MPR's misplaced priority

The scuffles that broke out at the opening session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) annual gathering on Thursday were symptomatic of the shortsightedness of the majority of the 700 members of the Assembly. As much as we sympathize with the regional representatives in wanting their own faction in the MPR, in imposing their will on the assembly by force they have besmirched the honor of the highest institution of state.

Their timing was even worse. But then, the other MPR members, including its leadership, in delaying their decision on the formation of the new faction, are not that different. Looking at the agenda of the MPR meeting, including the documents that will be debated and endorsed, the MPR has clearly lost its sense of national priority. Instead, almost all MPR factions are more concerned about how they individually or their party will fare in the 2004 general elections. In short, they are only concerned about their own power and position.

The document on the third series of constitutional amendments, particularly on the proposal to switch to a direct presidential election system, illustrates this point best. While there is a consensus on using the direct system, factions differ on method. Each is promoting a system that benefits its own party, rather than on a system they think the most appropriate for the nation.

One thing we can say about these politicians is that they are consistent in their obsession with 2004. This is making a mockery of the proposal at the MPR meeting to draw up a new vision for the future of Indonesia, to be called "Vision 2020". Perhaps "Vision 2004" is more likely to be in the back of their minds.

But even in their obsession with the next election, they seem to have forgotten about the more pressing and immediate problems facing Indonesia today: How to stop the current drift toward disintegration and how to save the nation from bankruptcy.

These problems have become all too real now, and our political leaders are aware of them. President Megawati Soekarnoputri touched on these dangers on two occasions early this week, and again in her speech to the MPR on Thursday. But to our political leaders, it is one thing to recognize and admit that the nation faces grave problems, but quite another to try and resolve them.

If the MPR has any sense of national priority at all, the first thing that it should do is to review the 1999-2004 State Policy Guidelines (GBHN), which, given the circumstances Indonesia finds itself in today, seem to have lost its relevance. Yet, the GBHN remains the document that the MPR is using to evaluate the performance of the government and the other high state institutions at the Annual Session.

The political and economic landscape in Indonesia have also drastically changed in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States. Again, almost everyone is aware of this and the need for Indonesia to come to grips with a world that has completely changed. These changes have surely made the GBHN, drawn up two years ago, even less relevant today.

It is clear that the most pressing national issue today is to save the nation from the brink of total collapse and breakup. As important and pressing as the reform programs contained in the GBHN may be, they must now be subordinated to saving Indonesia.

We cannot think of a more appropriate forum to discuss this issue than the Annual Session. After all, only the MPR can change the direction Indonesia should take through the GBHN.

Unless the MPR members and factions come together and cast their differences aside and put the national interest first, there won't be an Indonesia in one or two years' time anyway. And there won't be any 2004 elections to fret about either, let alone Vision 2020.