PDI and Megawati
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.