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