Solution to chaos
Solution to chaos
What would Bung Karno have done to bring order to chaos?
What did he do in the 1950s? He designed "guided democracy".
He derailed the system Indonesia inherited from colonialism.
Since 1945, dozens of parties had been quarreling in the
legislative, unable to follow the culture of Indonesia of gotong
royong (mutual help) and musyawarah mufakat (deliberations to
reach unanimous agreement), unable to truly govern.
Bung Karno silenced the liars in the interest of the unity of
the nation. I heard him hammer it into the heads of millions when
I joined him in the 1950 on his tour through the nation. Sukarno
delegated most of the running of the nation to deputies,
Subandrio, Chaerul Saleh and Leimena. He was president and prime
minister. He created a democratic politburo.
The Americans saw it as the first step to communism in their
obsession with Marxism and engineered a military coup by the CIA
through Soeharto and his conspirators to put the military in
charge. Indonesia inherited its military dictatorship from
Washington, where ignorance reigns about foreign modus operandi.
When Soeharto stepped down, Indonesia returned to the
conditions of the 1950s, with political parties continuing the
same senseless lying of 1945-1958, sinking Indonesia into further
social and economic chaos.
Sukarno would have told his daughter Megawati, "Love the
people, not the presidency. Do not be ambitious, follow my
example, do not enrich yourself at the expense of the nation.
Devote yourself to ceremonial duties. Do not try your hand at a
job you are not qualified for. If you follow Gus Dur, your
enemies will bring you down within 12 months, because you have
been prepared for affairs of state. Follow my example, and
concentrate on unifying the nation, because international forces
are conspiring to split Indonesia apart, so that through local
traitors and crooks they can steal more. Look how the USSR
collapsed! Look what happened after the 'Soeharto of Congo'
resigned. Seven armies from other nations are ransacking Congo's
uranium, cobalt, diamonds and all the best."
Bung Karno would have silenced the House of Representatives
once more -- and would have created a democratic politburo to
manage Indonesia and get back on track. Why point a finger at
Abdurrahman, and say "You failed"? Everybody failed. Form a team
with Pak Abdurrahman, with leaders of Golkar, the Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle and Amien Rais and remember,
Indonesia is a musyawarah nation, a gotong royong nation which
should move ahead through compromise, not finding a guilty
victim, like they do in the West. Why can't Indonesians be free
Indonesians and stop copying the West?
WILLEM OLTMANS
Jakarta