On political decency

On political decency

Elsewhere in the world, or even in this country at a different
time, the case might not have attracted the widespread public
attention that it has now. Most probably, the factor that makes
it something of a cause celebre within the current Indonesian
context is that the kind of moral principle, which is known among
the Dutch as politiek fatsoen, has for so long been absent from
Indonesia's political scene.

The case in point concerns the resignation of Sophan Sophiaan,
of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan),
as a member of the House of Representatives (DPR), and the
People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), the two "houses" of the
Indonesian legislature, where he has served the nation and his
party for many years.

In the context of Sophan's latest decision, the word fatsoen
can probably best be translated into English as the word
"decency", "propriety" or "decorum". Politiek fatsoen, then,
would be to behave with decency, or propriety, in matters of
politics.

In essence, it is the willingness to take responsibility for
one's actions, either by taking decisions with a proper sense of
responsibility or otherwise. If that cannot be done, it is one's
voluntary withdrawal from the political decision-making process.

Sophan refused to explain his action to the public, at least
not before he had done so to the PDI Perjuangan party board. Word
has been circulating for some time, however, that disappointment
over the performance of fellow legislators and over the political
situation in general was the reason of his resignation.

Sophan, who is considered to be one of President Megawati
Soekarnoputri's close associates, submitted his resignation to
the DPR and MPR last Friday, on which occasion he told the media
that his decision to quit was due to his inability to adapt to
current political conditions.

An earlier resignation request, submitted several months ago,
was rejected by the President. It is speculated that this latest
decision was prompted by a major rift in the trouble-prone party.
Sophan's only comment in response was that the situation was a
result of "misperceptions about certain ideas" of Megawati.

To be sure, resignations from important positions are not
really new in Indonesia. One prime example was the resignation of
Mohammad Hatta from the vice presidency in the 1950s, after what
observers described as irreconcilable differences between the
vice president and then president Sukarno. These resulted, among
other things, from Sukarno's insistence on admitting the
Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) into the Cabinet. Similarly,
then vice president Sultan Hamengku Buwono IX declined to be
reelected for a third time during president Soeharto's New Order
era in 1978.

Since then, however, such resignations on considerations of
conscience or morality have become a rare phenomenon, if they
ever occur at all. One key government figure during the Soeharto
era who was under pressure to resign even publicly commented that
it was "not in the Indonesian tradition" for officials to resign
voluntarily.

Thus, the refusal, or reluctance, of Golkar's Akbar Tanjung to
resign from his position as House of Representatives speaker, in
the wake of his formally being declared a suspect in a major
corruption case, can be seen as an extension of that "tradition".

The reform movement notwithstanding, it is thus still very
much the tradition to hold on to one's job at whatever cost, at
least in politics. Elsewhere, though, such as in the world of
business, resignations as a token of acceptance of
responsibility, either on moral grounds, for failures or for
nonachievement, appears to be growing, as witness the recent
resignation of some top officials of the state railway company,
PT KAI.

Let's just hope that, few as these instances still are at the
moment, it is a sign of morality gaining ground, slowly perhaps,
but surely.