Post-election Clinton

There is nothing wrong with President Bill Clinton's camp saying that the Republican takeover of the U.S. Congress and several governorships on Tuesday was not a vote against the president. But the startling poll results clearly sent a message to the youngest president in U.S history that the majority of Americans are not happy about the way he has been handling domestic problems.

The Republican victory means that although Clinton has tried hard to impress the people that he is a middle-of-the-road Democrat, who wants to reform the welfare system and the political machine, during his first two years in the White House, the voters see him as a disappointment. At the very least they are telling him that he has not done as the populace expected him to do.

The U.S. public's disappointment was so great this week that Americans gave the Republicans their first Senate majority since 1986 and the first House of Representatives majority since 1954.

Clinton might reject this verdict on the basis of the argument that the fruits of his programs are not to be seen this year, or even in the near future. For example, Clinton has not found the time yet to touch on the problem of campaign financing and the relationship between politicians and interest groups.

But in the economic field he has successfully brought down the unemployment rate by creating five million job opportunities. Inflation has also been kept at a maximum of three percent. On the international plane he has been applauded for his efforts to solve major world and regional conflicts.

These successes, however, seem to have failed to impress American voters. They want a bigger achievement. They say he has been too slow in keeping his promise to introduce change. Did they not put an end to 12 years of Republican domination of the White House two years ago so he could make some changes?

It is now expected that Clinton will find that the Republican victory will make his economic programs more difficult to carry through. Among other things, Clinton will have to face Congress over the ratification of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). But nobody knows when this will be exactly because the outgoing House members have not decided on the question.

Whatever comes of that, the Democrats clearly need to seriously evaluate whether there are more reasons besides the above-mentioned one to account for the people's verdict this week.

Does the American public want to see Clinton leave the White House in 1996? Judging by the states in which voters gave their voice to Republican governors -- California, Texas and New York, which can play a decisive role in Clinton's efforts to be re- elected in 1996 -- the answer could well be "yes".

For us here in Indonesia, the direct impact of the U.S. legislative election is not easy to foresee.

In any case we would like to welcome President Clinton here at the weekend in a more upbeat mood. People in this part of the world have come to understand Clinton's foreign policy and his approach to human rights and other problems better now. This, surely, is a significant factor for boosting bilateral relations.