Stand up for 'wong cilik'

Is anyone up there in the government still defending and fighting for the wong cilik, the Javanese term Indonesian politicians fondly use to refer to the little people?

President Megawati Soekarnoputri, and her Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), are fast shedding their image and reputation as the leader and the party for wong cilik, which they carved for themselves so as to earn them victory in the 1999 general election.

The government's decision to hike the prices of utilities at the start of the year may have been an inevitable economic necessity. But because it came so close to President Megawati's decision to waive criminal charges against big time corruptors, she is sending the wrong message about her own commitment to helping the lot of the wong cilik, her party's main constituents.

The massive price hikes clearly mean additional economic burdens for everyone, and most of all, for the working class.

But the decision to free heavily indebted tycoons, who brought the nation to its present state of near bankruptcy, from the possibility of criminal prosecution means that the burden of the economic crisis is not being shared equally by society. Far from it.

These tycoons have left in their trail massive unpaid debts that the government has had to assume. And it will take at least an entire generation of taxpayers to pay them off.

The way they incurred these debts, through corruption, collusion and nepotism, is legendary. They literally robbed the nation. Yet, the government has now decided that the corporate assets that the tycoons surrendered will be good enough to cover their entire debts, although in many cases they barely amount to a fifth of the value of what they owe.

Hence, Megawati on Thursday signed a presidential instruction to release the tycoons from their obligations, and to discharge them from criminal liability arising from these debt problems. Thanks to her personal decision, these tycoons are about to walk free, after inflicting untold misery on the rest of the nation.

How is this release and discharge policy related to the policy of increasing utility prices besides their close timing?

The two are related in the sense that they reflect how the burden of the economic crisis is being apportioned. And let's never forget, the present economic crisis, and the reason why utility prices were hiked at the New Year, was largely caused by the thieving tycoons.

The hikes in electricity, fuel and telephone charges are burdensome but should have been more palatable as there are valid economic rationales for their imposition. Besides, these were periodic increases that had been largely accepted before.

What makes this month's hikes different is that they come at a time when the people's sense of justice and fairness has been hurt by a series of controversial decisions, the most important of which is the release and discharge policy. The thieves walk free while the rest of the nation is made to pay for their misdeeds.

The government is increasingly earning a reputation of being pro-business for all the wrong reasons, for it is helping out business tycoons who have records of criminal wrongdoing.

We may recall that this is not the first time that the Megawati administration has betrayed the very voters who helped her party win the 1999 election.

Last year, she personally intervened in the Jakarta gubernatorial election to ensure the reelection of the incumbent Sutiyoso, even though he still faces criminal charges for the brutal attack against Megawati's supporters in Jakarta in 1996.

The small folks today have every right to feel that they have been abandoned or even betrayed by their party. Megawati and her PDI Perjuangan are fast losing the support of the people, especially of their own constituents, the wong cilik.

The government may be standing on solid constitutional ground until the 2004 election in spite of the massive price hikes, but its popular legitimacy is fast ebbing. President Megawati must heed the lessons from the last year of the Soeharto regime, and the brief administrations of B.J. Habibie and Abdurrahman Wahid, namely, that without popular legitimacy, you simply cannot govern effectively.