On Gus Dur

Reading your editorial Reading the President (Feb. 7, 2000), I could not help feeling that you have missed some very crucial points in analyzing our President Abdurrahman Wahid, or Gus Dur.

The weakness of your editorial was explicitly written in its second and final paragraphs. The issue is not so much of the President's seemingly over casual style/mannerism in dealing with all the problems currently plaguing Indonesia. It is really the President's naked failure to convincingly and consistently articulate -- which is surprising given Abdurrahman's obvious intelligence -- a set of priorities in dealing with the numerous complex issues. This is what is frustrating for some Indonesians. In his recent RCTI interview, Abdurrahman clearly demonstrated such a failure. When asked by scholar Mohammad Sobary on his priorities, instead of directly replying, Abdurrahman recited quotations made by Harry S. Truman and Franklin D. Roosevelt. At the same interview, Abdurrahman, probably in some twisted context of the concept of citizen empowerment, also said that it was time for Indonesians to "suffer a bit more". When the interviewer said the people had suffered enough, all we heard was Abdurrahman's usual charming laughter.

For its conclusions, your editorial suggested that Indonesians "would do best to get used to his peculiar style of leadership". Well, since we are paying Abdurrahman's salary through our taxes (or is it the International Monetary Fund?), why not ask him to learn about the habits and expectations of most Indonesians instead? Your logic truly escapes me. I am certain that if you recite the thesis of your editorial to the Ambonese, Acehnese and Irianese, or to whoever attended that recent meeting on Jalan Lautze, they will angrily dispute it.

Your past editorials have consistently criticized our past presidents. The fact that Mr. Wahid is a legitimate president should not compromise our rights, and duty, to remind him of our expectations and his obligations.

To be fair on Abdurrahman, I think what he is trying to achieve is for Indonesians to develop greater self-confidence in dealing with the economic and political crises on their own, while relying less on the government. In a way, this is similar to what the great former American president, Theodore Roosevelt, tried to do with Americans during the Great Depression. I sense this from some of Abdurrahman's rhetoric.

But to heal the deep wounds inflicted by the past abuses/failures of the military (something that Roosevelt never had to do), especially in the cases of Aceh, Irian Jaya and Ambon, Indonesia needs much more than presidential jokes. We need a strong display of leadership so that the military can be disciplined. Gen. Wiranto is probably a very affable person, but we must not forget that he is responsible for the mayhem in East Timor last year as well as in Jakarta. The series of student killings, which started in May 1998 and continued to November 1999, have not been resolved to this day. I think there is no denying that the territorial integrity of the nation can only be strengthened by changing the military structurally, and permanently.

HIDAYAT JATI

Jakarta