RI needs to make a quick turnaround

RI needs to make a quick turnaround

The Habibie government is clocking up a hundred days this
week. Political analyst J. Soedjati Djiwandono assesses how far
it has gone in reforming the New Order government.

JAKARTA (JP): The fall of president Soeharto was by no means
the end of the reform movement. He is the very man that had
manipulated the entire political system from the very beginning
of his New Order regime to such an extent that it became a one-
man rule, an absolutist system of government he dominated for
over three decades.

The implication is clear. Reform demands not only the end of
Soeharto's rule but also the total dismantling of the very system
he created. Hence, the lack of legitimacy of the present
government and the rest of the state system, not only the
executive but also the legislative branch and the judicature.

Indeed, being the supreme governing body in the country's
political system, it is, in principle, the People's Consultative
Assembly (MPR) that has the power to implement total reform of
the system. But the way it was created was already part and
parcel of Soeharto's manipulation through a manipulated election
and contested by a manipulated party system.

Therefore, the impending special session of the MPR is not
likely to meet the demands of reform despite the apparent shakeup
of its membership, which has been done in precisely the same
manipulative way as before. And the largest political party,
Golkar, having been reorganized in no different manner. Hence,
the vicious circle in which the nation has found itself.

The real power, however, if lacking in legitimacy, does not
rest with the MPR, which convenes only once every five years, but
with the Habibie government.

Is the Habibie government really interested in implementing
reform to its completion, even at the risk of ultimately losing
its own power, as the Soviet government under Gorbachev
ultimately becoming a victim of the movement for glasnost and
perestroika that he himself had set in motion?

Or on the contrary, is it more concerned over the perpetuation
of its own power, using the Soeharto methods of distortion and
manipulation, while here and there taking steps which on the
surface look like meeting the nationwide demands for reform, and
thereby deceiving the people, just as Soeharto used to do?

The only way the government can use the power at its disposal
to pursue the reform process to its satisfactory completion would
be to reverse most, if not all, forms of legislation enacted by
the House of Representatives (DPR) and the MPR, and to reverse
all the policies and the ways in which such policies were
formulated and implemented by Soeharto's New Order that were
essentially violations of the principles of justice, human
rights, democracy and the rule of law.

What is needed is a complete turnaround. And this should apply
to all aspects of the nation's life.

But President Habibie may not see it that way. I just don't
know how he sees it. Nor do I know if he really understands
reform or realizes the need for it. Worse still, I am not sure if
he is the man calling the shots.

The debate on the rift-ridden Indonesian Democratic Party
(PDI) is a case in point. Soerjadi, the great pretender, has
publicly admitted government interference in the party's internal
affairs. But both the present home minister, Syarwan Hamid, and
former home minister, Moch. Yogie S.M., have denied
responsibility.

The present coordinating minister for political and security
affairs, Feisal Tanjung, former commander of the Armed Forces,
and thus Syarwan Hamid's boss when the latter was chief of staff
for sociopolitical affairs, has remained silent.

It does not take a brilliant man to speculate on who was
behind it all. After all, who was Yogie's superior when he was
home minister? And who was Feisal's when he was commander of the
Armed Forces? And yet, none of those high-ranking officials seem
courageous enough to mention his name. Is this particular man
still calling the shots?

In his first state address before the DPR on Aug. 15 to
commemorate the 53rd proclamation of independence, Habibie
promised, among other things, that in his economic policy he
would promote transparency and abolish monopolies. But the
question of monopolies in our economic system, and transparency
in the management of state affairs, is a question of effective
political control, which our political system sadly lacks.

The root of all evils of the New Order is the increasingly
unlimited power of the presidency. Why does the Habibie
government keep silent on this most fundamental flaw in our
political system?

Why is it silent and at least slow on the question of
reforming the electoral system, the party system, the composition
of the DPR and MPR and the judicial review? These would
constitute the primary control mechanisms in the political
system.

President Habibie takes pride in the new freedom of expression
now enjoyed by the people at large. But without proper channels,
which would depend on reform in those fields, such freedom would
be of little democratic value.

He should learn more about reform. Why reform is necessary.
Where to begin. Who is to carry it out. And turn around quick,
before we all crash.