The people have spoken

While the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) was beginning its four-day Special Session on Tuesday, the country's leading opposition politicians saw fit to remind the nation that the reform movement was still very much alive. Many people had interpreted the passive stance adopted by pro-reform leaders in the recent weeks and months as a sign that the noble movement had run aground.

The opposition leaders -- Abdurrahman Wahid of Nahdlatul Ulama, Amien Rais, a noted reform movement leader who now chairs the National Mandate Party (PAN), and Megawati Soekarnoputri, who leads a popular faction of the splintered Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), said after a meeting that Habibie's term in office should end three months after the general election, which is scheduled for May next year. Sultan Hamengkubuwono X of Yogyakarta also attended the meeting.

This statement might not ring sweetly in President B.J. Habibie's ear, who must surely be weighing up means of staying in power beyond 1999.

The opposition leaders also gave their backing to widespread calls for an end to the Armed Forces' (ABRI's) sociopolitical role and demanded an investigation into the wealth allegedly amassed by former president Soeharto, his family and friends during Soeharto's 32-year rule.

In siding with those who wish to see ABRI's dual function come to an end, the trio have adopted a more realistic stance than other opposition figures who are demanding an immediate end to the dual function.

Elsewhere in Jakarta on Tuesday, our legislators, who now too call themselves reformists, were busy trying to draw a political map to guide the nation into the next century. Ordinary Indonesians, watching the proceedings on television, uttered ubiquitous curses at Soeharto.

These reformist politicians are the same people who reelected Soeharto to a seventh consecutive term in office in March. Many also played a role in sending him into a comfortable retirement after the tragic events of May.

Outside the meeting of the august constitutional body, thousands of "volunteer" civilian guards have tried their best to impede the movement of pro-reform students. Clashes were reported in some parts of the city before the untrained guards were asked to leave the streets.

The whole affair was yet another foolish farce -- one which appears to have been designed to pit civilian against civilian.

Many members of the MPR said they recognized the wisdom and sincerity inherent in the opposition leader's statement. They may have realized that the trio are the most popular politicians and public figures in contemporary Indonesia.

Although excluded from the Special Session and the political establishment, they command considerable public support. Each member of the trio wields greater individual political clout than Habibie himself and their united statement should have far- reaching political consequences.

If sincere in the words of welcome they reserved for the statement, MPR members should now act to include it on the session's agenda and pass it as a motion to guide the future course of the drive for reform. Legislators must now act with wisdom and open hearts for the sake of our national interest.