Soldiers of conscience

Soldiers of conscience

Their assault on the central nervous system of Habibie's
Reform Order, the Attorney General's Office and its temporary
occupation has caught security guards, as well as observers
without a cause like myself, by surprise. In a moral sense it
constitutes a strategic gain by the reform movement started by
students, who I prefer to call "soldiers of conscience".

The daring maneuver has bared the fact that the present regime
finds itself trapped between its secret loyalty to its
predecessor government and promises given halfheartedly for total
reform to the student forces and their sympathizers.

It is hard to see how the present rulers or the "prisoners of
conscience" -- granted we are talking about normal people, not a
slew of politicians -- and that conscience still serves as their
guiding star in life. These soldiers of conscience's strategy
includes a march to the residence of the former "emperor"
himself, evidently with the purpose of capturing the former
"grand man". If their aim was to have a dialog, something which
Soeharto indicated he would oblige them with, why should they be
barred from doing so?

It is hard to imagine how the trapped leaders, again in the
moral sense, could come out of the political maze unscratched.
The call for a national dialog, with the aim to put an end to the
political impasse and social confusion and thus hopefully pave
the way toward economic recovery and international confidence,
should be welcomed if it involved the soldiers of conscience and,
inevitably, the new emerging and ousted party leaders.

Such a national dialog should lead to the removal of other
stumbling blocks, like the existence of two factions of the
Indonesian Democratic Party. Also the makar (conspiracy to topple
the government) charges against Kemal Idris and Ali Sadikin and
group must be retracted. A big hurdle that should be removed is
the very ambitious manner in which the functional group (Golkar)
wishes to win the next general election at any cost instead of
acting just as "facilitator". The National Mandate Party (PAN)
chairman, Amien Rais, rightly does not want to see the post of
Golkar chairperson held by the state secretary, with access to
state funds and other resources.

Perhaps it was very unfortunate that President Habibie
cleverly side-stepped the opportunity to sanction his legitimacy
as president by the recent People's Consultative Assembly (MPR).
Now his position as head of state appears not to have been
endorsed even by the old MPR and thus remains a point of
contention. After all, he was chosen by the "king" and is the
product of the king's favor and upbringing with a reformist tint.

Inexplicably, he is now more repressive and less democratic
in dealing with the situation. Perhaps, as a prisoner of
conscience, he has heeded the "warning" by Soeharto's son Tommy.
He said his father could not be considered to be solely
responsible for bringing about the present crisis. "Father had
his advisors, Any wrong doing was known to this group."

The capture of the big fish would surely lead to the netting
of other fish now still swimming freely or having changed color.

Instead of hunting for his hidden treasures, the big fish
would better be asked to sign a written statement allowing the
public to get all his wealth if found any time in the future.
Other efforts should be to prove his guilt of abusing his power
for economic gain. What is still needed is not an independent
team (with accountability to whom?) but a special tribunal to
deal with a special case of a former president. My guess is,
however, there are still a number of chickens in the way.

GANDHI SUKARDI

Jakarta