PDI and Megawati

As expected, last week's government-sponsored Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) congress in Medan decided to remove Megawati Soekarnoputri from the chairmanship. The congress, organized by the party's breakaway members elected Megawati's predecessor Soerjadi as the new chairman. Thus, one can conclude that the congress -- which has been declared illegal by the Megawati camp -- could be considered a "success". It has clearly served its main purpose: to topple Megawati.

Meanwhile, dozens of pro-Megawati activists and security officers were injured during a bloody clash in Jakarta last Thursday. Last week also saw thousands of Megawati supporters in several cities staging rallies in support of her chairing the party despite threats by officials who have warned that anyone who tries to disrupt stability will be "crushed".

One cannot help but feel saddened by these developments. Where have all the noble principles of our political life, such as ethics, fairness, tolerance and brotherhood, gone? Aren't we all supposed to uphold the sacred principles delineated in our state ideology Pancasila, and put musyawarah (deliberation) and mufakat (consensus) before anything else? And don't we all condemn the Machiavellian way of justifying the use of any means to reach a desired end as running counter to our value system?

The PDI affair leads us to believe, much to our dismay, that nowadays our political ethics are deteriorating, if they have not already been totally forgotten by many of our officials and politicians. And much to our regret, those who are involved in this messy PDI affair seem in their haste to oust Megawati to have forgotten the long-term impact of their deeds on our embryonic democracy. They should have been aware that people are now better educated and can easily see what is behind this kick- Megawati-out campaign. They should also have been able to see the danger that the public might lose their confidence in the current system.

Evidence that this is happening exists in abundance. The unprecedented street demonstrations staged by thousands of Megawati's grassroots supporters in several cities in the last several days show that people are enraged by the contemptuous way in which she has been ousted. What is more interesting is how in the last several weeks Megawati has won open support from people who are not PDI members -- certainly an unprecedented phenomenon in our country's politics.

Megawati may lose the chairmanship of the party, but it is now quite apparent that instead of having been delegated to the back of the stage, as the plotters had planned, she has been elevated to the center stage of Indonesian politics and become a new "informal" leader. It is also obvious that the PDI congress in Medan will not stop the internal bickering within PDI but will instead deepen the rift between the pro-Megawati and anti- Megawati camps.

In the end, it may hurt PDI's performance in the general election next year, which analysts say is one of the targets of the plotters. There are also enough indications that this lamentable affair has, to a certain extent, even split the nation, at least its elite.

It is also apparent that Megawati is a victim of the current political system, which leaves a political party's legitimacy to the discretion of the government instead of the voters or the people. In this system, the government, which is officially the "supervisor" of all political organizations, has the power to choose which persons are acceptable to lead a certain organization and which are not. Without the government's consent no one can become a party leader, although he or she is constitutionally elected by the party's members. Megawati has tried to challenge the system by showing that she has the support of the majority of PDI's grassroots members, but her arguments have been largely ignored by the government.

It is this system which can turned a good boy into a bad boy, and later into a good boy again as in the case of Soerjadi. He was rejected by the government when he was renominated as PDI chairman in the 1994 PDI congress in Medan, because he was then declared "legally defective". Consequently, he lost the party chairmanship. But last week he was declared a good boy again, and was elected PDI chairman. Nothing is said about his being legally defective anymore. His future career will depend on how well he behaves.

What the final outcome of the PDI affair will be is still hard to see at this stage. Obviously there will be prolonged tensions, which will surely disrupt the country's stability. More and more people can be expected to become disenchanted with the current system. The rumbles of disappointment will become stronger. As for Megawati, it is likely that she will have to fight a running battle, unless something else happens -- something that changes the political landscape of this country.