New Order resurrection

The specter of the New Order regime staging a political comeback has never been more horrifying than now with the House of Representatives' nominees for chief justice. The House, after a lengthy and elaborate procedure, has presented two candidates, to head the country's highest court, for President Abdurrahman Wahid to choose from.

This presents a big dilemma for the President because the two candidates have had associations with the autocratic New Order regime of former president Soeharto. Muladi had served as justice minister while Bagir Manan as director general in the Ministry of Justice in Soeharto's last administration. Whoever Abdurrahman opts for, it would be widely seen as giving full control over the country's courts to the New Order regime.

Things are already difficult as it is without the presence of justices associated with Soeharto controlling the country's highest court. Various corruption cases against Soeharto, his children and cronies have faltered in the courts, or even before they reached the courts. Similarly, hardly a single case of human rights abuse committed during the Soeharto presidency has been tried in court. While the pressure is on for President Abdurrahman to quickly appoint a new chief justice, it would be a tragedy for the reform movement if he were to choose from one of the two candidates proposed to him by the House.

The President must reject both candidates, and ask the House to deliberate and come up with new candidates who have not been tainted by past associations with the New Order regime. However, this may lead to a constitutional crisis because the post of chief justice is to be vacated this month. But this option carries a far less risk than if the President were to hand over that crucial job to either Muladi or Bagir.

As we wait for the President to make his decision, the reformist political parties, particularly the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), must now answer to the people of how they had allowed Golkar, the surviving ruling party of the New Order regime, to seize the initiative away from them and force the nomination of Muladi and Bagir Manan on the House.

The outcome of the nomination process however is not as disturbing as the process by which the nomination was conducted. In fact, looking back over the past year or so, PDI Perjuangan, as the largest political party on the land, had been consistently beaten by Golkar in just about every battle. In the election of governors in Aceh, North Maluku and Irian Jaya, and in the election of several regency chiefs, Golkar has had the upper hand even as it fought from a minority position. In the presidential election last year, Golkar may have lost in pushing its candidate B.J. Habibie, but it outmaneuvered PDI Perjuangan to deprive Megawati Soekarnoputri of the presidency, and paved the way for Abdurrahman Wahid, the dark horse, to take the helm.

PDI Perjuangan's latest defeat over the nomination of chief justice candidates has further raised concerns about the ability and credibility of the party to lead the reform campaign, even when it has the number in the House.

Granted that the party has been weakened by the seemingly endless infighting among its different factions. But the more decisive factor in all these defeats was the poor quality of the party's elected representatives who were fighting the political battles. Many of them are simply so inept at the various processes that they were outwitted by Golkar representatives who are far more experienced and familiar with the rules of the game. This was shown time and again in the way PDI Perjuangan lost the elections of provincial governors, regency chiefs, the candidates for chief justice, or even the presidency last year.

One year must surely be enough for PDI Perjuangan representatives to learn the ropes and master the rules by which these political battles are fought. PDI Perjuangan owes it to the millions of people who had cast their votes in the general election in June, 1999 to turn it into the country's largest political party. As the party with the most support, the future of the reform movement lies in the hands of PDI Perjuangan and not so much on President Abdurrahman Wahid or the smaller reformist parties.

Unless PDI Perjuangan pulls its act together, the momentum for reform, which started in 1998 with the blood, sweat and tears of many people in this country, will continue to wane. This, as we have seen in the development of the past few months, will in turn pave the way for the resurrection of the New Order regime.