased the various
Islamic groups who hold great prejudice against Megawati.

The widely circulated speculation, after Habibie had been
"taken care of", had always involved Akbar as the second man
(either Mega-Akbar or Abdurrahman-Akbar) and sometimes then
Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander Gen. Wiranto. Akbar's
position, representing swing votes was strategic. Although we
appreciate his big heartedness in retiring from both the
presidential and vice presidential race, the banner he carries
would have created a less than ideal situation as it had been
profusely demanded by the majority of the people that Golkar be
entirely stripped from top leadership posts.

What we have now is two morally sound people, of course
discounting what some have interpreted as erratic behavior on the
part of Abdurrahman following his two strokes. They should be
able to lay the path to visionary leadership in accordance with
people's aspirations. This restless nation now has both a father
and a mother to nurture it. Perhaps we couldn't ask for more, at
least for now.

The writer is the director of the Satori Foundation, a center
for the study and development of human excellence through
training in mind programming and meditation techniques.