No more 'pseudo government'

No more 'pseudo government'

From Rakyat Merdeka

The result of the People's Consultative Assembly Special Session is evidence of guided democracy, with the swearing-in of Megawati Soekarnoputri as Indonesia's fifth President on July 23, 2001, and the appointment of Hamzah Haz as Vice President. In politicians' judgment, the Mega-Hamzah duo constitutes the Muslim-Nationalist combination.

However, I am very disappointed with Jeffrey Winters, a political economic observer from the United States, who said that the government's performance under Megawati's leadership was not getting better. His idea that the Indonesian Military should subordinate themselves to civilians is unsympathetic. In my opinion, he is narrow-minded because every Indonesian citizen enjoys equal rights.

Instead, I agree with Alex Asmasubrata (former chairman of the Jakarta chapter of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI PErjuangan)) whose ideas were expressed in Pikiran Rakyat a couple of weeks ago. Despite his rare public appearance, he made a contribution while struggling to defend the party. He was one of the party members who successfully elevated Megawati to her position as chairwoman of PDI Perjuangan.

I have the greatest respect for Ibu Megawati, who has carefully selected her ministers in spite of much pressure and criticism that she was too slow in setting up her Cabinet. Whatever the current political condition is, I still believe that working together is very important for the President and the Vice President.

"Too many cooks spoil the broth." Over the years, many members of the House of Representatives have interfered in the handling of economic affairs, which should have been dealt with by the finance minister. Then there was the dual leadership in the National Police, followed by the dispute within the National Awakening Party about Matori Abdul Jalil's position.

Splendidly, Ibu Megawati was capable of eliminating this confusion by reinstating Gen. S. Bimantoro as the police chief. Hopefully, the National Police can take preventive actions against such things as bomb attacks. I believe that the police will be able to handle bigwig criminals like Tommy Soeharto. I also regret Jakarta Police chief Sofjan Yacoeb's statement implicating Tommy in the bomb incidents, as such a statement violated the presumption of innocence. I fear that rioting will return to the city.

I call on the President and the Vice President to be able to reorganize their Cabinet so that any minister who becomes the subject of litigation can be honorably replaced, while the substitute should come from a political party.

I believe that the restructuring of the leadership has made some improvements. This will make the process of democracy run smoothly. Some 200 million people really wish to have the country regain its normal calm and peace.

U SURYADI MAYA

Bandung