People still accept power

People still accept power

I would like to react to the letter from Amir Sidharta
Megawati will never be queen (The Jakarta Post, Sept. 29, 1999),
as a reaction to my letter Megawati, best choice for president
(Sept. 28, 1999).

In the first paragraph he mentions the fact that Megawati is
the people's choice and it "should be taken into consideration".
I find this a very strange statement. In true democracy, it is
imperative that the people's choice is respected and carried out.
As they say: "people get the leader they deserve". And this means
for the good or the bad.

In the next paragraph, Mr. Sidharta says my comparison of
Megawati with the queen of the Netherlands is invalid because
Megawati is not running for queen. Of course, I did not have that
in mind when I wanted to clarify that what I think lives in the
hearts of people is a search for a caring symbolic person. I was
saying that just like in other countries people look for a Bung
(comrade), a Bapak (father) or, in this case, an Ibu (mother).
And that is what they choose.

But also in this paragraph Mr. Sidharta says something very
interesting: that a president should actually run the country. I
think this is not true at all. In fact, the amount of power a
president actually has is totally open for discussion and indeed
many books have been dedicated to this subject. This discussion
is far from resolved. Some people go as far as saying that
grassroots workers can be just as politically influential as
government officials. They reason that, eventually, no power can
be executed unless people go along with it but it's opposite: no
laws will be made that do not fit the atmosphere of the country.
I myself would say that the power a president seems to have is a
result of what the people, in general, accept. Only through that
mechanism is there actually power. In Indonesia, people still
accept that very much so there is very much power to be had "on
top".

But whatever the reality of these theories is, one thing is
for sure: the next president, be it Megawati or someone else, is
definitely not going to "run the country". Actually, and
officially, the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) is running
the country and is way more powerful.

In the next two paragraphs, Mr. Sidharta says, among other
things, a strange thing like "intellectual writers should be free
to express their opinion ... and not only voice the aspirations
of the people". I hope other readers have not understood my
letter in that way. I'm definitely not saying that other writers
should refrain from commenting on Megawati or anyone for that
matter. After all, I agree with Mr. Sidharta that there are
better candidates for the job. What I'm saying is this: At my
work every day I meet new Indonesians from many walks of life
with whom, apart from work, I also talk about life, the crisis
and politics.

Upon returning home, I read the Post and many times I am
painfully aware of the huge gap between their knowledge and
opinion of politics and what is reflected in the Post, and I
realize that they would never be satisfied with an intellectual
like Amien Rais, however good I think he is. When I read these
opinions, I feel they are too far away from the day-to-day life
in the fields, in the shop and on the bemo (three-wheeled
motorized taxi) and I would like to bridge this gap if only for a
moment by asking intelligent writers among us not to forget this.

HUUB NEYS

Kuta, Bali