Positive aspects in the New Year

As the nation enters the New Year there have been some positive developments, related to the government, worth mentioning.

President Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid has failed miserably as a head of state, but as a Muslim cleric, he has been successful. He is in his element when he preaches about religion and he has had plenty of such opportunities during this turn of the millennium when great religious festivities were held almost concurrently.

He had successfully brought home the message that all religions share the same great universal message of spreading peace and love among mankind. To Indonesian religious fanatics who show no tolerance of other people's religious feelings, Abdurrahman Wahid's message came at the right time, like a cool breeze on a hot afternoon (remember the spate of bombing incidents?).

The President is so progressive in his spirituality that he has allowed his youngest daughter to have pink colored hair on her birthday while most Muslim women are not even allowed to show their hair.

Another encouraging development in the New Year is the coming into force the law on regional autonomy, which gives the people in the various regions greater say in the affairs of the state and allows them to exercise their democratic rights. However this law is in an experimental stage.

Now that the law has been put into practice, the problems will be coming to the surface. Though the sharing of revenues between the central government and the regional administrations looks so easy in theory, in practice it may create more problems than it could solve. Some political parties have accused the government of implementing the laws on regional autonomy halfheartedly for fear of losing the central government's income.

There are also fears that the various newly created autonomies will fight over maritime boundaries and resources such as fish. The provincial councillors do not appear to be ready to play their new roles. Yet the regional autonomy must be implemented. I am confident the system will progressively improve.

With regards to Tommy Soeharto, my suspicion that the police were just bluffing when they said they could find the fugitive son of former president Soeharto before the end of 2000, has turned out to be true. But why should Abdurrahman Wahid lie to the people when he said that Tommy was actually caught by the police, but escaped after the President was contacted about the matter. Now it does not matter anymore if either Tommy or even Soeharto himself escapes the maze of the law; people are becoming indifferent to this issue.

What still matters, however, is that those responsible for the series of bombing incidents, be brought to court soon, otherwise such incidents may happen again, as people will no longer have any respect for the law.

GANDHI SUKARDI

Jakarta