Promises must be kept
Promises must be kept
From Media Indonesia
In the last few days we have been reading media reports on the
controversy of whether or not ministers in the reform Cabinet
will be permitted to join election campaigns following the
aspirations of their respective political parties. This
controversy has drawn our attention considerably, in view of the
threat made by several parties that they will withdraw from the
General Election Commission (KPU).
In my opinion, in our struggle toward a better future, we must
learn to adopt a more mature attitude and place public interests
above those of groups or parties. Are we really willing to
sacrifice the fate of over 200 million Indonesians, who are sure
to be in a worse condition than now if the upcoming election
fails, only because we wish to defend the fate of, say some 30
Cabinet ministers, whose participation in the election campaigns
is yet to be finally decided?
Stop pulling people's legs with various election slogans and
promises. It is now time for political parties to give priority
to program orientation, and introduce their programs to the
people during the election campaigning period, rather than being
generous with promises in order to obtain the majority of votes
through the mechanism which all these years has proved useless to
voters themselves. The most important thing for a political party
to do is to make public its program as a moral obligation which
must be fulfilled once the new government is established.
If it turns out later that the party winning the majority of
votes, or those forming a coalition, fail to fulfill the promises
they have made to the people, they must be ready to leave the
arena altogether. Our people, now better able to distinguish
wrong from right, will certainly have the courage to ask elected
members of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) and House of
Representatives (DPR) to be made accountable.
Certainly, we all wish to see the DPR resulting from the June
1999 general election as the strongest in the Indonesian history.
It will be the DPR in the real sense of the words. It will
really be the manifestation of the people's aspirations and one
which the people can pin their hopes on. It will be a clean DPR
and one that commands respect. Finally, it will be one that can
take the New Indonesia to an era of correct and honest national
awakening.
SAHAT SITORUS
Jakarta